Matter names and new Smokeball outlook add-in

Our practice is similar - a few clients, many matters with those clients and this is something we find challenging as well.  We have raised this issue before directly with smokeball a while back. It doesnt seem like there has been any movement to have this issue addressed. 

However, I have a workaround that i have found assists, although its not ideal. Where you enter your file number - sometimes they are auto generated at matter opening - you can type additional content in there, so for instance: 

Matter Number - 26:001 - [type a key identifier here - like a name or address etc] 

When you file using the smokeball outlook add in, the key word identifier is visible next to your file number, before the client name, so its easier to quickly see at a glance which option is your correct option. 

Thanks for your reply. I will give this a try!

Hi ​@clmitchell thanks for the feedback - is this an issue you experience everywhere within Smokeball or is it particularly exacerbated with new Outlook? Would love to know more about this so we can find a way to help.

Thanks,

Jane Yuan

Head of Product

Hi Jane, it is particularly an issue with the new Add-In but it was also an issue with the old Add-in because the matter names become so long that they cannot be seen in a window. My preference would be to allow users to set the naming convention for matter names. I am an IT and commercial lawyer. I don’t work on estates, conveyancing etc and don’t generally use any of the precedent matter types (most of my matters are “General”). The issue also arises in billing. I have raised this issue previously with Smokeball. Smokeball is set up to deal more commonly with solicitors working in traditional areas of estate planning, conveyancing, litigation etc. It is not as user friendly for commercial lawyers and in-house teams. I’d be happy to have a session with you to show you where the pain points are for our practice. Overall, Smokeball is excellent, but there are a few areas where changes would make Smokeball more efficient for us.

I am having issues too. I have used classic outlook as I didn’t and still don’t like the new outlook, but added the SB add-in to swap to new outlook given the new updates, which caused quite a problem. I could no longer see subject lines with new outlook they just didn’t sync with the matter even though they were definitely on file, and also due to having to monitor a shared email account I cannot see the new features on the shared email address, only my own. I also found the “attach file” feature pretty awful as it is too hard to find things. Not able to change sender details either, which is a big problem. In order to overcome this I have to draft an email first, then keep it in draft form and edit from draft to fill in the sender details. I have dumped the SB outlook app which seems (hopefully) to have fixed at least one issue being the missing subject line iand have obviously had to stick with classic outlook. 

I agree, the “attach file” option is also an issue because it doesn’t allow you to sort by date so it is difficult to find the latest file to attach.

Hi ​@clmitchell , thank you for taking the time to share this feedback and to ​@VictoriaWLC for sharing a workaround to get around the matter name issue. 

There are two issues above related specifically to matter names:

1. Allowing firms to set their own custom names for matters; and
2. Allowing firms to set how the matter names are displayed (naming conventions).

We agree both changes have real value, particularly for firms where our existing naming convention don’t map neatly to how you work. Earlier this year we completed some early discovery on this, and whilst it seems simple, it is a sizeable change that touches a lot of Smokeball (matters, billing, reporting, integrations, etc). I can’t commit to a timeframe just yet, but it is on our radar, and your input in this thread reinforces the case for it. 

Would you be open to be contacted for feedback and to undertake beta for the feature in the future?

Thank you, 

Therese Aroyan

Product Manager