Category Archives: IT & Technology

Apr 28

NEW PUBLICATION: Targeting Profitability: Strategies to Improve Law Firm Performance

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Targeting ProfitabilityI wrote a chapter for this book, published recently by Ark Group in association with Managing Partner.

The book comprises 110 pages of condensed content and brings together the views of 14 respected experts in law firm profitability from the the UK and US outlining specific areas within a law firm that can be targeted to introduce improvements, adapt processes and training – to generate an increase in profitability.  The other contributors are Tony Williams, Toby Brown, Robin Dicks, Susan Saltonstall Duncan, Steve Gale, Phil Gott, Brian Helweg-Larsen, Partrick McKenna, Simon Nash, Michael Roch, Joel A. Rose, Richard Tromans and Ori Weiner.

My section “Shifting the IT Focus to Developing Integrated Business Solutions” reinforces a lot of what we are doing with law firms at the minute to help firms address strategic issues where effective use of IT is part of the solution.  So there is commentary here to explain the rationale and give some tips on how to ensure the success of initiatives that are critical to most law firms now to ensure the business is sustainable and profitable.  Initiatives relate to:

  • Management of the new role of the in-house IT team
  • Management reporting, KPI’s and effective performance management
  • Client relationship management (CRM) systems and ethos
  • Proactive Performance management (again) and HR systems
  • Introduction of “lean” business processes
  • Adoption of technology on risk management and compliance; and,
  • Adoption of managed and hosted IT services

DOWNLOAD - Free Exec Summary & Sample Chapter and Buy The Book Here >>

Allan Carton

Apr 20

Preview of GMCC Legal Sector Initiative Launch Event – MMU Business School, 24 April

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Carol Bartram from Greater Manchester Chamber, Emma Holt from Panonne and Allan Carton from Inpractice UK presented this at a NatWest breakfast briefing supported by Manchester Law Society on 17th April to about 50 local professionals.

If you are a law firm with offices in the Greater Manchester area – please CALL Chamber Events Now on 0161 359 3597 to book your place.  OR email events@gmchamber.co.uk

Senior managers, management and and managing partners from all local law firms around the Greater Manchester area (not just the city centre and not just the larger firms) should please attend the full launch event to find out how to access their share of the funding earmarked specifically for law firms – currently a share of £8.5m pilot with a bid in the pipeline for £50m in phase 2.

With the legal sector under pressure from all directions right now, don’t miss this opportunity to find out about funding that can help to make your practice more competitive – there are no catches and no obligation to do more than listen!

The Chamber of Commerce and 9 Manchester law firms are leading this, so there has to be merit in finding out more about the initiative. They want more local law firms to get involved.

At this free event on Wed 24th April (Next week) at 5:00 pm at MMU you will hear what a group of local law firms are doing to make use of a share of £8.5m of government funding to improve their business … and how you can join them – so please come along.

The founding law firms leading this initiative with the Chamber (who we are working with) are: Pannone, Slater Heelis, Chafes, Colemans-Ctts, Hill Dickinson, Horwich Farrelly, Stephensons, SAS Daniels and Weightmans.

If you want more information or to discuss this before you book your place – call Allan Carton on 0161 929 8355 or email here.

Apr 16

Tap into your share of £8.5m of funding secured by the Chamber

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Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Connections LogoA substantial proportion of this has been earmarked for legal practices with offices in the wider Greater Manchester area … and there is a bid in the pipeline for more.

To find out how to get involved and get your share, contact the Chamber to confirm you want to attend the FREE launch event for the initiative at MMU in Manchester, starting at 5:00 pm on Wednesday 24 April.

This initiative is backed by: Pannone, Slater Heelis, Chafes, Colemans-Ctts, Hill Dickinson, Horwich Farrelly, Stephensons, SAS Daniels, Weightmans and more.

Funding is available to firms of all sizes.

By becoming part of the Chamber’s Legal Sector Employer Skills Group, you can use some of that funding to restructure the way you run and develop your practice, so you can survive and remain / become reasonably profitable with all the changes going on around them in the sector.

Don’t let this opportunity pass you by. To BOOK YOUR PLACE or for further information, please email events@gmchamber.co.uk or CALL 0161 359 3597.

Find out:

Why do this?

Like a majority of businesses in the UK, the legal sector has to respond to huge economic pressures. Clients continue to demand more for less, the courts require more rigour in how cases are managed in order to reduce the overall cost of litigation and the Ministry of Justice is limiting public funding of legal services, whilst reducing the fees that can be charged for legal work across a wide spectrum.

These factors are not the only elements that are creating change within this sector there’s also been a significant focus by the Solicitor’s Regulatory Authority, demanding more effective management of all aspects of how legal practices are run.  With the introduction of ‘Alternative Business Structures’ and an in increase in specialisation and commoditisation this already competitive market will not be sustainable under the traditional legal practice model.

