Meeting Maker Millennium

Meeting Maker Millennium

Every law office basically wants the same thing: an easy and reliable software program that records information in a readily accessible manner. Meeting Maker Millennium serves as a basic calendaring program, but also facilitates the scheduling of meetings and resources. Each person in the firm has his or her own calendar, which can be shared with other members. All calendars also can be concurrently searched for available times for a meeting. Users who set up resources such as conference rooms and schedule their use also can track and verify its availability anytime.

However, Meeting Maker was not designed specifically for use in a law office, so if you need a rules-based calendaring system, then Meeting Maker is not for you.

Meeting Maker requires a server installation, but you can use most desktop or laptop computers as a server. It doesn’t require a formal server structure independent of its own installation. If you are only running it on a single computer, you run the server installer on that computer. Meeting Maker then will set up a server on the computer and use it as though it were a standalone program.

The program works most efficiently in a network environment, allowing you access to calendaring information and letting you search that information to set a meeting date. The advantages of collaborative scheduling depend on such an installation. To do this, you must select one computer as the Meeting Maker server. Install the Meeting Maker server software on it and the client software on the other computers on the network so they can access the program and data on the server.

Other Meeting Maker features include Web connectivity to calendars for quick access by remote users. You also can send meeting invitations and reminders to mobile phones, pagers and wireless personal digital assistants. It allows you to display your free and busy times to others, select time slots when all attendees are available and check the availability of groups of people from a single window. ICalendar support allows you to send meeting invitations to people and calendars outside of your organization. The calendars are customizable, and the e-mail integration allows you to contact the attendees and send them attachments through your own e-mail client.

The program is quite intuitive and easy to learn. Anyone who has ever used a calendaring program will be comfortable with Meeting Maker. The program did what it is supposed to do well, which is facilitate group scheduling.

However, if you are installing the server on a laptop, be aware of one problem. During the installation process, the server software configures itself to the computer’s Internet Protocol address. If the server is on a computer that is relocated, it will not automatically reconfigure to a new IP address. As a result, it will not recognize the server as operational, even if it’s the host computer. You have to manually reconfigure the server to reflect the new IP address. The reconfiguration process is quite simple. It involves opening the server administrator and typing in the new IP address.

Meeting Maker works best with larger numbers of players. As if to emphasize that point, the company sells the program in blocks of 10 seats, which is the smallest number you can buy. However, it can prove useful and quite satisfactory for a smaller office.

To familiarize users with its features, the company created a “3 for Free Evaluation,” which gives you free access to Meeting Maker support for 30 days. The software gives you the server and three user seats for an unlimited time period. If you are with a larger organization, you would keep the three users and add to them as needed. If you are a small organization with three or less schedules to track, the company effectively is giving you the software for free.

Meeting Maker Millennium
Meeting Maker Inc.
www.meetingmaker.com (800) 282-7319
Price: $499 for the server software plus $65 to $95 per user. Maintenance is $18 per user annually.

Windows 98/NT 4.0/2000/XP. Mac OS X 10.1 or higher; 8MB RAM; 10MB free disk space.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Allen, a general practice attorney with an emphasis in real estate, business transactions and litigation based in Oakland, Calif.

Dec/Jan '05 Issue

PROS
Easy to install and learn.

CONS
Can be pricey. Better suited for larger businesses than smaller law firms.

VERDICT
Meeting Maker is an excellent choice in terms of performance, but if your firm needs rules-based calendaring, look elsewhere.