ounsellink onoarding and servies offering guide
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COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 1
COUNSELLINK®
ONBOARDING AND SERVICES OFFERING GUIDE
VERSION 17.4
NOVEMBER 1, 2017
COUNSELLINK.COM
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 2
Contents
CounselLink® Overview.............................................................................................................................3
Professional Services Overview ................................................................................................................3 Table 1.1: Summary of CounselLink Service Offerings ................................................................................................. 3
Onboarding Services .................................................................................................................................4 Methodology ................................................................................................................................................................ 4 Table 2.1: Onboarding Services Methodology ............................................................................................................. 4 Table 2.2: Onboarding Services .................................................................................................................................... 5 Resourcing .................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Table 2.3: Customer Team Accountabilities ................................................................................................................. 6 Table 2.4: CounselLink Matter Management Onboarding Services ............................................................................. 7 Table 2.5: CounselLink Legal Spend Management Services ......................................................................................... 7 Onboarding Essentials for Legal Hold ........................................................................................................................... 7 Table 2.6: CounselLink Legal Hold Services .................................................................................................................. 8 Onboarding for Legal Request ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Table 2.7: CounselLink Legal Request .......................................................................................................................... 9
Conversion and Integration Services .........................................................................................................9 Table 3.1: Conversion and Integration Services ........................................................................................................... 9 Essentials Matter Conversion, Essentials Invoice Integration, and Essentials Reconciliation Integration................. 10 Essentials Matter Conversion ..................................................................................................................................... 10 Essentials Invoice Integration ..................................................................................................................................... 11 Essentials Invoice Reconciliation Integration ............................................................................................................. 12 Enhanced Matter Conversions ................................................................................................................................... 12 Invoice Conversions ................................................................................................................................................... 13 Data Preparation for Conversions .............................................................................................................................. 13 Enhanced Invoice Integrations ................................................................................................................................... 14 Additional Integrations and Conversion Services ....................................................................................................... 14 Table 3.2: CounselLink Matter Management Integration Services Comparison ........................................................ 16 Table 3.3: CounselLink Legal Spend Management Integration Services Comparison ................................................ 16
Onboarding Training Services ................................................................................................................. 17 Onboarding Essentials and Global Essentials Training ............................................................................................... 17 Onboarding Advanced Training .................................................................................................................................. 18 Onboarding Premier Training ..................................................................................................................................... 18 Table 4.1: CounselLink Training Comparison ............................................................................................................. 19
Strategic Consulting Group (SCG) Services .............................................................................................. 19 Foundational Offerings .............................................................................................................................................. 19 Operational Offerings ................................................................................................................................................. 20 Strategic Offerings ...................................................................................................................................................... 22
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 3
CounselLink® Overview This document profiles the service offerings and support programs for the LexisNexis CounselLink
solution. Included below are details on the Professional Services offered - Onboarding, Conversion and
Integration Services, Training, and Strategic Consulting Services. For more information on CounselLink
product capabilities, please refer to the CounselLink Product Offering Guide.
Professional Services Overview Our Professional Services organization leverages industry knowledge to offer a wide range of services
from onboarding, integration, business process consulting, and end-to-end management of our various
offerings. Using deep industry and product expertise, our onboarding team configures and deploys
solutions that meet your specific business needs.
Table 1.1: Summary of CounselLink Service Offerings
Offering Description
Onboarding Services Onboarding services are scoped as part of the initial implementation of the CounselLink system. The project team provides analysis and best practice-based recommendations on implementing processes using CounselLink effectively. Topics include handling of outside counsel guidelines, matter types, data structure, onboarding of law firms, and optimal configuration for reporting requirements.
Conversion and Integration Services
LexisNexis provides data conversion and integration services to drive process efficiency in legal departments. Conversion services focus on facilitating the transition to CounselLink. To give customers a head start and avoid manual input, matter conversions create and assign matters to law firms. Historic matters and invoices can also be loaded to further data analysis and provide context to users. Integration services focus on the ongoing interfaces which provide data exchange between CounselLink and other customer systems. Typical integrations include matter creation/update integrations, Invoice/Accounts Payable integrations, and Payment data integrations. CounselLink also supports single sign on (SSO) and integration with Service of Process (SOP) vendors, as well as various other corporate system integrations.
