Time Matters synchronizes with a variety of PDA applications - Palm, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry. As one of the first Legal Practice Management Systems to provide this type of synchronization, Time Matters has done this well for a long time. That having been said, there are a number of shortcomings and limitations in the Time Matters synchronization capabilities, especially in today's environment of being able to access your data in real time, all the time.

"I love getting all my phone messages in real time on my iPhone. That by itself is worth it to me. Add in my ToDos which I can't get from Outlook and no more synching and it's a no-brainer for me! ~ Tom Scannell, Chicago

• Additional expenses for real-time access - to get the data in real-time, it may require additional software like Exchange Server, Blackberry Enterprise Server, and/or PDA VPNs.
  
  
• No iPhone synchronization - more and more attorneys want to use the iPhone for business, only to be told by their IT department that it isn't supported, or to find out that Time Matters doesn't support it without the use of an Exchange Server and all the costs associated with setting that up.
  
  
• Each synchronization works differently, and requires a variety of different methodologies - this means that unless a firm wants to provide support for a number of devices (expensive, time consuming and technically difficult) a firm has to standardize on a single SmartPhone/PDA platform which means that some people will be happy and others won't when their device isn't the one the firm settles on.
  
  
• Each device syncs different Time Matters data types - while the Palm and Blackberry sync Events, ToDo's, Contacts, Matters, Notes, and Billing records, Windows Mobile only handles ToDo's, Events, and Contacts. That leaves a lot of data in Time Matters that you can't get to.
  
  
• Limited related record support - one of the great things about Time Matters is the ability to pull up a Matter or Contact and see the records like Events, ToDo's and Phone Calls that relate to the Matter or Contact. Although some devices sync Note or Billing records, none shows you all the records related to a Contact or Matter. This capability is very limited with the native TM syncs.