FAQ
What's different about eCandidus™?   eCandidus™ is not a single program, but a family of products that are integrated to handle your office needs.
 
What does it mean to me?   It means that rather than having to purchase and learn multiple products, you get one system that you can use from day one, and as times goes on expand your abilities without having to re-learn or pay for new items.
 
But I only need to do X now, why should I pay for Y?   If you compare prices among the products that you need now, you will find that eCandidus is actually cheaper today! And by having the extra features available now, you can actually be way ahead in terms of cost when you consider the savings created by the more advanced features.
 
OK, show me one extra feature...   Let's begin in billing. You probably use Timeslips, along with a case management system which do not "talk" to each other. This means that your staff must enter information in two systems, and maybe miss to update one or the other due to workload requirements. Integrating these two functions allow your staff to simultaneously enter their work notes and billing information, missing neither and allowing you to bill faster and more accurately. Also, since the system knows what notes goes which each bill item, you can easily respond to any inquiries from your client on why something was billed.
 
That's fine for offices that bill, we work in a contingency basis...   Offices that work in a contingency basis must be efficient to be profitable! From the ability to merge your data into letters and forms to automating your workflow, are options that can make you so. Automating workflow is an option that most system do not posses, or if they do they are fixed by the vendor. eCandidus™ provides you with the ability for you to define how your office should run.
 
Is it difficult to learn?   eCandidus™ is designed so you can decide how much of the system to use, so you decide on how much your staff has to learn and over what time period. The best that we have been able to accomplish is to have an office begin to be active after one hour of training! The average is two days, in blocks of 4 hours.
 
Is my equipment up to par for the job?   eCandidus™ is a true multi-user 24x7 databse based system, it uses Microsoft SQL Server to store the data. We have clients that have over twenty years worth of information stored in their systems with thousands of cases, both active and settled, and tens of thousands of address book entries. All searchable in under a second! No need to split your data into open vs. closed vs. this or that, look for and access any information now.

The requirements are that your server runs Server 2003 or later, and your stations run XP or later. If they can run the Microsoft .NET Framework, they will work.
 
OK, but what's the price?   Simple, $6995. One time, no monthly fees or extras for any modules you wish to use.
 
How about upgrades, how much are they?   eCandidus™ is growing constantly! Your ideas are important to us and we strive to bring them to life as quickly as possible. It is to our advantage for you to use the latest and best, so upgrades are easily available in our website for you to install. There is no extra fee for the first year, it is part of the system and after the first year it is 10% of your purchase price for the entire year.
 
With all the changes, do I have to constantly keep installing?   No. Some of our sites have never updated. It is up to you to decide when a feature that we add is valuable to your office. And since what works today will work on the next version, you do not have any re-learning to do when you do decide to update.
 
Am I tied to a third party vendor?   No. We do deal via third party vendors, like copy services, but the eCandidus™ Desktop is not dependant on any third party for you to use. It is your office and your system.

If you do obtain eCandidus™ via a third party under a discounted rate, we will treat you as an eCandidus™ client under the rate structure described above for ongoing support, if the third party goes away.
 
Where is the data kept?   All data is kept in your server in your office or whatever location you decide to place it in. We do not have access to any of your data.

We do provide data that you can download and make part of your system, like court forms, firm names and addresses and sample letters. Once you have downloaded these, they are part of your database and behave like data that you yourself have entered.

We have no mechanism to lock you out or remove any information, order forms or any other item in your system. There are no expiration dates on any of our software.
 
What happens if I merge with another office or have to sell my practice?   You are purchasing a license that allows you to install and use eCandidus™. This means that you can transfer the installation and data to any other entity, or merge data from another entity with yours.

What you are not allowed to do is to duplicate your installation so it can be used by another entity or entities at the same time. Again, there is no expiration date for an eCandidus™ license. And here is our Sales Agreement.
 
Are you Worker's Comp specific, like the competition?   You might have ended up looking at eCandidus™ because you searched for EAMS and/or Worker's Compensation. and have looked at some of my "competitors" as well. And they have Worker's Compensation and PI pasted all over their sites.

It is true, we are not Worker's Compensation and Personal Injury specific. eCandidus™ Desktop is a very flexible platform, where not only we have added other types of law, but you can add whatever type you want. Ask yourself, what would happen if you want to expand your current practice to also do Immigration? Do you need to purchase another system or leverage on what your staff knows? Do you need to ask your clients 'Are you calling about WC or Civil?'. To us this is the best example of poor customer service. A client is a client, it is up to the office to know about a caller without having to go through the 20 question routine.