Every successful law firm will need to remain agile to meet these challenges by delivering legal services through innovation, collaboration and reorganisation of how people, teams and processes (business and legal) are developed and managed.

Meeting the Challenge: The structure and operations of providers of legal services is changing rapidly.  Paralegals account for over 40% of all fee earners within the legal sector.  This figure is expected to increase dramatically, with highly qualified and well trained paralegals outnumbering solicitors, as firms start to delegate more complex work in a bid to reduce costs, but still maintain high levels of service and standards.

All legal firms are now being challenged to look at not only how they perform their legal duties, but also how they perform as an effective business across all aspects of operations.  There are clearly decisions to be made about critical new practices that laws firm could adopt, including; client relationship management, key performance indicators, lean thinking to improve processes, outsourcing and flexible working.

Although these challenges require a relatively speedy response from the industry, this will not happen overnight.  The transition to create a leaner working model and a more robust and diverse range of skills will require investment of time, targeted training and the right resource in place.

The Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce (GMCC) Legal Sector has formed an Employer Skills Group (ESG) that will help its members to prepare for the future.  The support provided will enable law firms to develop and structure these teams to deliver high quality, cost effective legal services to the Greater Manchester community.

Employer Ownership of Skills: The Legal Sector, supported by the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, is working with Greater Manchester legal practices to benefit from collaboration to develop effective joint investment strategies, enabling us to work together to drive the development of skills required by legal professionals. This exciting venture will bring law firms, schools and colleges together making it easier and far more effective for law firms to recruit the best people.

Due to the recent success by the Chamber to secure Employer Ownership of Skills funding, the Legal ESG will assist Lawyers to identify skills issues and develop responses to those issues.  It will help them to take strategic leadership in training, and influence the wider skills system.

Time: Wednesday 24th April 2013 – 5:00 pm

Location: The Atrium, Manchester Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Law, New Business School, All Saints Campus, Oxford Rd, Manchester M15 6BH

To sign up and sign in to register GO HERE NOW >>   For further information, please email events@gmchamber.co.uk or call 0161 359 3597.

Mar 15

Find out more about our IT-supported solutions, being used by lawyers to tackle profit margins

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Managing Partner, Targeting Profitability with IT Supported Business Solutions

 

 

www.inpractice.co.uk

Jan 30

How many opportunities when you make a Will?

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This article first appeared in the Jan ’13, Issue 4 of Modern Law Magazine.

Question: How important is the role of IT in the new legal services arena?

Answer:  Think through this common scenario … and then apply the same principles in other areas of your practice to evaluate the potential of IT to make you more competitive and improve your performance.

A client calls in to make a will.  They appoint 2 executors, who will be their most trusted friends or relations (and perhaps also someone from your practice).

Do you know if anyone at your practice knows these two executors?  Would you ask the testator if it would be helpful to send them some information about the responsibilities they are taking on? Do you have that available? 

If you don’t already know them, should you ask the client if it’s ok to add them to your system to send out that information and invite them to opt into further contact in future?  Can you invite them in for a chat to establish contact if they want to drop in (and send a timely reminder), to build up a better relationship with them so you understand their family’s legal needs? 

What about their children and parents – can we do something for them?  Will you stay in touch to offer that client and members of their family other services relevant to them, now we understand what they might need in the future?

To manage this requires simple but effective use of a user-friendly client relationship management (“CRM”) system to manage data and prompt activity, but this is just one area of how you operate that can be improved by effective use of IT. 

This is not just about technology but also about the mindset and vision of the people who develop and use IT systems.  Integrated, user-friendly and powerful solutions are readily available but require investment of intellect and time as well as money to produce more competitive business results; not just on relationships, but to deliver more for less and to operate more efficiently with more resilience and flexibility.

However, managing client relationships is critical.  If you do not have a structured approach supported by technology, you can rest assured that others will.  Those executors could well be your clients today … but gone tomorrow.

Allan Carton

Jan 29

Insights to inform your IT Strategy

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Check out these questions please as I’m sure you’ll want to hear what others have to say in these areas to help inform your decisions on IT going forward.

We’re getting good responses and revealing insights back from good IT people in legal businesses in this short, candid (just 5 minutes to complete) snap survey of legal IT Directors and Managers, but we can only share them with you if you take part.

GO HERE TO COMPLETE THE SURVEY >>

Completing this questionnaire really will take no more than 5 minutes, although I know even that is hard to find; but you can then sit back and wait for us to come back with a report on the compiled results.

Your responses will be treated in absolute confidence and we will provide you with that report on our findings within 28 days.

Allan Carton

Jan 24

Pointers to Improve Performance. Law Soc, LSB and MoJ Research highlights outsourced IT and better client relationship management.