Strategic Consulting Services
The Strategic Consulting Group (SCG) helps corporate legal departments advance operationally by advising on process improvement, change management and use of data, metrics, and analytics. The SCG engages in projects that focus on cost predictability or cost savings, increased efficiency, and/or improved transparency of management information.
Training Services The CounselLink training team tailors training programs to each customer’s needs. The range of services include in-person instructor-led training to on-demand, computer-based training. OnDemand training is available 24/7 for both customer users, as well as law firms.
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 4
Onboarding Services Typically, onboarding services start after receiving a signed customer order. The duration of the project
depends on the product-offering tier, system configuration complexity, data loads, system integrations,
and customer resource availability. The target completion date for the onboarding project is determined
during the planning phase of the project.
Methodology
A full CounselLink onboarding follows the six-phased methodology outlined below. This structured
methodology helps us understand your specific business requirements and configure our solutions to
make your unique onboarding a success. We begin by working with you to identify critical business
requirements, goals, and constraints. This assessment produces configuration requirements, which we
then incorporate into your solution.
Table 2.1: Onboarding Services Methodology
PLAN
•The planning phase of a project is crucial. We have proven methodology and templates that will be used by our team of consultants to work together with you to understand the goals and objectives of your organization and to offer solutions based on industry best practices.
DESIGN
•Through the design phase, we will provision your key users and begin an iterative approach to implement and present your business requirements within the application as a means to confirm that your business requirements are incorporated into the final configuration design. This structured approach helps us understand your specific business needs and identify solutions tailored to making your deployment a success.
IMPLEMENT
•During implementation, requirements transform into final website configurations and the design is implemented. This includes the configuration of business groups, users, vendors, business rules, fee agreements, workflows, custom data, reporting, and all selected features pertaining to your offering.
VERIFY
•The verify phase gives you the opportunity to validate that the requirements have been met during the onboarding project. Your consultants will support a variety of testing needs as required by your organization. Examples include: Functional Testing, Business Rule Testing, Configuration Testing, and Connectivity Testing. Our team is prepared to provide sample User Acceptance Testing (UAT) plans and testing scenarios, provide training for your testing team, and review and escalate any issues identified by your team during the testing process.
DEPLOY•Deployment of the CounselLink solution includes final preparation of the new configuration.
TRAIN•Customer training is provided on-site or through web-based sessions. Your law firms and
vendors also have access to web-based professional training.
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 5
As mentioned on the prior page, the CounselLink onboarding methodology consists of six phases: Plan,
Design, Implement, Verify, Deploy, and Train. The flow below provides additional detail as to the
activities and deliverables throughout the project.
The time required to complete each step varies depending on the complexity of the project. Your
dedicated consultant(s) will work with you to determine the target completion date for the project.
Table 2.2: Onboarding Services
Resourcing
Our onboarding team delivers flexible solutions aligned to your business environment and designed to
achieve your business goals. To provide comprehensive support and service, LexisNexis reviews each
project for effective staffing. The assigned LexisNexis Consultant(s) will work with your organization to
identify the most appropriate resource(s) based on your specific project goals and objectives. The
following is a description of recommended roles and corresponding responsibilities of the customer
project team. This table displays estimated time commitments for each resource. In smaller organizations,
one person may play several roles depending on the organizational structure.
PLAN & DESIGN
25%
IMPLEMENT & VERIFY
50%
DEPLOY
20%
▪ CounselLink website provisioned - client able to access CounselLink
▪ Requirements consultation meeting
▪ Final guideline document delivered to client (when applicable)
▪ CounselLink configuration updated - specific to client requirements
▪ Go-Live - client creates matters
TRAIN
5%
▪ Training delivered to client
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 6
Table 2.3: Customer Team Accountabilities
Your Team Accountabilities
Project Sponsor Provides executive leadership for the onboarding project. Selects the project team. Point of escalation. Level of effort estimated as approximately 1 hour per week, which includes weekly or bi-weekly meetings with LexisNexis.
