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Elegrity Blog - Law Firm Process Improvement - Law Firm Profit Improvement

Upcoming billing conversion?  Do conflicts first.

Posted by Kandace Donovan on Mon, Jan 09, 2017 @ 13:01 PM
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You know it’s coming…upset partners, annoyed admins, long hours and lost weekends. Transitioning billing systems in law firms is usually synonymous with stress, even with the best project planning.  

If you use your current billing system as your Conflicts of Interest system, your headaches may just have turned into migraines…you’re now facing two critical system upgrade projects at the same time. 

Conflicts upgrades don't have to be headache inducing

One idea to consider to minimize the operational and emotional impact of a billing system switch is to convert conflicts first, and separately, from time and billing.  Here’s why:

  • Changing both conflicts and time and billing is like doing 2 huge projects instead of one.

For those firms who have been using their finance system’s conflicts searching functionality, getting conflicts ‘out’ of the finance system first enables the firm to focus efforts on the conflicts project and the finance project, giving each mission critical system the 100% focus it requires.

  • Conflicts is a relatively straight forward conversion and a “quick win”. Converting to conflicts first can build confidence throughout the firm before moving onto the larger project. It’s a great PR move for the back office.
  • Most firms acknowledge that the conflicts systems that come with the billing systems are subpar because they’re not the primary area of focus for the billing vendors. Therefore, a secondary motivator for separating conflicts and billing is to get state-of-the-art conflicts searching & analysis as a key add-on benefit of getting conflicts ‘done’ before finance.

Firms that have separated the conflicts system from the billing system and who have tackled conflicts conversion first are left only with the change-over of integrations from intake & conflicts to the new finance system, which is a 100% technical exercise. It provides firms with an opportunity to re-validate field mappings and to update integration mechanisms.

  • There are costs associated when integrating conflicts/ intake processes with any new financial systems but this cost, as compared to replacing your intake system AND conflicts simultaneous with your finance system, is very small.
  • Reduce overall cost of finance system upgrade (and conflicts system upgrade) by doing them in isolation which is ‘simpler’ and more ‘focused’ which leads to shorter timeframes, lower costs and better results.
  • Reduce the overall risk of your finance system upgrade and the conflicts system upgrade. Focus reduces the risk of ‘missing’ things along the way that are critical.

 

Managing conflicts as a separate project before any billing system change is a smart strategy for any firm.

 

 CONTACT US TODAY Get started without the headaches!

 

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Tags: Conflicts Software, Conflicts of Interest, Law Firm Conflicts System, Software Implementation

Law Firm Conflicts - A Lot of Innovation Equals Less Blogging

Posted by Joy Spicer on Thu, Apr 23, 2015 @ 20:04 PM
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thinking outside the box, innovation

It is hard to believe that months have passed since I last updated this blog!

Our team has been so focused on innovating Conflict of Interest processes and approaches, along with many other law firm processes, that we forget sometimes to come back and talk about it.

Specifically surrounding Conflicts of Interest, it’s amazing to me how stagnant this area has been for so long – and how much arduous, labor-intensive processes firm have been forced to accept as a result.

As firms cut-over to our Conflicts system, or begin the evaluation process, I’m amazed by the variety of initial responses, and then how the responses evolve as the innovations become clearer how what we are doing is truly innovative – and in some cases, ground-breaking.

Initially, there is trepidation, because what we did NOT do is put a pretty face on old approaches.  That just didn’t make sense.  What we did is stepped back, evaluated ROOT CAUSE issues of inefficiency and inaccuracies and then concertedly implemented innovations to address the root cause, not just symptoms.  The result?  A very different approach, with very different capabilities – and that can sometimes be hard for folks to ‘translate’ at first.  But once we walk through and map ‘today to tomorrow’ – the eyes start to widen, and the excitement sets in – that there is the possibility of actually focusing on high-value activities (like analysis and clearance), rather than manual labor activities bogging down teams and attorneys today.

Now we have migrated firms from each of the previous market-share holders for conflicts, and so have had the chance to experience their dismay at the incredible efficiencies our Conflicts System provides – each for slightly different reasons based on where they have been ‘living’ before. 

Here are just a couple of sample comments from key conflicts team members:

“LBMS Conflicts of Interest saved me 60% of my time!”

“When [our conflicts system fell out of support] we were unhappy to face the need to change.  Now, after using LBMS we wonder how we ever lived without the features that are embedded.”

“The other day we missed a key hit using our old conflicts system.  LBMS found it right out of the box with no additional effort from the team.”

So, please forgive my blogging tardiness – I promise - it’s for all the right reasons. 

Innovations in Conflicts of Interest Methodology White Paper

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Tags: Law Firm BPM, Law Firm Risk Management, Conflicts Software, Conflicts of Interest, Law Firm Conflicts System

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Blog Author
Joy E. Spicer

 


Joy E. Spicer, founder, President & CEO of Elegrity, Inc., has over 19 years of strategic business and technology experience. 

Often referred to as 'dynamic', Joy's contagious passion for leveraging creative technology solutions to deliver efficiency, agility, and fast ROI to Elegrity clients in each and every engagement permeates throughout the Elegrity culture, products, service offerings and customer relationships.

Valuing business alignment, quality of execution and customer satisfaction above all else, Joy's leadership has enabled Elegrity to maintain repeat customers for the life of the organization's history.

Joy is an active member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and the Women President's Organization and frequently provides presentations on cutting-edge technology solutions for the Legal industry to the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) and Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP).

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