Category: Enterprise Legal Management

Arguments for Legal e-Billing

Posted on October 15, 2017 by - Enterprise Legal Management

The use of technology within in-house legal departments is increasingly catching up with the IT that has been available to the lawyers in larger external law firms for some time. This is particularly true of international firms with solid bases in the US or UK, where a significant percentage of fee income goes toward leading-edge IT systems. These solutions include such business applications as Document/Records Management, Knowledge Management, Matter Management, Litigation Support/eDiscovery, Cost Tracking, Resource Planning, and Advanced Data Analytics. This extends to the latest technology trends, including using Machine Learning and AI (Artificial Intelligence) in document drafting, contract comparison, and due diligence. These systems are increasingly available to lawyers and support staff in the office and increasingly “on the move” or working remotely.

Corporate Legal Operations is now becoming a significant focus, and these applications are increasingly available to in-house lawyers with the strategic vision to deploy them efficiently and effectively. One key area to look at is that of e-billing (electronic invoicing) which is not just the provision of a legal bill as a PDF but a file of structured billing data – broken down into individual line items – enabling in-house lawyers to gain a considerable amount of added value from this cost and expenses data.

BACKGROUND OF E-BILLING

Like many legal technology systems, e-billing began in the US in the mid-1990s. The interest in the UK in e-billing began in 2003 when UK branches of US insurance and finance organizations started demanding such functionality from their regional law firms, which led US e-billing solution vendors to set up offices in the UK. Over the past decade, many e-billing projects have been undertaken, with several law firms successfully e-billing their largest clients to millions of pounds per year. In terms of market penetration, estimates put around 90% of repetitive litigation work is now e-billed in the US. Recently, Tim Arvidson (Director of Accounting and Billing at Hawkins Parnell) reported that many mid-sized US firms collect around 70% of annual revenue via e-bills.

While the UK is not yet at this level, e-billing currently accounts for 15-20% of the total volume of bills issued by the largest law firms in the UK market. With e-billing clients being among these firms’ largest and most important clients, this typically equates to approximately 25% of total revenue.

BENEFITS OF E-BILLING

What is the driver for legal e-billing, and what returns do corporate legal departments expect e-billing to deliver? Conventionally an e-billing implementation has been driven by a desire to control external legal spend but to realize other non-financial and unplanned benefits. The older “traditional” e-billing solutions have delivered some real benefits, such as:

  • Clarity, consistency, and transparency in the billing of legal services
  • Compliance with the corporate legal department’s billing rules, e.g., what will the client not pay for?
  • Cost and expense tracking for every matter
  • Access to data analytics and allowing comparisons across all external legal service providers
  • Knowledge of what every external law firm is working on and who instructed them
  • Assisting the decision-making process on which is the best option for undertaking legal work
  • Improving the department’s internal processes – speedier workflow and paper reduction

LIMITATIONS OF CONVENTIONAL E-BILLING

Some of the criticisms leveled at these older e-billing systems are that they are very cumbersome, if not “clunky,” and do not sit well with the current trend in IT for software to require “no installation.” Furthermore, they can only reflect the position “after the event,” i.e., the legal bill goes to the client. Other negative comments often made are that the e-billing vendors are too “corporate” and are inflexible in their approach. Also, many law firms, especially those not using the large time and billing systems already, cannot produce LEDES files, and e-billing has yet to deliver on the promises often made to clients and law firms.

MODERN LEGAL E-BILLING SOLUTIONS

Over the past few years, new solution providers have come into the market – both in the US and from within the EU. Interestingly some of these, e.g., Onit’s European legal spend management solution BusyLamp eBilling.Space, have been founded by lawyers who realized that many clients (and law firms) were resisting the more “traditional” e-billing solutions. These new solutions bring a fresh perspective to legal spend management and utilize tools and techniques that are breaking ground in the delivery of IT services. While not all products have these features, they employ many, including ease of set-up, use of AI for the bill review process, and a high degree of collaboration – allowing legal departments to review cost and expense data in the pre-billing stages of a matter. They also offer a low cost of ownership, integration with other legal department applications, and support for a wide range of business processes from RFP and budgeting through billing to a comprehensive management information and reporting suite.

MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE FOR E-BILLING

Quite rightly, in-house departments want to know the return on investment (ROI) of e-billing solutions and whether they can measure it. (BusyLamp has a whole paper dedicated to making the business case for legal e-billing) Several examples of what has been achieved in terms of in-house departments getting a positive financial return. Most of these results arise from such billing practices as eliminating duplicate time entries, removing “block” billing, ensuring utilization of the right resources, and minimizing the possibility of erroneous charge-out rates. The fact that external lawyers know that the billing data is under closer scrutiny often improves the accuracy and ensures more prompt time recording.

Further non-financial benefits can arise from an e-billing implementation. We know that e-billing helps form closer ties between law firms and in-house, adds value to the relationship, and makes client/law firm meetings more productive. When both parties have access to more accurate billing information, it reduces potential conflicts, allows the law firm to provide more than just basic billing data, and can assist in discussions about alternative charging models. Indeed e-billing is not just for charging billable hours but can support various billing models – including fixed fee, retainer, and value-based pricing.

E-BILLING DATA SECURITY AND DATA PROTECTION

Buyers and users of e-billing systems need to ensure that the vendor understands and complies with all Data Protection regulations and has a high-security rating for their data storage and communications functions. As legal data is especially sensitive, providers must have high data protection standards to ensure privacy and security. The GDPR and other regulations already set those high standards, but providers should look to go “above and beyond” to secure these top-notch privacy standards in the future. Read our handy checklist of legal tech security considerations.

SECURING A SUCCESSFUL E-BILLING PROJECT

The successful implementation of an e-billing solution requires a serious approach from all parties, the in-house team, the law firms, and the solution provider – with the right level of resources to bring the “buy-in” to the project. Even the best application cannot deliver the right results without the people who use it applying the appropriate effort. Finally, it is fundamentally important to choose the right provider. We know that modern e-billing vendors are gaining new business and winning customers from established providers. Indeed, clients must decide which e-billing solution offers the best mix of usability, service, IT security, project experience, and price TODAY. It is also essential to talk to existing customers and not only rely on the statements of the respective salesperson.

Request a demo of BusyLamp eBilling.space today. 

Game Changing Features of Leading Enterprise Legal Management Solutions

Posted on July 19, 2017 by - Business Process Management, Enterprise Legal Management

There have been some pretty momentous game changers in the world of enterprise legal management (ELM) solutions in recent years. I’ll take it a step further and tell you there has also been an evolutionary paradigm shift in ELM (but we’ll save that for another story).

When considering and comparing different ELM solutions, there are some basic things to look for. The solution should, at a minimum: 1) empower a better way to work, 2) offer an environment where the user experience is key, and 3) be focused on process.

Those were the basic things to look for; now come the game changers that take ELM to an entirely different level. Before you invest in a major project like an ELM solution for your business, you should also be aware of four game changing features that are instrumental in the best ELM packages:

1. Compatibility

The finest ELM solutions are designed to be able to work alongside and together with systems that are already in place, allowing legal departments to supplement both the capabilities of what they have and to ease their transition to a more modern system.

2. Minimal IT Involvement

While traditional ELM systems require constant IT maintenance and attention, modern ELM solutions are lean and nimble and tend to work in a more straightforward manner. In many cases, users can configure, deploy, and support their new solutions with no corporate IT involvement. This is because they are designed and built in an intuitive, “no code” environment that can be learned without even the need for a training session.

3. A Solution for Every Work Flow

Solutions for standard processes like contract review and approval, NDAs, alternative fee arrangements, and matter or legal spend management are configurable to your needs. For more esoteric needs particular to a business, solutions can be created from scratch with minimal delay in deployment.