Project Manager/Lead Oversees the day-to-day activities of the project plan. Serves as the central point of contact for LexisNexis and your project management lead. Activities include coordinating resources for weekly meetings, managing project deliverables, distributing internal customer communications, and scheduling internal training. Level of effort estimated as approximately 8 hours per week until integration is completed, which includes weekly meetings with LexisNexis.
Legal Department Contact Oversees all activities related to law firm relationship management. Activities include refinement of billing guidelines, identification of law firm contact information, and invoice review and approval workflow. Level of effort estimated as approximately 8 hours per week until integration is completed, which includes weekly meetings with LexisNexis.
Accounts Payable Contact Serves as a process expert to ensure that all financial controls and policies are recognized and appropriately addressed during the onboarding project, including payment approvals for law firms and vendors. Level of effort estimated as approximately 8 hours over the course of the onboarding project.
Integration/ Technical Contact (needed for integrations)
Oversees the planning, testing, and deployment of the integration feeds. Facilitates all technical aspects of the onboarding, including integration data format, data content, and business data processing rules. For a matter feed we recommend a matter management Business Analyst. Level of effort estimated as approximately 4 hours per week until integration is completed, which includes weekly meetings with LexisNexis.
Networking/ Security Contact (needed for integrations)
Oversees all activities related to data transport for the integration(s). Includes customer system configuration for data files transports, Web Services connections, security considerations including encryption key exchange and network configuration, and Single Sign On (“SSO”). Level of effort estimated as approximately 4 hours over the course of the onboarding project.
Subject Matter Expert Contacts
Serves as subject expert by addressing process questions and reviewing documentation. Subject matter experts could include project contacts, business analysts, or other functional users within the departments listed above. Level of effort estimated as approximately 6-12 hours over the course of the onboarding project.
Unless otherwise agreed upon by both Parties in writing, the obligation of LexisNexis to provide
Onboarding Services to the Customer expires the earlier of: 1) completion of the Onboarding Services
described above; or 2) 6 months from Contract Effective Date.
As part of the overall onboarding project, the customer project team will be responsible for the following
activities:
• Providing adequate access, information, accessibility, and input in order for LexisNexis to
perform the Services within the timeframes outlined in the approved Project Plan
• Providing access to personnel needed to perform the onboarding of services outlined in the
approved Project Plan. Customer personnel may or may not be dedicated only to the project
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 7
• Providing knowledgeable personnel responsible for assisting with the key deliverables and dates
in the approved Project Plan
• Participating in weekly meetings, or as frequently as necessary, to discuss the project status with
and otherwise maintaining communication with the project manager
• Reviewing and providing meaningful feedback on project documentation, including action items,
meeting minutes, and reports
Table 2.4: CounselLink Matter Management Onboarding Services
Matter Management (MM) Onboarding Essentials Advanced Premier
System Consulting
Requirements Consultation Meeting 2 days 1 week 1 week
Solution Design & Configuration ✓ ✓ ✓
Project Management ✓ ✓ ✓
Web-based System Testing Support ✓ ✓ ✓
On-Site System Testing Support Not Offered ✓ 1 week ✓ 1 week
Table 2.5: CounselLink Legal Spend Management Services
Legal Spend Management (LSM) Onboarding
Essentials Global Essentials Advanced Premier
System Consulting
Requirements Consultation Meeting 2 days 2 days 1 week 1 week
Solution Design & Configuration ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Project Management ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Web-based System Testing Support ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
On-Site System Testing Support Not Offered Not Offered ✓ 1 week ✓ 1 week
Self-Service Law Firm Onboarding ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Guided Law Firm Onboarding Not Offered Not Offered ✓ ✓
Managed Law Firm Onboarding Not Offered Not Offered ✓ 12 weeks ✓
Onboarding Essentials for Legal Hold
Onboarding Essentials for Legal Hold helps legal departments streamline and manage legal holds.