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It’s worth checking out this recent substantial piece of research conducted jointly by the Law Society (E&W), Legal Services Board and Ministry of Justice with 2007 solicitors’ practices ranging from sole practitioners to large corporate practices, giving a representative snapshot of the legal profession.

Section 5 of the report on pages 51 to 55 summarises the authors’ key findings and conclusions.

However here are the key pointers I pulled from the report that resonate for me.   They are useful indicators to guide some of the work we’re doing with law firms; helping them to shift gear in developing a more sustainable business strategy and model going fowards, so I hope they help you plan your next moves too.

Two key areas worth exploring that can improve profitability:

  1. Outsourcing IT – where there’s a spectrum of options to choose from now
  2. Better management of existing client relationships – see below.

Some Key Findings:

  • 27% were niche firms – i.e. they conducted at least 90% of their work in just one work category with crime the most prevalent area of specialism followed in rank by Family/Matrimonial, Personal Injury and Property /Planning.
  • Mean turnover across the range was £4.2m but the median was £261,881, with 24% of respondents showing turnover of less than £100,000 and just 10% over £1m.
  • Measuring productivity as “turnover generated by each fee earner”, the statistically rationalised (see pages 22 and 23) mean was £102,933 and the median £82,091 – but with some fee earners earning more than £1m.
  • Firms undertaking commercial and personal injury work seem to have fared best to date.
  • Firms with 25% or more of their work in Property or Crime were more likely than others to report a drop in turnover by 10% or more.
  • Firms with 25% or more of their work in wills were significantly less likely than others to report an increase on turnover of more than 10%.

Through statistical modelling, the researchers concluded that better turnover per fee earner (used as the simplest measure of  productivity) is produced by firms where they handle more repeat clients.  75% or more repeat clients is equated to an 8% increase in productivity… (However … where 75% or more of clients were repeat clients, these firms were also more likely to report a decrease in turnover of 10% or more – so they haven’t got their approach to managing relationships, pricing and delivering value right!).

Firms involved in outsourcing their IT also perform better; associated with a 17% increase in productivity.  Fimrs actively using media advertising also fare well, being associated with a 10% increase in productivity. Membership of networks like Quality Solicitors was considered to have no relationship to improved productivity.  Firms with a workload that comprises over 50% Personal injury work are also more productive, but there are of course many issues associated with this going forward;

  • New firms are associated with a highly significantly lower productivity than other firms, equating to 31% less.
  • The most outsourced activities are: IT at 44% and Finance at 35%
  • 58% of firms reporting facing problems over the past 12 months, broken down as follows – obviously with some overlaps
    • 29% concerning compliance with regulations,
    • 23% on changes to legal aid,
    • 21% Finance availability (16%) and obtaining investment (10%),
    • 20% costs, including cost of staff (14%) and premises (7%),
    • 15% on competition from other solicitors and,
    • 10% on competition from non-solicitor organisations

Issues covered in the survey include:

  • What services are most commonly provided by solicitors’ firms and for whom?
  • How well have solicitors’ firms fared during the recession?
  • How productive are solicitors’ firms?
  • What are the problems faced by solicitors’ firms and by which type of firms?
  • How flexible are solicitors firms in changing the services that they provide?
  • How many and which type of solicitors’ firms are looking to seek external investment?
  • How many solicitors’ firms are undertaking legal aid work and how much?
  • How many current legal aid firms are planning to withdraw/have withdrawn from legal aid?

It’s a big document to download but a quick scan through the first 56 pages might be helpful … or just section 5 plus these notes.

Download this free report here [link to download is at the foot of this page] >>

I hope you find this resume useful.

Allan Carton

Jan 06

Test Drive 4 Key Initiatives for 2013 – CRM, KPI’s, Lean Thinking, IT

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As we head into a second critical transitional year for the legal sector, there is a driving need to be pro-active in developing any legal practice to meet the demand from clients to “do more for less” and to also maintain and improve profits.  These are challenges we are helping law firms meet in a variety ways for firms at different stages of development and with varying priorities. 

They are aimed primarily at medium sized and larger practices, but items 2 and 4 (in particular) are as realistic and appropriate for smaller (up to 35 people) practices, although the approach to implementation is different. 

The 4 key solutions we are working on across the country that you might want to consider as part of your strategy include:

1.  On Screen KPI Dashboards and Automated Management Reporting - giving fee earners, heads of departments and the senior management team easy access to the key financial, marketing and matter information (Key Performance Indicators) needed to drive performance of the business.  It enables fee earners to manage their own performance, record more time, bill more quickly, get cash in more quickly, progress cases faster and can radically improve the impact of  appraisal and performance management initiatives.  This fills a significant gap in performance management and delivers a quick return on investment.  The solution can also be moved to support any new practice or case management system you move to in the future.

