Tune-Up or Total Replacement? Building the Matter Management System You Really Need

by Amanda Heldt

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FIRST STEPS / TAKING A GOOD LOOK AT YOUR CURRENT SYSTEM

For corporate legal departments, the importance of effective matter management cannot be overstated. Experts agree that giving general counsels a better way to track, manage, analyze, and report on legal activities and expenses can reduce a company’s legal costs by a whopping 20 percent. You know it can be a superior tool for managing costs, but has the value of your matter management system waned, or worse yet, never realized its potential?

With the addition of Web-based interactivity and advanced user resources, off-the-shelf matter management systems have come a long way in recent times. New capabilities abound that simply didn’t exist even a few years ago. So, if your current system doesn’t measure up, you’re most likely considering something new.

However, before you spend substantial time and money to replace your existing matter management system, it may be helpful to reconsider why you acquired (or developed) that system in the first place. At the most basic level, a fully functional matter management application should enable you to:

• Track, control, manage, analyze, and report on legal activities and costs
• Achieve reductions in total expenditures for outside legal services
• Automate billing data entry, processing, review, and approval
• Enable more efficient collaboration among matter team members
• Provide transparency of matters in support of compliance requirements

If you’re not getting these essential requirements from your matter management system, a change may be in order. But if your system provides these benefits (or once did) it may only need a technology tune-up. In some cases, tuning-up your matter management system can provide you with the capabilities of a state-of-the-art solution—at a significantly lower cost. In fact, the difference between deploying a new solution and tuning-up your current system may be many months of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars. It may be worth taking a deep breath to consider your options.

THE 3-5 YEAR ITCH / WHEN GOOD SYSTEMS GO BAD

Here’s a familiar scenario: a busy corporate legal department implements a new matter management system and, for a while, everything is great. The system works, the data is pristine, and the legal team gains valuable insight. But fast-forward a few years and things have changed. System rules don’t match current business practices; the data is incomplete or, worse yet, corrupted; and the legal team stops relying on the system because they just can’t trust it. What happened? It’s still the same system, right? Well, yes and no. The system is the same, but it hasn’t been maintained.

A matter management system is only as effective as the people and processes that support it. In most cases, off-the-shelf systems don’t require advanced programming or maintenance by an entire team of I.T. specialists. They just need a little regular T.L.C. Without it, systems may exhibit some or all of the following shortcomings:

• Increased corruption or duplication of data over time.
• Inability to keep up with changes in corporate rules or business practices.
• Lack of fields and/or features to track additional categories of data.
• Inability to integrate advanced capabilities from software upgrades.
• Lax training programs for new employees, limiting the use of the system.

After spending months to research, consider, acquire, and integrate a new matter management system into a corporate environment, it’s not uncommon for legal departments to think that their work is done once the system is installed. Unfortunately, things happen over time to affect the operation of the system—and the needs of your department.

The integrity of data is perhaps the most serious concern. For example, a lawyer seeking a contact named Sally Smith may find Sallie Smith, Salli Smith, Sally Smyth, and Sally S. Smith. Another example might be a situation in which a high-level directive changes a corporate business practice, yet that directive never finds its way to the matter management system.

When team members cannot trust the integrity of the system, they resort to creating their own databases or spreadsheets for case information—thus rendering the matter management system useless. It’s at this point that the chorus for, "A new matter management system" echoes up and down the halls of the legal department.

DELIBERATIONS / THE COSTS AND COMPLEXITIES OF A NEW SYSTEM

"Replace the matter management system!" may be the popular refrain, but such a decision comes with its own set of challenges. Are you prepared to make the investment in time and capital? There is only one way to know for sure—by considering the steps required to deploy (and manage) a new matter management system from the ground up.