Onboarding Essentials for Legal Hold include:
• Consulting on the configuration for your Legal Hold module to match business requirements
• Testing support to ensure the module works as expected
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 8
• Unlimited OnDemand training
• Week 1
• Introduction to Legal Hold Essentials
• Requirements gathering session on Legal Hold functionality with key stakeholders
• Application configuration
• Configuration testing and verification
• Week 2
• Guide customer on contact and contact group import
• Go-Live
Unless otherwise agreed upon by both Parties in writing, the obligation of LexisNexis to provide
Onboarding Essentials for Legal Hold Services to the Customer expires the earlier of: 1) completion of the
Onboarding Essentials for Legal Hold Services described above; or 2) 4 weeks from Contract Effective
Date.
Table 2.6: CounselLink Legal Hold Services
Legal Hold Service
Guidance on custodian management ✓
Guidance on notifications ✓
Guidance on contact import processes ✓
Application configuration ✓
OnDemand training ✓
Go-Live support including user acceptance testing ✓
Onboarding for Legal Request
Onboarding for Legal Request allows corporate and/or law firm users to submit requests to the corporate
legal team through CounselLink. Onboarding for Legal Request include:
• Consulting on the configuration for your Legal Request module to match business requirements
• Testing support to ensure the module works as expected
Unless otherwise agreed upon by both Parties in writing, the obligation of LexisNexis to provide
Onboarding for Legal Request to the Customer expires the earlier of: 1) completion of the Onboarding for
Legal Request described above; or 2) 4 weeks from Contract Effective Date.
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 9
Table 2.7: CounselLink Legal Request
Legal Request Service
Guidance on form creation for legal request ✓
Guidance on workflow ✓
Application configuration ✓
Go-Live support including user acceptance testing ✓
Conversion and Integration Services To maximize each solution, customers often need to share information with systems outside of
CounselLink. Our full suite of Conversion and Integration Services facilitates that process. From
conversions to migrate data from existing systems to integrations to create and update matter data and
send invoice data for payment, LexisNexis has a broad range of services to meet your unique business
needs.
The flow below provides additional detail as to the activities and deliverables throughout the project.
The time required to complete each step varies depending on the complexity of the project. Your
dedicated consultant(s) will work with you to determine the target completion date for the project.
Table 3.1: Conversion and Integration Services
A full CounselLink onboarding follows the six-phased methodology outlined below. This structured
methodology helps us understand your specific business requirements and configure our solutions to
make your unique onboarding a success. We begin by working with you to identify critical business
requirements, goals, and constraints. This assessment produces configuration requirements, which we
then incorporate into your solution.
PLAN & DESIGN
25%
IMPLEMENT & VERIFY
50%
DEPLOY
20%
▪ Integration/ Conversion requirements - draft complete
▪ Integration/ Conversion requirements, LexisNexis development, and LexisNexis QA completed
▪ Integration/ Conversion deployed and stabilized
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 10
Essentials Matter Conversion, Essentials Invoice Integration, and Essentials Reconciliation Integration
The Essentials Matter Conversion, Essentials Invoice Integration, and Essentials Reconciliation Integration
are included in all CounselLink onboarding projects and are designed to get customers up and running
quickly and efficiently on CounselLink while reducing manual data processing. The Essentials Matter
Conversion electronically loads standard matter information into CounselLink, allowing you to start
managing your work from the first day you go live. The Essentials Invoice Integration provides nightly
transmission of standard invoice information from the CounselLink system to facilitate payment. The
Essentials Reconciliation Integration accepts nightly sharing of standard payment information from your
Accounts Payable system.
The Essentials Matter Conversion, Essentials Invoice Integration, and Essentials Reconciliation Integration
are available to all customers and are included as part of all product offerings unless a more complex
conversion or integration is purchased. These are intended for Essentials customers with basic data needs.
Some Essentials and most Advanced/Premier customers will elect to purchase one of our more robust
matter conversion and/or invoice integration offerings, as well as augmenting this package by purchasing
additional conversion/integration services as outlined in this section and in Tables 2.6 and 2.7.