4. Drive Operational Improvements Easily

Unlike the development and implementation process for a large enterprise legal management system, which can take several months or years, the average time it takes to implement the best solution is less than 30 days. While the most complex implementations can take up to 90 days, this still beats the average for ELM systems by months.

Just thinking about implementing an ELM solution can be daunting to many. Modern ELM is no longer only matter and spend management, but includes contract management, legal holds, NDAs, SOX compliance, legal service requests, etc. It takes some research and diligent investigation to find the just the right solution, but you’ll find it time well spent, and one of your best investments.

If you haven’t already, isn’t it time to make the move to a cutting edge ELM system? Your team (and your bottom line) will thank you.

Top 10 Benefits of Using Premier NDA Management Tools

Posted on July 17, 2017 by - Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Legal Management

Unfortunately, many businesses have a never-ending struggle with managing NDAs. Collecting NDAs from all areas of business is just one example. Another is the challenge of following a single process for requesting NDAs – regardless of signer role. The list goes on endlessly, but you get the point.

Businesses need a tool that provides the ability to build custom components and execute NDAs tailored to different business needs for employees, vendors, contractors, and clients. The tool should also be human-centric and easy to use, allowing users to manage all NDAs in one secure place.

We’ve assembled a quick-start list of the top 10 benefits you should look for when in the market for a NDA management tool:

1. Self-Service

The best NDA management tools can generate an NDA for the requester using your standard terms. Where conditions warrant, the NDA will be escalated for legal review prior to delivery to the requester.

2. Policy Compliance

An NDA tool will make sure that your NDAs are being handled properly. When they need legal review, they will get reviewed. If they need executive approval, they will be approved. And most importantly the process is self-documenting and always auditable.

3. Variable Workflow

The workflow process can be altered, reviewed and approved by all the participants. New approvers can be quickly added without slowing down the process.

4. NDA Lifecycle

NDAs can be managed throughout their entire lifecycle, including renewal dates, termination notice periods and non-standard terms.

5. Electronic Signatures

The tool should support electronic signatures and integrations with all vendors such as EchoSign and DocuSign.

6. Faster Execution

Your NDA will be approved faster and you’ll have more visibility into the process. Cutting-edge NDA tools support the entire process – creation, approval, negotiation and final execution.

7. Warnings Notification

Clauses that need special attention in the NDA can be flagged in the tool. Users will see a warning when they open it for review.

8. Document Retention

All of your documents are stored in a central location so you can access any document at any time. The tool will notify all of the participants when a NDA is signed and automatically close the request.

9. Dashboard Views

Quickly see a snapshot view of the status of all NDA requests. Reporting and metrics gathering is easy within a special dashboard view.

10. Simple, Intuitive, Affordable

The finest NDA tools are also surprisingly affordable, intuitive, easy to use, and learn. There is virtually no training to get started.

True, NDAs used to be a major headache, but with the technology available now they no longer have to be. Stop wasting valuable time with manual processes and don’t be caught on the sidelines when it comes to properly managing your NDAs. Take the leap and look into streamlining your NDA management process once and for all – your team will thank you for it.

First Impressions Last a Long Time: Is it Time to Review Your Legal Service Request Process?

Posted on April 25, 2017 by - Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Legal Management

Requests for legal services are sometimes thrown at the legal department as a mix of emails, texts, phone calls, and informal conversations. Trying to sort through such an assortment of “requests” would prove daunting under any circumstance. And all of this before the “real” legal work even begins. Another problem is when a person or department needs legal assistance, but doesn’t know where in the organization to go, or the best way to initiate the request. This is where problems begin for the legal department.

Something else that is frequently forgotten is the importance of forming a good, old-fashioned relationship between the legal service requestor and the legal service provider. For legal matters, the intake process is where the relationship often begins.

“Usually, the intake process will represent the first working relationship you have with your new client. Therefore, it is important that you make a very good first impression. A good first impression could mean the difference between a satisfied client and a soon-to-be disgruntled client. Creating a good first impression applies both to the style and the substance of the client intake process.”

