Mobile County District Attorney’s Office, Mobile,
AL
Lisa Lemler is technology administrator for the DA's office in Mobile,
AL and is responsible for DA Manager, their big FileMaker system. The
solution manages the prosecution of all felonies there. Lisa began using
Zulu iCal Server for FileMaker as part of our beta testing program so
attorneys and staffers could see the court schedules in iCal:
"Since August of 1995 we’ve charged
97,254 felonies. How sad is that? I took over the database in 1998
and it’s been thru several incarnations since then. This is
the latest revision done in September 2009"
"This is the first time I've actually
used beta software anywhere around my FileMaker Server, but I just
couldn't resist because of SeedCode and 360 Works rock solid reputations."
I look like a genius around here!
— Lisa Lemler
3 Tables of Events, Over 36 Calendars
Lisa mapped Zulu to 3 tables in her solution: Trials, Prelims (which
display District Court Preliminary Hearings), and Grand Jury which displays
the Grand Jury presentation schedule. This translates into Zulu serving
up over 36 calendars and counting.
"We have one ADA assigned to each courtroom.
We also have several specialty teams such as Murder Team, Child Advocacy
Team, Drug Prosecution Team and White Collar Crime Team. The specialty
teams handle cases in all courtrooms. When I asked John Tyson, the
DA, if he would like the calendars by judge or by ADA he said, 'I
want both'. He’s kinda greedy that way :) It was great to say
'OK, I can do that'."
Moving to iPhones
Lisa and her attorneys originally just used Zulu on their desktops,
and synched these calendars to their iPhones. But not any more- Zulu
lets you edit FileMaker events on your iPhone directly:
"I synced my iPhone this morning and it
took quite long syncing the Zulu Calendars, so I decided to take the
plunge and had port 8040 opened on my firewall. Now, with the port
open there is only a few seconds delay when changing calendars and
networks. Much better! And you don't have to remember to sync your
phone!"
Feedback
So what was it like setting all this up. Here is Lisa in here own words:
"The Web Server needed re-starting once
and the FileMaker Web Service needed re- starting 3 times while creating
the first 28 calendars. I don’t know if that was due to the
number of calendars or my hiccups along the way. I did have to delete
ZuluCalendarList records many times before they seemed to 'take'."
"I also had to delete my Trials tab layout
twice. Suddenly I would get an error message telling me that one of
the required fields was missing and advising that I start over."
"I should give you a bit more detail
about my role here at the District Attorney’s Office. Due to
budget cuts we have lost 31 employees. Since November 2009 my jobs
are Technology Administrator, FileMaker Developer and Administrative
Assistant to John Tyson. I’m forced to work on things in bits
and pieces these days and I still haven’t gotten used to it
yet. Being forced to work this way can certainly account for the problems
I experienced."
"Would I go through it all again? Absolutely!!!
I look like a genius around here! Here’s some of the responses
I got just from the announcement email I sent this morning:"
“love this lisa. Jealous I'm
not in circuit court anymore.”
“That is awesome!”
“Thanks Lisa this is wonderful!”
“It is great.”
“ur the best and the smartest”
"My desktop support guy is in the process
of getting everyone set up now. I can’t thank you enough for
letting me in on this Beta!!! Extreme coolness!!!"
And finally, a few weeks later, Lisa writes:
"This has been fun! Zulu is amazing.There
are no signs of slowdown or stress on my server at all!"
Thanks for all the feedback Lisa. It's much apprecaited.- John
Learn More About Zulu
Learn more: Zulu iCal Server for FileMaker
