Secrets for Success AFTER Buying Practice Management Software – PART 2

20
Aug
2012

Tom Busch

In my last column I gave you the first five post-purchase secrets for making your investment in practice management software pay off. Here are five more quick recommendations to keep moving ahead with your practice:

1. You need to keep training to the next level
Once your staff reaches proficiency on the basics, it’s time to move on to the next level, because like a gold mine, there may be some chips of gold at the surface of the mine, but you have to dig for the high value stuff. Keep your staff training to keep them interested and motivated. Keep them training to advance the firm to the next level of profitability. Use the extra features.

They’re not there for only the select firms. The delivered reports are written with your profitability and success in mind. To avoid them could put your firm in peril.

2. Keep your software current to the 3-year rule
Yes, software does to seem to have a short shelf life. At least when compared to furniture, fixtures and cars. There’s a reason for that, more than just cash flow for the vendor. People invent better ways to do things and software bugs get repaired, sometimes only in a more current version. It takes a tremendous amount of manpower to produce good software these days, and vendors realize that you have limited resources. A good balance has been reached, I think, with the 3-year rule. It means that generally speaking, you have 3 years of life for any one version of the software. After that, it’s not supported. Keeping your software supported ensures you’ll get help when you need it and enables the vendor to better help you. Keeping it current also ensures that it will work with other third-party software that you use, when you may not have even thought there would be a connection. Many vendors use links in the background that end-users are unaware of, too.

3.  Use vendor-supplied reports to manage your business
In my experience, vendor-supplied reports are one of the most under-utilized yet feature-rich parts of your billing system. Getting data out of the system, via reports, should be one of the primary uses, after the generation of bills. Reports and the resulting analysis will enable you to “run” your business instead of the other way around. Simple reports, like Accounts Receivable Balances, tell you which clients aren’t paying and for how long. They tell you the value of your current billing at a point in time, all in an instant. Flat fee analysis reports tell you the value of your billed time as a comparison against the actual invoiced amount. Are you making money or losing it compared to the amount of time you/your staff spends on the project? What type of customer allows you to leverage your skills more than any other service? What customers’ line of business is most/least profitable for the firm? It’s all in the reports. Use them to run your business more profitably.

4. Look down the road for future uses of the software
So many times, my clients make statements like, “we’re not really using the software much” or something like this. This is like saying you bought a Ferrari, and then you keep it in the garage, except to wash it. Here is where you can discuss things with the vendor or your consultant. Let them give you a feature walk-through 6-12 months after you’ve started using the software. You’ll have a fresh view on the features you currently use, and be able to absorb the concepts behind other features to make an informed decision on how/why they’d work to help grow your business. Then, begin implementing the additional features and watch the positive effect on your staff and business.

5. Give your staff ample time to learn the software
This is another area that seems to be difficult for management – the staff is expected to assimilate the new software into their daily jobs, yet no extra time is allotted for it. The result is sometimes good, but often inadequate. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but it doesn’t make for a good teacher of practice-management software. The approach that works well for my clients is a prioritized list of objectives/features to learn that the firm takes on in small bites. Pay for training to allow the staff to leave the office if that is best way for them to be able to concentrate on new learning. Otherwise, arrange for others to cover the phones and other routine office tasks so the staff can focus on the new learning.

There you have it. Ten points that each on its own can take a while to fully implement. Dig in and start mining your practice management software for the profits it is intended to generate for your firm.