Case/Practice Management Software: Know What to Buy

07
Jun
2012

Taylor Gould

How do you know what type of system you need?

Based on yesterday’s post, you know what a Case Management System and a Practice Management System are, so you can start to do some research. Andy Adkins, CIO of Steptoe and Johnson, an expert on case management, offers three tips to those firms conducting their initial research on the subject.

Know Your Workflow

Know your office’s workflow.  Workflow is defined as the flow of information in your office’s daily operations.  Try this out: follow the electronic footprint information from the time an initial call or request is received (who collects the data and where it is stored) through opening a new case (do you use a new business memo?) through a working case, which includes tracking, calendaring, document generation, and case research. Then, continue all the way through closing a case (closed matter sheet). This process will help you map out your workflow.

Adkins says, “This simple exercise will help open one’s eye through the intricacies of how the information is generated, where it is stored, and who in the office “touches” it.”  By closely observing this process you can identify bottlenecks, overlap and inconsistencies, and this is where a case management system can help you improve inefficiencies. Larger firms use this type of exercise as a measure of ROI.

Choose the Right Product
There are a lot of products on the market that claim to be CMS.  It is critical to understand the differences between a general CMS and a practice-specific CMS (e.g., IP, Immigration, Real Estate, Bankruptcy, etc.).  Some larger firms may provide services in more than one practice area.  In this case, you need to ask if a general CMS can be configured to work with all practice areas across the firm.  The larger the firm, the harder it will be to work with a single, out-of-the box CMS, as complicated programming might be needed to fully satisfy your firm’s requirements.

Integrating Separate Systems vs. All-In-One
Should the firm consider a CMS that integrates with an existing separate back office system or should the firm look for an all-in-one practice management system?  Both routes have their benefits and disadvantages.  Do your homework, call the software sales offices and talk to them – make them work for the sale.  Tell them what you want based on your workflow and what you have; then see if they can meet those requirements and at what price.  Then call another CMS vendor and another until you have all of the data you need and feel comfortable, or you can hire a consultant with knowledge about these products and have them do the legwork for you.

In terms of budget, Andy often tells people to, “Look at the software’s sticker price and then double it.” The doubling is for the physical implementation and installation of the product and the training associated with it.

Want to know more about case/practice management from Andy?  Tune into LTO tomorrow, I’ll be running one more post on this topic, covering how to budget and train for an actual CMS/PrMS implementation.

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