Essentials Matter Conversion
The Essentials Matter Conversion is a one-time upload of standard matter information from a comma
separated value (CSV) format file. During the onboarding project, the CounselLink team helps you
understand the available data fields and the appropriate information to extract from your current matter
repository and assemble them into the CounselLink conversion format.
The Essentials Matter Conversion uploads most commonly-used active and historical matter information
including:
• Standard Matter Data
• Matter number, title, matter type, practice area
• Standard Matter Contacts
• Invoice Contact and Matter Contact
• Summary Matter Spend Information
• Historical billed fees and expenses
• Standard Matter Custom Data
• Up to 10 Individual Custom Data Fields (does not include tables or complex custom data
schemas)
• Law Firm (Vendor) Information about the Matter
• Law Firms Assigned
• Fee Agreements, Workflow, and Rule Sets for each Law Firm
• Summary Historical Fees and Expenses by Law Firm for the Matter
• Standard Financial Information
• Allocation Information
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 11
• Allocation Contacts
• Allocation Percentages
• Matter Participant Information
• Contact ID, E-Mail Address, and Role
The Essentials Matter Conversion data files can be transported securely via FTP/AS2 protocols.
With this information loaded, an Essentials CounselLink customer can start managing matters and
collaborating with Law Firms from the first day that they are live on CounselLink. The file format for the
Essentials Matter Conversion, and other conversions and integrations, is covered in the CounselLink
Conversion and Integration Specification Guide. This guide can be obtained from the CounselLink Account
Management, Professional Services Organization (PSO), or Customer Care teams. To migrate information
not included in this file format, please refer to our enhanced conversion offerings, available for an
additional fee.
Essentials Invoice Integration
The Essentials Invoice Integration is an ongoing, nightly feed of standard invoice information from a CSV
file. It is an outbound invoice integration from CounselLink which sends approved invoice information to
your Accounts Payable (AP) system for payment.
During the onboarding project, the CounselLink team will work with your organization to understand the
formats of the Invoice feed from CounselLink to your Accounts Payable system.
The Essentials Invoice Integration shares the summary invoice information most commonly needed by
CounselLink customers for supporting popular, packaged financial systems including:
• Standard Invoice Data
• Invoice ID, matter number, invoice date, invoice currency
• Payee Information
• Law Firm ID, Law Firm Office
• Payment Information
• Payment total, Fees and Expense breakdown, Allocation information
• Standard Invoice Custom Data
• Up to 10 Individual Custom Data Fields (does not include tables or complex custom data
schemas), generally includes Vendor ID
• Encrypted file transport using FTP/AS2
The Essentials Invoice Integration data files can be transported securely via FTP/AS2 protocols.
The ongoing Invoice Integration is enabled at go-live. With this integration in place, an Essentials
CounselLink customer can automate the interaction from CounselLink as your Matter Management/E-
Billing system to your corporate financial system starting the first day that you are live on CounselLink.
The file format for the Essentials Invoice Integration is available on request. To include additional
information not included in this file format, please refer to our optional Advanced or Premier Invoice
Integration offerings, available for an additional fee.
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 12
Essentials Invoice Reconciliation Integration
The Essentials Reconciliation Integration is an ongoing, nightly feed of standard payment information
from a CSV file. It is an inbound reconciliation feed into CounselLink which receives payment information
from your AP system after the payment has been generated.
During the onboarding project, the CounselLink team will work with your organization to understand the
required format for transmitting payment information to CounselLink.
The Essentials Reconciliation Integration receives the basic payment information needed by CounselLink
customers:
• Payee ID
• Invoice Date
• Amount Paid
The Essentials Reconciliation Integration data files can be transported securely via FTP/AS2 protocols.
The ongoing Reconciliation Integration is enabled at go-live and does not include the loading of historical
payments into the CounselLink system. The file format for the Essentials Reconciliation Integration is
available on request. To upload information not included in this file format, please refer to our optional
Advanced or Premier offerings, available for an additional fee.
Enhanced Matter Conversions
For customers who want to migrate matter information to CounselLink beyond the fields included in the
Essentials Matter Conversion, we offer a variety of enhanced loads to meet your individual needs.