Contact us to ask for a free online demo

2.  Client Relationship Management (CRM) – where getting closer to clients and introducers is essential for survival and success going forwards.  A variet of different initiatives here, depending on where clients are starting from, ranging from market research, through workshops with partners to implementing new systems.  We talk direct to clients of our legal clients and introducers of business to identify new business opportunities and strategies. We implement CRM systems that create the structure and tools to be proactive in developing relationships, where the starting point is to get an agreed single shared view to work with. 

Contact us to discuss how we have used client feedback to develop new business strategies and generate new business for law firms.

3.  Introducing “Lean Thinking“ to reduce operating costs whilst also improving clients’ perceptions of value and reducing work in progress - where we have brought in specialists in this area from business sectors to work with law firms … and it’s working well.  Clients have achieved radical improvements in internal operations and cleint communications, learning to roll the initiatives started in one department across the rest of the practice.

Contact us to request a copy of our FREE introduction to lean in the legal sector, “Lean for Legal Staff – The 7 Hidden Wastes”

4.  Radical Improvements in IT -  Infrastructure, Integrated applications, Processes and User Adoption.  Initiatives range from selection of new PMS solutions to implementing Microsoft solutions that incorporate legal-customised SharePoint and CRM solutions integrated with Office and Lync on premise and also in an affordable, securely hosted environment, incorporating full business continuity as part of the solution. 

Contact us to arrange a free demo of a hosted solution to see what it feels like

You can’t do it all at once, so which of these initiatives would produce the best returns for your practice and what is the best approach to making it happen successfully?

To find out more, just call Allan Carton on 0161 929 8355 to discuss how they might apply in the context of your particular business – or email acarton@inpractice.co.uk to set up a time for a preliminary telephone conversation. 

To take any of these forwards, please contact us to:

  1. Ask for a free online demo of the KPI dashboard and automated management reporting system.
  2. Discuss using client feedback to develop new business strategies and generate new business.
  3. Ask for a copy of ”Lean for Legal Staff – The 7 Hidden Wastes.”
  4. Arrange a demo of a hosted Microsoft-based IT solution.

Allan Carton

Aug 17

Masterclass – Legal IT for the Non-Technical Manager

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Understanding technology is critical to how law firms can adapt and respond to meet the new demands of clients who want more value for less money; particularly with the increasing variety of legal services options available to choose from.

6 business-relevant CPD points for lawyers involved in management

Lawyers and managers in law firms now need to work hand-in-hand with IT to find new and better ways to improve and support legal services; then to work together to introduce new solutions to capitalise on the significant advances in technology that can open up many new and better options in delivering legal services.  This advanced level seminar will give you the opportunity to leap ahead of many competitors not yet prepared to take up the challenges and opportunities that technology can present.  Presented in layman’s terms, this master class will enable non-technical lawyers and managers to:

  • Evaluate and improve the performance of the current IT team;
  • Communicate more effectively with the IT team to improve results and shorten development time
  • Recognise and develop new opportunities where IT can add value
  • Review your IT strategy and its alignment with business strategy
  • Pre-empt obstacles in planning how best to introduce new IT supported initiatives
  • Work with and develop the right technology and IT team
  • Focus on outcomes – what solutions technology can support and deliver
  • Bridge the gap to integrate legal skills effectively with the IT team.
  • Integrate your IT team into a broader business development function

Who should attend: Heads of Departments, Managing Partners, Senior Partners, Practice Managers, Practice Directors, Business Development and other managers or anyone else with responsibility for ensuring continued improvement in the delivery of services, performance and productivity of fee earners in law firms.

What You Will Learn:  This seminar will cover the following topics:

  • Why the frustration with IT? – strategies, alignment of the business, piecemeal development, issues with suppliers and more;
  • Impact of New Business Drivers on IT – mergers/acquisitions, the role of IT, implications of external investment, secure hosted, cloud and managed IT solutions, demand for legal knowledge;
  • Key technology developments – Opportunities;
  • New priorities lining up – ISO 27001 – data security;
  • The Changing role of the IT team – managing the IT function, business development, recruiting the right team, focus on business process, understanding outsourcing, practical project management;
  • Redefining IT strategy into practice – where to start? Key components – infrastructure and applications, management information, CRM, workflow;
  • Getting focused on the best IT opportunities (practical exercise) – barriers and obstacles and how to address them and much more.

Presenter: Allan Carton Solicitor, MBA, MD at Inpractice UK. Inpractice UK is a multidisciplinary team of specialist consultants working with a wide variety of legal practices to develop new business opportunities, where most initiatives, that range from HR and IT to client experience management, benefit from the more effective development of IT introduced in this seminar.

Book Direct with MBL Seminars HERE