Nossaman Guthner Knox & Elliott LLP Upgrades to iCreate Version 4.0 and Finds it Easy to Administer

With over 60 years of experience providing strategic legal direction to public entities and private businesses, California-based national law firm Nossaman Guthner Knox & Elliott LLP represents a variety of clients on legal issues ranging from transportation, healthcare and financial services to real estate development, water and employment.  The firm is comprised of more than 130 attorneys and lobbyists with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County, Northern Virginia, Austin and Seattle.

A client since the mid-1990s

A client of Esquire Innovations, Inc. since the mid-1990s, Nossaman Guthner Knox & Elliott LLP recently upgraded to iCreate 4.0.  Designed specifically for the legal industry, iCreate enhances the use of templates and automation by providing firms with total ownership of template creation and macro development.

Christine Czenze, Director of Technology at Nossaman reports that the firm, “had a lot of customization in iCreate version 3.0 and it had gotten to the point where the fixes were getting too difficult to manage.”  She adds that: “We have used Esquire Innovations’ template package from day one, even when it was DocCreator software and have had a good working relationship with the support staff at Esquire.  When we learned that iCreate 4.0 was easier to administer, we were glad to evaluate the product.”

Implementation in several stages

Nossaman evaluated and implemented iCreate 4.0 in several stages.   The firm’s trainer and a local IT Manager were part of the initial pilot testing.  After running a satisfactory evaluation of the software, Esquire provided onsite administrator training. The firm’s staff then undertook the customization and updating of the templates and was pleased with the outcome. They started pilot testing with “a couple of power user secretaries,” to gather their feedback before extending the testing to the rest of the IT department together with the firm’s Help Desk.  After all of these steps were completed Nossaman deployed iCreate 4.0 firm wide.

The firm used a comparison concept to introduce the upgrade and train their users on new features.  “We decided to delay the newly added features until the users were more comfortable with the templates,” says Czenze.  “Our trainer spent about 30 minutes covering the differences between the old and new templates.  As a result, in conjunction with the implementation plan, the upgrade went rather smoothly.”

Templates easier to administer, features a plus and money saved

“The results have been exciting,” Ms. Czenze continues.  “The templates are definitely easier to administer.  Specifically, the pleading template is easier to modify.  The end users like the iEncore feature and the IT staff likes the iRefresh utility.  We handle most of the customization ourselves and, as a result, we save money by not having to outsource the work.  We plan to continue to use iCreate and look forward to seeing new products as they are released by Esquire.”

iEncore is the feature of iCreate that allows users to save dialog box entries for quick retrieval when creating additional documents requiring the same information.

iRefresh is a utility that allows administrators to easily distribute changes made to the templates to all users’ machines.

Nossaman’s firm goals include the statement: “Our clients’ best interests drive every matter and relationship at the firm, and are the ultimate measure of our success.”  Perhaps that’s why Esquire Innovations, Inc. is such a perfect match for the firm.  It is the goal of Esquire Innovations to exceed client expectations….every time!  Esquire Innovations wants its customers to be delighted with the solutions and services it provides and will go to great lengths to make this happen.

iCreate designed specifically for the legal industry

Document production is central to the workflow of law firms. All software a firm deploys should adhere to and improve the firm’s work process.  iCreate encourages more efficient, standardized document production by providing ways to easily create automated templates for end users.  iCreate also provides tools to quickly apply and make changes to styles, numbering and other MS Word formatting elements.  Users have traditionally struggled with formatting MS Word documents, yet firms that implement iCreate find they significantly reduce the time users spend drafting, formatting, and reformatting documents.

iCreate leverages MS Word’s native architecture. The benefit of this is twofold. First, by retaining the look and feel of the parent software dialog boxes, it promotes streamlined workflow, efficient usage and reduces end user training requirements. Second, by retaining Word’s native formatting, an electronic document can effectively be used for collaboration purposes, without concern that the formatting will be rendered completely useless. Traditionally in this scenario, more valuable time has been required to "fix" a document upon its return trip to the firm.

iCreate is simple to administer, and can be implemented in a short amount of time. Comprehensive configuration guides and training are offered to ensure a complete transfer of knowledge.  iCreate components can be purchased separately or as a complete package. Key features Include:

  • Simplified paragraph numbering and quick style management with the iHyperstyles toolbar
  • Quick style clean up tools
  • Table of Contents automation
  • Integration with major document management and contact management systems
  • Simplified administration of templates - a key benefit when rolling out such tools across large user communities at multiple locations
  • Citrix integration to enable users to access iCreate when working remotely
  • Full pleading suite
  • The iCreate Template Launcher. All firm templates can be launched directly from one dialog box
  • Label creation including Bates Labels
  • Document Identifier stamping and updating

About Esquire Innovations, Inc.:

With more than 550 law firm clients in 110 cities utilizing its applications, Esquire Innovations, Inc. is a leading provider of Microsoft Office integration software services and applications for the legal market. Esquire Innovations has been developing, supporting, and selling document creation, formatting, re-purposing, comparing, and metadata management software applications in the legal industry since 1999. The product line includes iCreate, a template and document production product, iScrub, metadata management for Microsoft Office documents, iRedline, the redlining tool for Microsoft Word and Excel, and iDocID, a powerful universal document management system-integrated ID stamper.

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