Essentials Plus Matter Conversion provides greater flexibility for customers to migrate matter data
into CounselLink from their current matter management system. It is targeted towards Essentials
customers with moderately more complex requirements than the standard offering supports, but is
available to customers at any offering level. Additional features include:
• Support of a flexible XML or CSV format
• Support for migration of additional custom data fields
• Support of additional standard individual custom data field types
• Up to two iterations of UAT testing during a one-week testing cycle
• Ability to capture Document Attachment URLs
Advanced Matter Conversion provides maximum flexibility for customers to migrate matter data into
CounselLink from current matter management systems. The Advanced Matter Conversion is only
available to CounselLink Advanced and Premier level customers. Additional features beyond the
Essentials Plus Matter Conversion include:
• Support of complex custom data field types (tables, etc.)
• Ability to migrate Document Attachment files
• Ability to migrate Matter Notes
• Ability to migrate additional Plaintiff/Defendant data
Custom Matter Conversion – If you have specific matter conversion requirements beyond these
parameters, CounselLink consultants are available to scope, price and develop your custom matter
conversion.
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 13
Invoice Conversions
For customers who want to migrate invoice information to CounselLink for archival and reporting
purposes, we offer options to suit your individual needs. Invoice Conversions are only available to
CounselLink Advanced and Premier Legal Spend Management customers.
Essentials Invoice Conversion provides summary-level spend information for each invoice. It is
targeted towards customers who want to track spend but don’t need the charge-level detail.
Additional features include:
• Support of a CSV format
• Support for invoices with up to two charge lines – total fees and total expenses
• Support for migration of additional custom data fields at the invoice-level
• Up to two iterations of UAT testing during a two week testing cycle
Essentials Plus Invoice Conversion provides greater flexibility for customers to migrate charge-level
invoice data into CounselLink from your current legal spend management system. It is targeted
towards customers with more complex requirements. Additional features include:
• Support of a flexible XML or CSV format
• Support for charge-level detailed data (date, biller level, description, units, rate)
• Support for invoice notes and invoice-level adjustments/discounts
• Support for migration of additional custom data fields at the invoice-level
• Support for historic vendor profiles
• Up to two iterations of UAT testing during a two week testing cycle
Advanced Invoice Conversion provides maximum flexibility for customers to migrate charge-level
detail invoice data into CounselLink from current legal spend management systems. Additional
features beyond the Essentials Plus Invoice Conversion include:
• Support of a custom format
• Support for charge notes and charge-level adjustments
• Support for invoice allocation
Custom Invoice Conversion – If you have specific invoice conversion requirements beyond these
parameters, CounselLink consultants are available to scope, price and develop your custom invoice
conversion.
Data Preparation for Conversions
Data conversion services require the extraction and transformation of data from source system(s) before
loading into CounselLink. For customers who may not have the technical resources available to support
this process, we offer data preparation as a service. Customers provide the data and the CounselLink team
will handle the analysis and scripting to extract and transform the data. The CounselLink team has
expertise extracting data from a wide variety of data sources. The team works with customers to identify
data and apply business logic to transform the data in preparation for loading. Data preparation services
can be used for matter and invoice conversions.
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 14
Enhanced Invoice Integrations
For customers who want to share invoice information from and to CounselLink beyond the fields
supported in the standard Essentials Invoice Integration or Essentials Reconciliation Integration, we offer
a variety of enhanced loads to meet your individual needs.
Essentials Plus Invoice Integration provides greater flexibility for customers to send Invoice
information from CounselLink into their corporate financial system. Perfect for Essentials customers
with moderately more complex requirements than the standard offering supports, it is available to
customers at any offering level. Additional features include:
• Support of a flexible XML or CSV format
• Support of standard custom data field types
• Support of non-U.S. currency and taxes
Advanced Invoice Integration provides maximum flexibility for customers to integrate CounselLink
tightly with their corporate financial system. Additional features beyond the Essentials Plus Invoice
Integration include:
• Support of X12-810 format
• Support of complex custom data field types
• Ability to capture line item detail
• Ability to capture invoice adjustment data
• Support of customer specific data transformation logic
Invoice Image Integration generates invoice PDF’s for approved invoices. This offering includes
flexible customization to include data related to invoices – UCDF, matter data, allocation data, and
vendor data.
