The big news out of Clio conference (#ClioCloud9) this year was integration and the evolution of the Clio ecosystem, transforming Clio into a platform not just a product. A platform is a structure made up of integrated features. For instance, Google in 1998 wasn’t a platform; it was a really neat search engine. By adding Gmail, Maps, Docs, Voice, YouTube, and countless others, it became a true platform.
By Clio building a powerful platform, they have cultivated an ecosystem of developers, partners, users, and other collaborators who are contributing to creating better products and a more robust user experience. Their core product is being developed and improved upon in innovative ways and at #ClioCloud9 2014, the 450 attendees experienced this first-hand. Below is an overview of the integrated features announced at the conference and how the attendees got to experience all of this first-hand.
Clio set the stage for this event with the launch of their phenomenal conference app days before the start of the conference. Attendees, speakers and vendors were building relationships and talking about the anticipated announcements of new features and products even before setting foot in Chicago. The Clio social machine was put in motion and so was the competition for first place on the app.
The social continued with co-founder Jack Newton’s “selfie” taken from the stage and the 450 attendees, vendors and speakers re-tweeting and putting in motion #cliocloud9 to trend on Twitter in 17 seconds! Pretty amazing. From the stage, Jack challenged everyone to take the opportunities available at the conference to increase their knowledge and become product ninjas and business superstars.
Before getting to the list of new integrations, a big shout out to two of my favorite and frequently visited rooms: the Smart Bar and The Clio Lab.
The Smart Bar was a huge success at the 2013 conference and this year the need to make an appointment was a sign that this was shaping up to be another popular room for Clio users. Similar to Apple’s Genius Bar idea, the Clio “Smart Bar” was a room where attendees could get one-on-one personal support from Clio’s world-class team. It was also a great place to connect with the fabulous support staff that is sometimes on the other end of the phone.
The Clio Lab was one of my favorite stops, especially with the announcement of the @Zapier integration. In the Clio Lab, attendees could test out new features, get a sneak peek at what the Clio development team is working on and learn first hand how Clio gets designed and improved upon every day. As a matter of fact, they were busy coding improvements to features based on attendees’ suggestions during the conference. Because platform companies can move faster!
A preview of new integrations announced to help take Clio users’ practices to the next level and for them to grow their own knowledge base.
@Zapier: Now this is going to be fun. With the Clio/@Zapier integration, you can tell @Zapier to do something based on something that takes place in Clio. In a simple application, I set one up so that every time I add a new contact to Clio, it automatically adds that new contact to my Gmail contacts. It’s a Zap! With Zapier, Clio now integrates with over 300 web apps (including Evernote, Mailchimp, Basecamp, and more.)
CuroLegal, who focuses on helping lawyers spend more time serving their clients, is building a product based on @Zapier integration. This integration will allow lawyers to assign a task to a CuroLegal virtual assistant (VA) through the lawyers’ Clio account and automatically create a support ticket for the Curo VA services team to complete. The ecosystem is growing!
Nextpoint:The partnership between Nextpoint’s evidence management system and Clio makes it possible for lawyers to integrate their time and billing and litigation workflows. Nextpoint also offered every Clio conference attendee a free subscription!
Fastcase:With this partnership, legal professionals can track time spent researching without focusing attention away from the task at hand. From inside Fastcase, you can now select from clients and matters in Clio, start a timer for your research session, and record the activity automatically in Clio. You never have to miss or manually record your research time again. Bingo – save more time using Clio.
JurisPage: JurisPage provides professional, mobile-ready law firm websites fully integrated with Clio. With a JurisPage-powered website, you can streamline your lead generation and collection process. Instead of having to manually copy all of your website’s contact form submissions, with JurisPage all of your contact form submissions will automatically create new client contacts in Clio. Save more time – do you sense a theme developing?
Alteva: How many times have been asked, “Can Clio capture my time spent on phone calls?” The answer is now YES with the announcement of this new integration. With the Alteva Clio connector, you talk on your office phone or cell phone and all call times, billable hours and details automatically get logged in your Clio matter.
QuickBooks Online integration was announced as coming in the near future. No other news to report on this integration. However, the Xero/Clio integration continues to improve. Automatically connect client invoices and expenses in Clio with Xero to complete the accounting and billing process for your law firm. From my viewpoint, the Xero integration is so seamless and comprehensive that it remains my top pick of timesaving integrated products.
Here is a list of all of Clio’s third-party integration partners. It will be exciting to see the Clio platform continue to develop and the Clio community continue to grow. ClioCloud9 2015 is set for October 19th – 20th in Chicago.