Peter Scott / Andrew Simmans The Winning Firm Alliance

 Projects  Finding and implementing great benefits  Measure what matters  Measures are there to help you focus on what you need to do.  Training / Support to Raise Productivity  Without people technology does nothing!

 Good  Competitive Advantage  “Have to” - essential to operate as a business  Productivity / Cost Saving  Bad  System failed to deliver – discontinued  System there but not really being taken advantage of  Indifferent  Don’t know if it is helping!

Digital Dictation Voice Recognition Case Management Knowledge Management Electronic Archiving Document Management Microsoft Office Photocopy / Printer Usage tracking HR Systems Management Information Intranets External Internet Services Extranet Time Recording Accounts / PMS Money Laundering Discovery Systems Management Intelligent Searching Workflow / Authorisation Secure Social Networking Web based services Blogs System Integration

 Technology without people does nothing  Law firms are people businesses  PEOPLE use technology  Are the people getting the most benefit out of it?

 Provide better service  Improve productivity  Build competitive advantage  Build Profitability

 Client service delivery  Financial management  Business development  Knowledge management  Risk management  Compliance  Others?

 Do you know how much you spend each year on IT?  If so - are you getting financial value from your spend?  If not – then why not?

 It is just another tool to be used by you in your business to help you make profit  Is it doing so?  Do you analyse the cost / benefits of the IT you use?  Could you use it better?

What hurdles have you found to date stopping you implementing / using existing technology to gain optimum efficiency (and thus profitability) for your firm?

Partners / staff not willing to change Package / System does not do what you expected Not seen the expected benefits Cost too much / taking too long No-one using system Don’t know what could be done with system System is unreliable / fails to run quickly / has errors System makes business process worse not better! Unrealistic expectations of what Partners / Staff could do System is “far too complicated” Project “feels” stuck or going wrong. System is “taking over” – takes longer to maintain the system than provide the service!

Known Frustrations / Shortcomings Find new “Quick Win” opportunities?

Data being manually copied from one area to another Same data keyed in time and time again Providing information so that people can work better / smarter Reviewing all the facilities in your existing systems – explore unused menus! Staff experiences from other firms Exhibitions – look at competitor products to your suppliers – stimulate ideas about how to use existing product. Exhibitions – what features of your existing product does the supplier emphasise to new prospects – are you using those features? Wasted Admin time – is the result worth the effort? Analyse time recording / ask some staff to keep a record of how they spend their time. Marketing – find opportunities from existing client base Analyse / Understand your client base.

 Keep focus on Business Objectives  Go for 80% benefit for 20% effort  Think about how to do it before you start  Have a plan  Monitor / Revise

Peter Scott / Andrew Simmans The Winning Firm Alliance

Keep it simple

To provide clear information to those running the business to enable them to:  Monitor what is happening in the business  Project what is likely to happen in the business  Make decisions as to what needs to be done

 Why do we produce this information?  Does it tell us what we need to know about our business?  Do we ever use this information?  If not then why do we produce it?  What information do we not produce, the absence of which is preventing us from effectively driving financial performance?

 How can we measure the financial performance of each part of our firm?  How profitable / loss making are our clients?  Which parts of our firm generate good cash flow / soak up cash?

 What do you measure and why?

 Input v Target  Aged WIP v Target  Billings v Target  Aged Debtors  Aged Lock Up  Realisation %  Utilisation %  Frequency of measurement  Trends for all of these

 Client Satisfaction  New work won  Sell on in existing Clients  New Clients  New Opportunities  Staff Satisfaction

 Is IT helping or hindering your financial measurement and reporting?  What are you using / what have you found effective?  Excel – a quick win  Can read the PMS direct!  Pivot tables / Pivot graphs very powerful  With Intranet and Macros provide quick / simple reports

 Sophisticated Packages  Are they value for money?  Excel  Real time reading of data  Overnight refresh  Manual update / adjustment  Manual entry and reports

Andrew Simmans / Peter Scott The Winning Firm Alliance

 How to use the computer system PLUS!  Helping people work effectively  Spreading “Best Practice”  Encouraging “Standards”  Getting feedback / ideas

 Department Heads  Partners  Fee Earners  Secretaries  Accounts  Marketing  HR

 How to do it  Why we are doing it  What are others doing that could benefit you  Desk side support  IT error fixing  Feedback of ideas / issues !

 Born in 80s and 90s  Now coming into Workplace  Computers are natural  Expect  Social Networking  Newsgroups  Blogs  Wikkis

 Born post War  Will retire in next 10 years  Computers are learnt (or SEP)  Expect:  Computers at work are for work  What is Facebook anyhow?

 Take Training / Support seriously  Think about who does the training  Super users  Central Specialist (IT / Business)  External Trainers  Think about who needs training  Generation Y – quick to learn but need to emphasise risks / controls  Baby boomers – take it more slowly

 Think about how  Floor walk (strongly recommend)  1 to 1  Desk side groups  Short 1 hour briefing sessions  Full Training Sessions  External Courses  On-line  Books

 Record who attends course  Chase up / enforce attendance  Get ideas fed back to centre  New Starters  Can “correct” bad habits in existing staff  Ongoing review / feedback