The proof of the flexibility of eCandidus™ is the ability to handle not only various types of Law, but also completely different markets WITH THE SAME BASIC SET OF TOOLS. All businesses handle clients, take phone calls, make appointments, write letters and fill out forms. What differs is what information it must keep for each client, what each letter says and how the forms are filled out. eCandidus™ provide the tools for you to define those, starting with a system that has been built with many years worth of input from profesionals in your field, but without forcing you to stop there.

The other major difference is what steps are needed to make your office efficient. In the business world this is called 'Business Process Management' (BPM), we prefer to call it workflow. Some of our competitors provide with a set of pre-defined steps, normally ticklers, that do some of the tasks. Some even go so far as to allow some modification to these steps. eCandidus™ provide you with the ability to define any and all tasks, not only ticklers, but also letters, forms, e-mails, appointments and things that you may not have thought of, like transfering data with other businesses! Follow that with the ability to trigger workflow automatically, depending on any case information and even user input. That is flexibility.

And by the way, eCandidus™ supports Worker's Compensation and Personal Injury as well....
 
If you support Worker's Compensation and Personal Injury, how come there is no intake sheet?   Just like documents (or letters in others parlance), each office believes that theirs is the best. So rather than imposing our "standards", we let you define not only documents, but your intake sheet.

This does not mean we do not support intake sheet, called input forms in eCandidus™ parlance, we support any number of intake sheets, not only at the time of intake but for any occasion. The difference is that you get to define them, any way you like!

And to show you our level of support for input forms, eCandidus™ has the tools to allow your personnel to be fully mobile! Imagine doing your intake on an iPad at the client's place, including signatures.

Likeit's said, there is an app for that.
 
Why does the eCandidus™ Document Management look so complicated?   We belive that you mean "complicated as compared to product X". Simple, product X probably does not do document management, but they only allow you to attach a PDF file to a case. We call those attachments, and not only can you attach the same PDF file to a case in eCandidus™, but to anything in the system.

And then you can see those attachments in your iPhone...

To us document management means the ability to break apart the document, work on each page by annotating (highlighting) areas, adding bookmarks and notes and then reassembling a new document from pieces of multiple documents. In "human speak": take multiple medical reports, select imporatnt pages and highlight what is important and then send only those pages to an attorney for review. That is document management.
 
Are you a desktop or web based system?   Both. With the introduction of the Webtop, you can now work from anywhere in a similar fashion as you do in your office.

The eCandidus™ system is based on a web services server, with the eCandidus™ Desktop as the gateway from stations in your office, and the eCandidus™ Webtop giving you the ability to access the same database from Internet browsers, The eCandidus™ SmartDevice module allows you to view your data from any smart phone.
 
Do you do EAMS?   That question normally means do we have the new EAMS forms. The answer is simply yes. But you need to be careful, EAMS is not just the forms, it is also a fair amount of information that you now need. From the new adjudication numbers (ADJ) to the use of the Assigned Names are important features that EAMS support must have in order for your filings to be accepted.

We are aware of the new initiatives of DIR/DWC to create an electronic gateway into the EAMS system to reduce the paperwork needed. eCandidus™ is part of that initiative and will include support for the gateway as part of the system as soon as it is made available by DIR/DWC.

As part of that initiative we have released Form Packets, with a default set of packets that cover all the standard EAMS filings.
 
Where is your online demo?   You will not find a demo on this website. If you are interested in seeing eCandidus™ Desktop in action, simply give me a call on the phone number below, or drop me an e-mail.

The reason why there is no demo is simple:

I demo the system by showing you the blank screen that you get when you first open the eCandidus™ Desktop.

I then show the Organizer and explain how you can navigate the system.

After that the Front Desk is shown to explain how you can easily search for cases.

From then on, I take questions and show you how to use the features of the system to do what is important to you, and that cannot be done in any kind of canned demo. eCandidus™ Desktop is an assistant, you tell it how you want to work, it does not force you into its methodology.

During the demo, I explain the dozen or so commands that allow you to do 90% of your daily chores. In actuality, once you have learned these commands, you have become a productive member of the staff. And the commands are all icons!
 
Who is eCandidus™?   eCandidus™ is my creation. My name is Jose Gonzalez, and I have been in the business of creating computer systems for a long time. The basic concept is to organize your office by letting you work on a single piece of information at a time, for example a case or a thing to do. In reality, that is how everyone works, except that your desk is full of these single items; It is the job of eCandidus™ to keep track of what you have on your desk and how they relate to each other. It's a smart and very quick assistant!

If you have any other questions, feel free to contact me at the the e-mail address at the bottom of each page!