If you thought all your practice groups were going pretty well, perhaps it’s time to think again. Looking at the high number of matters coming in, that might be all the reassurance you need. But if your recoverables are only, say 80%, from the billed amount, you’d probably like to know why. Maybe it’s time to ask, what is really happening inside the business of your law firm?
Low recoverable costs are one of many signals that there are issues to be resolved in a practice group. Another is that you have a department creeping into the profit margins. The point is that if any part of your firm’s business is operating below par, you need to know why. The good thing is you don’t need to bring in a team of experts to find out how, which is where this article comes in, taking you through the opportunities that a cloud-based business management solution can present.
Visibility across your firm
The daily issues for mid-size firms are around not having the control over – the overview – of the financial function of their business. Sure, server-based, desktop software can create a trail of reports, but trying to collate and understand the results from multiple data points just adds to the complexity.
Reflect for a moment. Imagine being able to produce a financial report at any time, 24/7, with the performance analytics of individuals, teams and practice areas – displayed at the click of a button.
Instead of having to collate these reports, with the right cloud technology, firms can have visibility across the business, with reports in one place, ready to read and review in real-time. With, for example, Microsoft Power BI-based reporting you can create dashboards and understand profitability across different departments and the best way to assess how your team is performing. You can drill down to performance on an individual level – and what are the recoverables that you’re able to get for each of those cases.
Foundation for growth
The beauty of having this kind of technology is that it generates a comprehensive profile of your clients, so that you can then make billing decisions accordingly. With this robust analysis to hand, it allows you to get to know your clients and their billing behaviour and to make more informed decisions about your business.
It means that your firm can focus on the law and the business of law. Think of it as a foundation for your firm, a foundation for growth, now and for the future.
Because advanced cloud technology doesn’t just look after financial reporting.
Cutting costs and time
In fact, a premium cloud solution will enable an end-to-end automated business management workflow for your firm. From the moment you take on a matter to the moment you issue an invoice, or even collect a debt – it will manage/take over the time-consuming, non-value-added aspects of the business that take lawyers away from servicing their clients.
So a cloud-based business management system makes your firm more efficient, and it also saves costs, an advantage experienced widely through the strategic adoption of technology. The 2021 Report on the State of the Midsize Legal Market recorded that half of firms surveyed in the 2020 Law Firm Business Leaders Report planned to increase their use of technology to cut costs.
It is important to understand that the cost-saving benefits start from the moment the cloud technology is installed. No more infrastructure and maintenance costs from antiquated desktop software. Your firm will no longer need to rely on teams of IT people to upgrade your on-premise business management system with the latest version. It will all be done automatically and seamlessly in the cloud, ensuring business continuity and peace of mind, and accessibility from anywhere, anytime.
A roadmap for the future
Our trusted, state-of-the-art 3E business management system, powered by Microsoft Azure, does all this and more. It has been designed and developed in the cloud by our expert engineers to support your firm’s needs as you grow – with a roadmap for the future.
Want to learn how a cloud-based business management system will change the future for firms with 60 to 250 fee-earners? Click here and a 3E specialist will contact you for a confidential consultation.