Download this new eBook to learn how a premier, user friendly legal service request (LSR) solution can streamline and optimize this process in your department.

Our new eBook offers the following insights:

  • The problem of using outdated or inappropriate legal service request processing tools
  • Current market trends concerning legal service requests
  • Best practices of managing legal service requests
  • A logical and powerful solution that can be quickly deployed
  • A company’s success story using Onit’s intuitive, agile and user friendly legal service request App

It’s time to let the legal department do what it does best – the “real” work of handling legal matters. And they can’t do this if they’re spending endless hours on day-to-day tasks that could be handled in seconds using an intelligent, self-service portal for legal service requests.

In our new eBook, Streamlining Legal Service Requests we explore the problems and headaches associated with processing legal service requests, the importance of allowing the legal department to focus on “real” legal work, and strategies to not only fix the problem but to supercharge your legal service request process.

1 https://practice.findlaw.com/how-to-start-a-law-firm/how-to-perform-solo-and-small-law-firm-client-intake.html

Paradigm Shifts Shouldn’t Be Ignored: The Case for Enterprise Legal Management

Posted on March 1, 2017 by - Enterprise Legal Management

For quite a few years, enterprise legal management (ELM) has focused on matter management and legal spend management. It’s fair to say that effective ELM platforms were, and still are, good at what they do best – only matter and spend management. But many of these platforms were designed solely for storage and access of data; not a whole lot more than that. This is the problem and these systems need to be laid to rest.

Have a look at our new article in Corporate Counsel Magazine, An Evolutionary Paradigm Shift in Enterprise Legal Management. This article highlights the importance of using state-of-the-art ELM platforms that:

  • Empower a better way to work
  • Offer an environment where user experience is key
  • Are focused on process
  • Can be augmented to manage other legal processes

Thought leaders across the country understand there has been a distinct paradigm shift and evolutionary branching off from those older e-billing and matter management systems. More importantly, they’ve taken action to optimize their ELM processes to the extent possible.

If you haven’t already, isn’t it time to make the move to a cutting edge ELM system? Your team and bottom line will thank you.

Dread Managing Legal Service Requests? Not Anymore.

Posted on February 17, 2017 by - Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Legal Management

In our new eBook, “Streamlining Legal Service Requests” we explore the problems and headaches associated with processing legal service requests (LSR), the importance of allowing the legal department to focus on “real” legal work, and strategies to not only fix the problem but to supercharge your LSR process.

Today’s legal departments are oftentimes inundated, and sometimes overwhelmed, with the myriad of issues that crop up daily. Legal service requests should be relatively simple affairs to handle, but in reality they are a frequent and major contributor to a legal department’s organizational chaos. Business partner requests for legal services are often tossed into the legal department sporadically by email, text or informal conversations from various departments.

With no standard legal service intake process, tracking and assigning these requests is nearly impossible. To complicate matters, business partners typically do not include all the resources or documents in the initial request. Often, an email or phone conversation must ensue to obtain the relevant materials before the “actual” legal work can even begin.

Fortunately, there is one solution that can relieve a large portion of this angst. By implementing an intelligent, self-service portal to initiate legal service requests, the first phase of the battle is already won. The company will also be able to leverage their new system, since information can be shared across departments and systems. Fewer staff members will need to spend time entering data for the same client and matter, which saves money. All of this will allow the legal department to spend more time focusing on the needs of business consumers – not following up on paperwork and other purely administrative and time-consuming tasks. Optimizing the LSR process is crucial to the legal department’s success and to the organization’s bottom line.

Legal departments are often understaffed and have limited resources and legal service requests simply add more to their already stressful workload. But there is another problem that can be easily overlooked, unless you are the one needing legal assistance. The scenario often plays out like this: a business consumer of legal services needs assistance, but doesn’t know where in the organization to go, or the best way to initiate the request. This is where problems begin for the legal department.