1. Needs Assessment. Whether you conduct your review with an internal team, or with the assistance of a consultant, you’ll need to take the time to review all your needs. Consider the "pain points" in your department and the matter management capabilities necessary to solve those issues. Most importantly, survey as many potential users of the system as possible to fully understand their short- and long-term requirements.
2. Budgeting. Set your budget, considering the costs of software and hardware, as well as implementation and training. No two companies (or solutions) are the same, however you should be prepared to spend up to several hundred thousand dollars or more. Simply stated, new systems don’t come cheap.
3. Vendor selection process. Develop a short list based on the vendors’ longevity, track records, and product criteria. Submit RFPs to the short list vendors and evaluate the proposals. Finally, conduct vendor demonstrations, reference checks, and site visits before making a final selection.
4. Implementation. Based on the complexity of the environment, the implementation of your selected matter management system will typically span a four to eight month period. It should include specification assessment; system design; data conversion and integration; training; documentation; and system roll out.
5. Maintenance. Once you have deployed the new system, it is essential that you manage it over time to ensure that—in three to five years—you are not in the same place that you are in today. Having gone through this lengthy, costly process, you won’t want to repeat it anytime soon.

Remember, the best way to determine whether you need a new matter management system—or simply a tune-up of your existing one—is to undertake a comprehensive review of your requirements. If you determine that a tune-up is all your company needs, you’ll have completed your due diligence. If you establish that a total replacement is required, you will be ready to begin the vendor selection process.

A SMART ALTERNATIVE / GIVING YOUR EXISTING SYSTEM A TUNE-UP

Now that you know what it really takes to implement a new matter management system, the idea of a tune-up of your existing system may make more sense. Need more encouragement? How about this:

• You’ll save up to 90 percent of the cost of a new solution by tuning-up your existing application. Beyond those above-the-line savings, you’ll be making your CFO happy by extending the original investment in your current system.
• The cost advantage is significant, and so is the timing. You’ll need to allow six to 18 months—from initial discussions to roll out—for a new system. A comprehensive tune-up can be completed in as little as two months.
• A tune-up can make life easier on users, I.T. staff, and administration. The transition to a new system can be disruptive to your business. Tuning-up what is already there reduces that disruption.
• When you implement a new system, much of the focus for users is on the system itself. With a tune-up, you can focus on process. In other words, improving an existing system also enables you to improve how your people use it.
• A tune-up does not mean your people cannot enjoy the benefits of new capabilities. Actually, you may get the same "wow factor" by adding state-of-the-art features to your existing system as you would by deploying a new system. Off-the-shelf products, such as Corprasoft’s Legal Desktop, Mitratech’s TeamConnect, and Bridgeway’s eCounsel are updated continuously—providing users the opportunity to integrate new features on an ongoing basis.

Whether you want to add new fields to your matter management database, program new rules for electronic invoicing, or increase compliance automation processes, a tune-up can provide you with the benefits you’re looking for and much more. It is vital that, before you make the decision to replace your existing system, determine if—through upgrades and refinements—it has the capability to provide you with the same features available in a new solution. Often, you will find that it does.

FINAL QUESTION / ARE YOU READY FOR A TUNE UP?

One fact is certain: Rushing out to replace your existing matter management system is never a good idea, even if major changes in your department or a consensus within your legal department call for a new direction. You need to think long and hard before you make a decision. The stakes are too high, the risks too great, to make this choice hurriedly. Put on the brakes and contemplate these important steps:

1. Know your needs. Decide what your organization really requires from your matter management system; then determine if it makes sense to refine your existing system. If so, tune it up. If not, replace it.
2. Seek outside help. An independent consultant can guide you through the process with a knowledgeable eye and objective ear. Of course, make sure the consultant is truly impartial—and not simply trying to sell you their own solution. Kiersted / Systems has many years of experience helping corporations address these issues; whether you need to tune-up your existing matter management system or implement a new solution, we can help.
3. Think long term. A well-managed, continuously updated matter management system should provide many years of value.

Ultimately, the choice of whether to replace or tune-up comes down to your ability to meet your requirements while managing your resources. The good news is that now you have two ways to build the matter management system you really need.

 

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