Author: Onit

Data, in its raw form, can be a source of true facts; the interpretation and presentation of data allow people to put their agenda across.

Over the years, legal teams will have built up a significant amount of data (through case management systems, document management systems, e-billing solutions, risk registers, law firm reports, emails, legal advice, etc.), which is an extremely valuable but often underrated asset. Not only can legal data support strategic planning and trend analysis, but it is also an invaluable tool for:

• Managing external law firms.
• Managing internal resources.
• Understanding and supporting your business.
• Managing legal risk.
• Managing legal department finances.

Furthermore, the data forms a key part of the company’s knowledge management, which remains available irrespective of changes in the workforce.

The challenge is what you do with this information, how you keep it clean, and how you pull it together and present it. Some of the critical things to consider are:

TAKEHOLDERS NEEDING THE DATA

You will likely have many stakeholders wanting reports from the legal data, each wanting to use it for a different purpose. These may include:

• General Counsel will want to use the data to set the strategic direction of the legal function.
• Team leaders will probably use volumetric data to show and manage resource demands and promote their teams.
• Team administrators will look to make sure their team data is accurate and up to date.
• Procurement will need to support legal spend within the organization.
• Finance / Tax will be able to ensure (amongst other things) that provisions are adequate, and that VAT is correctly applied/recovered.
• Risk will need to better understand the changes in the risk profile and to support any reporting to regulatory bodies.

PRESENTING LEGAL DATA

Presenting the information clearly and concisely that gets the message across is a challenge, as different stakeholders will often want the same data presented in different formats. Producing a range of reports is both time-consuming and a drain on resources. Online dashboards can make it easier for different stakeholders to slice the data to suit their needs. While each option has its benefits and challenges, you will likely want to work with both reports and dashboards.

Keeping the data clean is essential so that reports and dashboards show accurate and consistent data. Despite best efforts, manual input will inevitably lead to mistakes because of typos or missed fields. A system like Onit’s European legal spend management solution BusyLamp eBilling.space automates invoice review, so data is input consistently. Data validation rules, reporting, and task reminders help legal operations managers maintain data cleanliness. Many Onit clients use data gap reports to highlight and complete missing data. Doing this regularly ensures it is a small, everyday task rather than becoming an unwieldy data clean-up project.

USING THE DATA

Legal department data can help you to:

1. Manage your strategy. This may include areas such as:

• Understanding and prioritizing the organization’s legal demand and spend.
• Changes in the team’s performance by using KPIs.
• What cost savings have been / can be, such as;
  • Outsourcing vs. doing it in-house.
  • Removing non-essential tasks.
• Understanding your legal team’s risk profile and internal controls by using KPIs.

2. Manage your external law firms through:

• Greater transparency of activity and spend, which, in turn, will help future discussions with firms, especially during panel reviews.
• Monitoring law firm performance which will help law firm reviews.
• Ensuring prompt payment of bills which may support faster-paying discounts discussions with firms.

3. Manage internal resources:

• Easily identifying peaks and troughs in work, allowing for better resource planning and allocation (Product design/review, property management, supplier contract renewal, key stages in litigation, regulatory projects, etc.).
• Understanding the impact of previous business initiatives will help prepare the department for future initiatives.

4. Understand and support your business. For example:

• Awareness of change in the volume of a particular type of work will help ensure you:
  • Have the proper legal support available (either in-house or through external firms).
  • Develop training needs for your business contacts and the lawyers.
• Visibility of the contracts that will support risk management, especially if there is a change in the legal or regulatory landscape or an economic downturn.
• Support product development by learning from previous iterations.

5. Manage legal risk

• Change in volumes of a particular type of work or within a business area will help identify emerging risks. These could include:
  • Frequent changes to standard terms and conditions could indicate that your documents are not keeping up with changes in the market.
  • Local changes to standard terms and conditions could indicate a lack of awareness or understanding of the documentation.
• Can help identify new training needs.

6. Manage legal department finances.

• Greater clarity on how much it costs per matter (internal vs. external).
• Avoid paying for duplicate advice.
• Drive costs down with external firms.

There are many business benefits to integrating your systems and making sense of the legal data that resides within them. Work out your goals and which of the above areas aligns with helping you achieve those core goals, then work backward to identify the data points that will help you have the visibility or measurements you need. Finally, you can create the reports and dashboards you and your stakeholders need.

Request a demo of BusyLamp eBilling.Space today and see our RFP functionality for yourself.

How special the last two years have been. With the pandemic and remote working, companies around the globe were suddenly faced with multilayered challenges. Effective time management and avoiding unnecessary administrative tasks have become more important than ever. In the following article, Anastasia Hufen, Legal Counsel at Helaba, a German commercial bank, describes first-hand how the introduction of our Legal Spend Management solution supports her in overcoming these challenges on a daily basis.

I just made my first steps working with Onit’s European legal spend management solution BusyLamp eBilling.Space as a lawyer in a middle-sized German bank, and – happy to confirm – the tool is great! My favorite features that support my personal time management are the hands-on and easy implementation process, compatibility with my existing devices and tools, resiliency in change management, and advantages concerning spend management of in-house affairs. Besides this? The result is a fancy legal spend management tool that helps a dynamic, cost-conscious business area work more efficiently with external legal advisors. But allow me to pinpoint in a bit more detail:

First, the technical side: Being a stand-alone application, the tool has an easy implementation comparable to the apps you are familiar with on your mobile devices; once the configuration process by the provider is completed, it is just up to you to log in and start working. Consequently, this results in a high acceptance by users like me that share the view that digitalization’s job is to make my real life easier (and not vice versa). In my experience, the configuration process at BusyLamp is as simple as you can imagine: You supply the lists of contacts to be on-boarded along with the billing rules you wish to apply, and in turn, BusyLamp delivers your tool. By the way, it is up to you to decide on the level of customization and integration with other tools: It is either a ready-made or fully tailored solution for implementation of your legal e-billing process, starting with the engagement of an external advisor and ending with payment by the accounting department. Any and all processing may be reflected, including any and all necessary limitations and requirements. So the basic challenge here is to ensure you know your processes and what kind of tool you need.

Second, once ready to go live, you’re in the driver’s seat and taking your business relationships to the next level of professionalism and transparency. This is because you’re working directly with your private practice counterpart in the system based on the billing rules and the guidelines defined by you beforehand. My recent experience shows that one outcome of the improved client-law firm relationship is the acute objectivity: As you stay informed about the costs – throughout your process, at any time, and as detailed as you wish – the effect is undeniable collaboration and transparency in terms of contacts, connections, interactions, and costs. Plus, the advantages of organized e-billing records cannot be overrated. Using the tool means that there are no unnecessary negotiations throughout the matter’s lifetime unless you wish to make exceptions in individual cases for whatever reasons. The system gives you fully automated billing processing where your only task is to provide the correct settings and control the potential rule breakers. It provides competition, fairness, and transparency, saving you time.

And, finally – and especially for those who (like me) take fun very seriously – it’s a fancy solution, looks and feels good, and is fun to work with. Therefore, overall: BusyLamp eBilling.Space is my insider tip for your effective time management.

See it for yourself! Request your personal demo today.