As mentioned previously, requests for legal services are sometimes thrown at the legal department as a hodgepodge of emails, texts, phone calls, and informal conversations. Trying to sort through such an assortment of “requests” would prove daunting under any circumstance. And all of this before the “real” legal work even begins.

Another factor that may be troublesome is simply forming a good, old-fashioned relationship between the business consumer and the legal service provider. For legal assistance matters, the intake process is where the relationship often begins.

Recent legal market trends can be highly revealing not only for what’s happening now, but also as extraordinary indicators for future developments as well. We’ve discussed the serious problem of corporate legal departments getting bogged down in routine administrative tasks, with LSRs placing high on the list of troublesome processes. If organizations are not driving and implementing positive changes to eliminate such problems, the problems won’t go away.

It’s crucial that the legal department be allowed to focus more on the real legal work, without sinking deeper into the administrative quagmire. In most cases, a well-chosen and effective technology solution is the best answer. But driving and implementing change is another key element in the solution. Keeping up to date with the latest technology is always good, but to implement technology changes requires buy-in from leadership and IT, as well as an unwavering commitment to see the project through.

According to Blickstein Group’s 9th Annual Law Department Operations Survey, we discover some enlightening statistics. 81% of respondents agree that corporate law departments will be the primary driver of innovation and change in the legal sector. This is an encouraging number.

But when we drill a bit deeper into the survey, we learn that the top challenge facing law department functions is driving/implementing change. Taking a close second place is “identifying opportunities for business improvement and cost savings.”

When asked, “Do you have a plan to develop a legal department technology strategy or three-year road map which addresses how you integrate, evolve and replace your systems to support the legal department’s processes and needs?” only 18% of respondents answered “yes.”

In light of these facts, a compelling question arises:

If corporate law departments are expected to be the primary shakers and movers of innovation, shouldn’t they be equipped with the proper technology to do so?

Onit’s Legal Service Request solution simplifies this intake process and provides a simple portal that allows business partners to interact and engage with the legal department. In doing so, the legal department obtains a more holistic view of the legal portfolio and the ability to better serve their clients. The legal department also gets a comprehensive view of all legal service requests and can report on request types (i.e. by department, region, phase, due date, etc.)

Client requests can be directed to the appropriate legal practitioner, even if the requester is not aware of the most appropriate recipient of the request. Clients can also self-serve to keep track of status and resolution of legal service requests. In fact, the requestor of legal services gets an automated email that allows them to track the status of their request directly from the email. The built-in feature to generate automated notifications exemplifies the very best in legal process solutions.

The chaotic world of emails, phone calls, and informal conversations to initiate legal service request is now gone and business process automation has ushered in a new era of cutting-edge customer service and efficiency. It’s worth reiterating that optimizing the LSR process is crucial to the legal department’s success and to the organization’s bottom line.

For organizations that already have other automated processes, that’s a good head start. Now it’s just a matter of implementing an effective LSR solution to complement their existing automated business process arsenal. For companies new to business process automation, a LSR platform is an excellent first choice since legal service requests are literally the “front line” where most legal matters begin.

Download this new eBook to learn how a premier, user friendly legal service request solution can streamline and optimize this process in your department.

Our new eBook offers the following insights:

  • The problem of using outdated or inappropriate legal service request processing tools
  • Current market trends concerning legal service requests
  • Best practices of managing legal service requests
  • A logical and powerful solution that can be quickly deployed

It’s time to let the legal department do what it does best – the “real” work of handling legal matters. And they can’t do this if they’re spending endless hours on day-to-day tasks that could be handled in seconds via an intelligent, self-service portal for legal service requests.

Life at Corporate Legal Just Got Easier with a Legal Service Request Solution

Posted on February 14, 2017 by - Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Legal Management

Imagine working in the legal department trying to keep up with the flood of “real” legal work. On top of that, you have legal service requests coming at you in no real organized fashion. They could be in the form of an obscure, confusing email, a phone call, an informal conversation in the break room, or an abrupt text message. In any case, you’ll likely have to follow up with these requestors just to get all the preliminary required information. And that’s just to get started. It’s frightening to think just how much time you’ve spent on this purely administrative drill, all the while taking your time from real legal work (which, of course, you’ll need to catch up on later).

