Published Articles | Rafte & Company offers guidance on Vista in "Bankruptcy Court Decisions"
Click here to view the full Bankruptcy Court Decision
Wait too long to update and you run the risk of losing touch with the rest of the world. Update too soon, and you run the risk of putting yourself out of business.
Consider this: If you’re lured by the promises of increased security and user-friendly features touted in ads for Vista, Microsoft Windows’ first major upgrade in five years, you may find yourself in the very awkward position of not being able to e-file.
Microsoft has released a new version of its Windows software called Vista. Since it is such a major change to previous Windows versions there may be compatibility issues that need to be resolved. Compatibility with CM/ECF has NOT been thoroughly tested and therefore we cannot support your use of it at this time.
No compatibility issues have been reported between Vista and CM/ECF yet, said Clerk of Court Jerry Truitt, but the court’s technology guru believed that the potential for problems warranted the warning. Given the nature of those problems, the court’s action is prudent, and earned the praise of Dena Rafte and Steve Bondy of Rafte & Co., a Houston-based legal technology-consulting firm (www.rafte.com).
For many reasons, their advice to attorneys thinking about an upgrade is to wait.
Now is not the time
Not only is it a good idea to let other people deal with the bugs inherent in any new upgrade, but potential compatibility issues don’t stop with CM/ECF. They extend to every software program you use, any document management system your firm employs, and every peripheral device you use to stay connected. “So, unless you are working in your own little bubble and the only thing you’re running is the Microsoft Suite, it’s just too soon to upgrade,” advised Bondy. “For everyone else, the complexity comes in when you ask this new operating system to talk to other things. They may not speak the same language, which could potentially have a serious impact on your productivity as an attorney,” Bondy said.
“We look at this with a keen sense of our marketplace’s tolerance for downtime, error messages, or incompatibility, and in our 23 years of experience, it’s quite low,” Rafte said.
Add to that the lack of a compelling business reason to upgrade. If Microsoft promised that Vista would stop spam forever, for example, it would be flying off the shelf.
While even the more realistic expectation of boosting your productivity can be alluring, Bondy warned that early press coverage of Vista doesn’t persuade him that you’ll be missing out on much. “The press coverage has been sort of a ho-hum in terms of user oriented features.”
If not now, when?
Bondy said that he expects that they’ll begin installing Vista before the end of the year. The standard with Microsoft products is to wait at least until the first service pack (a program that corrects bugs) is issued, typically within six to eight months. Waiting at least that long ensures that the major problems have been dealt with, and it also gives software vendors time to test their products with Vista and to certify compatibility.
Whenever you decide to upgrade, be it tomorrow or in two years, do your due diligence first. Check Microsoft’s compatibility lists to ensure that your printers and other hardware will work with the upgrade. To ensure your software programs will work properly, visit the Web sites of each of the programs to see if the product is compatible. If the software is compatible, it’s a good idea to go one step further and check any comment forums to see what difficulties, if any, users have encountered.
But I like XP
If all this heightens your innate detestation of change, particularly change involving technology, a word of warning. Someday, you’ll have to upgrade to Vista. Microsoft will cease releasing compatibility updates and security patches for XP. Worse, eventually your computer will lack the minimum system requirements to run your software.
The good news? If history is any indication, that won’t be for three or four years.
Need a new laptop?
If you need a new laptop or desktop now, ask the store’s staff to preload your new computer with XP and to provide a certificate for the upgrade to Vista. That way, you can upgrade after the dust settles. Dell, for one, currently offers this option.