Onit’s Legal Service Request (LSR) solution provides a legal department with an intelligent and user-friendly method for engaging with business partners. Oftentimes, business consumers of legal services don’t know where to go in the organization to obtain the assistance they need. By providing the business with an intelligent, self-service portal to initiate a request for the legal department, legal can reach more of the organization’s needs and provide better legal service to the business.

Client requests can be directed to the appropriate legal practitioner, even if the requester is not aware of the most appropriate recipient of the request. Clients can also self-serve to keep track of status and resolution of legal service requests. In fact, the requestor of legal services gets an automated email that allows them to track the status of their request directly from the email. The built-in feature to generate automated notifications exemplifies the very best in legal process solutions.

The chaotic world of confusing emails, garbled phone calls, and informal conversations to initiate LSRs is now gone and business process automation has ushered in a new era of cutting-edge customer service and efficiency. It’s worth reiterating that optimizing the LSR process is crucial to the legal department’s success and to the organization’s bottom line.

For organizations that already have other automated processes, that’s a good head start. Now it’s just a matter of implementing an effective LSR solution to complement their existing automated business process arsenal. For companies new to business process automation, a LSR platform is an excellent first choice since legal service requests are literally the “front line” where most legal matters begin.

Download this new eBook to learn how a premier, user friendly legal service request solution can streamline and optimize this process in your department.

Our new eBook offers the following insights:

  • The problem of using outdated or inappropriate legal service request processing tools
  • Current market trends concerning legal service requests
  • Best practices of managing legal service requests
  • A logical and powerful solution that can be quickly deployed
  • A company’s success story using Onit’s intuitive, agile and user friendly solution

It’s time to let the legal department do what it does best – the “real” work of handling legal matters. And they can’t do this if they’re spending endless hours on day-to-day tasks that could be handled in seconds via an intelligent, self-service portal for LSRs. In our new eBook, “Streamlining Legal Service Requests” we explore the problems and headaches associated with processing legal service requests, the importance of allowing the legal department to focus on “real” legal work, and strategies to not only fix the problem but to supercharge your LSR process.

Using an Inferior Legal Hold System Hurts Your Bottom Line

Posted on January 13, 2017 by - Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Legal Management

In the 2014 Ethicon legal hold case, the court awarded monetary sanctions against the defendant, as they had failed to implement a comprehensive and timely litigation hold notice. The court concluded that defendant’s failure to properly preserve data after it should have reasonably anticipated litigation was negligent, but there was no evidence that the defendant acted willfully or intentionally to delete evidence. Instead, the court found that the system used by Ethicon to implement litigation holds was “riddled with holes.” Part of the problem occurred when an employee left the company and a technician in the IT department unknowingly deleted or repurposed the hard drives.

A key point here is that even though a company issues a legal hold in a timely manner, other things can go drastically haywire if something is missed along the way. For example, if the issued hold was not broad enough in scope, some employees failed to comply with the order, or the company’s legal hold system was simply “broken,” severe court sanctions may result.

Some of the lessons learned from this case:

  • Litigation holds should be specific to the case at issue, but also broad enough in scope to preserve potentially relevant information
  • Companies must take all necessary steps to adequately implement any litigation hold in place and ensure compliance in a timely manner
  • Companies must institute policies and procedures for lifting the hold when the company no longer has a duty to preserve evidence
  • A robust legal hold system must be in place so the company is prepared for the threat of legal holds

In our new white paper, “Is it Worth the Risk? How to Implement a World Class Defensible Legal Hold Process” we discuss the significance of legal holds in today’s corporate environment, why you need gold-standard legal hold automation software and the strategies to fuel your company’s path toward a robust legal hold process.

Download this new white paper to discover how a cutting edge legal hold platform allows team members to gain real-time access to the status of collection requests, know when actions were issued, which tasks are in progress and which legal actions require immediate attention.

Our new white paper offers the following insights:

  • Why you need a world class legal hold process
  • A little history of recent landmark legal hold cases and why they should concern you
  • Current best practices of legal holds
  • Essential features to know before shopping for legal hold software
  • The problems associated with using antiquated or inappropriate legal hold tools

A powerful legal hold solution offers a quick and highly cost-effective way to supercharge your automated business processes, as well as your bottom line. Reduce the ever-present risk of costly court cases. The stakes are high, and the time to act is now.

Reduce the Peril: Best Defense Against Legal Hold Threats

Posted on December 14, 2016 by - Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Legal Management

In our new white paper, “Is it Worth the Risk? How to Implement a World Class Defensible Legal Hold Process” we discuss the significance of legal holds in today’s corporate environment, why you need gold-standard legal hold automation software and strategies to fuel your company’s path toward a robust legal hold process.

Legal holds involve the preservation of information when litigation is reasonably anticipated. Recent legal hold cases and their subsequent negative outcomes for the corporations involved have highlighted the need for companies to be highly proactive in dealing with legal holds. Among these negative outcomes were several multi-million dollar fines imposed on corporations; one fine was in excess of $29 million dollars.

In recent history, landmark legal hold cases such as Zubulake v. UBS Warburg have underscored the importance of companies maintaining a tight grip on their legal hold processes. As we continue learning from past mistakes, there are fewer excuses for not implementing a strong legal hold process. Simply put, companies must have a well-documented process for executing legal holds, and exercise the proper care to preserve and collect electronically stored information.

Download this new white paper to discover how a cutting edge legal hold platform allows team members to gain real-time access to the status of collection requests, know when actions were issued, which tasks are in progress and which legal actions require immediate attention.

Our new white paper offers the following insights:

  • Why you need a world class legal hold process
  • History of recent landmark legal hold cases
  • Current best practices of legal holds
  • Features to know before shopping for legal hold software
  • Problems associated with using antiquated or inappropriate legal hold tools

A powerful legal hold App offers a quick and highly cost-effective way to supercharge your automated business processes, as well as your bottom line. Reduce the ever-present risk of costly court cases. The stakes are high, and the time to act is now.

Click here to download the eBook today.

Change is a Good Thing: Why Enterprise Legal Management is So Much More than Just E-billing and Matter Management

Posted on December 2, 2016 by - Business Process Management, Enterprise Legal Management

For quite a few years, enterprise legal management (ELM) has focused on matter management and spend management. It’s fair to say that effective ELM platforms were, and still are, good at what they do best – only matter and spend management. But many of these platforms were designed solely for the storage and access of data; not a whole lot more than that. This is the problem and these systems need to be laid to rest.

Now for the good news. Onit has spent decades studying what’s worked for other legal corporate legal departments to develop enterprise legal management (ELM) solutions that are flexible and easy-to-use. In our eBook, “Matter and Spend Are Just the Beginning: A Guide to the Enterprise Legal Management Paradigm Shift” we outline the evolution of these solutions.

There has been a distinct paradigm shift and evolutionary branching off from those older ELM systems. Nowadays, the best ELM platforms facilitate engagement, are focused on process, offer an environment where the user experience is crucial and can be augmented to manage other legal processes.

While matter management tracks various details in a centralized database and spend management gives good visibility into financial information, it would hardly be accurate to say that these areas make up the totality of what law departments need to track and manage. In truth—there is so much more. Today’s definition of ELM includes all of the following tasks:

There are solutions available that are highly focused on each of these tasks. Many innovative legal departments have acknowledged the evolutionary ELM paradigm shift and have augmented their matter and spend management arsenal with this cutting-edge technology.

With clients like ADM, The Home Depot and Under Armour – Onit is one of the most trusted names in the industry. Check out our customer success stories and learn more about bringing your legal department into the future with Onit’s ELM solutions.

Schedule a demo today for more information about the many benefits of ELM.