Custom Invoice Integration – If you have specific invoice integration requirements beyond these
parameters, the LexisNexis team is available to scope, price, and develop your Custom Invoice
Integration.
Essentials Plus Reconciliation Integration provides greater flexibility for customers to import invoice
payment information from their corporate financial system into CounselLink. The Essentials Plus
Reconciliation Integration is available to customers at any offering level. Additional features include:
• Support of a flexible XML or CSV format
• Flexible or client-defined invoice key for CounselLink invoice look-up
• Support of standard custom data field types
Additional Integrations and Conversion Services
In addition to matter conversions and invoice integrations, CounselLink can integrate with or receive
initial data loads from a host of additional operational systems. Depending on each customer’s
CounselLink product offering level (Essentials/Advanced/Premier) and offering (Legal Spend/Matter
Management), different integrations may be available. Please refer to the integration sections of Tables
2.4 and 2.5.
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 15
The integrations below are offered to further improve efficiency and streamline processes:
• Matter Integrations – matters are generally created from source systems such as IP
management, claims management systems, risk management systems, etc.
• Essentials – standard data fields, simple UCDF, and law firm/vendor assignment in a simple
file format (delimited)
• Essentials Plus – adds complex UCDF, allocation, and matter subtypes and permits XML and
customer-defined file formats
• Advanced Matter Integration – broadest offering, includes allocation contact setup, related
matters, matter documents, journal entries, and matter participants
• Service-of-Process (SOP) Matter Data Integration – this integration imports documents received
by SOP providers into CounselLink. Three offering levels:
• Essentials - documents created only (no matters created)
• Essentials Plus – document is created and associated to a matter, standard CounselLink
matter data fields are populated
• Advanced – UCDF matter data can be populated
• Single Sign-On (SSO) Integration
• Contacts/Employee Directory Integration
• General Ledger Integration – for synching of chart of accounts combinations
• Document Management Integration
• Outbound Matter Integration – sends matter data to another system
• Outbound Data Warehouse Integration
Premier customers with additional integration needs may inquire for custom scope and pricing.
Unless otherwise agreed upon by both Parties in writing, the obligation of LexisNexis to provide
Conversion and Integration Services to the Customer expires the earlier of: 1) completion of the
Conversion and Integration Services; or 2) 6 months from Contract Effective Date.
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 16
Table 3.2: CounselLink Matter Management Integration Services Comparison
Integrations Essentials Advanced Premier
Essentials Matter Conversion ✓ ✓ ✓
Essentials Plus Matter Conversion $ $ $
Advanced Matter Conversion Not Offered $ $
Data Preparation for Conversion $ $ $
Essentials Matter Integration $ $ $
Essentials Plus Matter Integration $ $ $
Advanced Matter Integration Not Offered $ $
Single Sign-On Integration (SAML 2.0) $ $ $
Contacts / Employee Directory Integration Not Offered $ $
IP Management Integration Not Offered $ $
Document Management Integration Not Offered $ $
Essentials Service of Process Integration $ $ $
Essentials Plus Service of Process Integration $ $ $
Advanced Service of Process Integration Not Offered $ $
Custom (Non-Standard) Integrations Not Offered $ $
Table 3.3: CounselLink Legal Spend Management Integration Services Comparison
Integrations Essentials Global Essentials Advanced Premier
Essentials Matter Conversion ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Essentials Plus Matter Conversion $ $ $ $
Advanced Matter Conversion Not Offered Not Offered $ $
Data Preparation for Conversions $ $ $ $
Essentials Invoice Integration ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Essentials Plus Invoice Integration Not Offered ✓ ✓ ✓
Advanced Invoice Integration $ $ $ $
Essentials Reconciliation Integration ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Essentials Plus Reconciliation Integration
$ $ $ $
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 17
Integrations Essentials Global Essentials Advanced Premier
Invoice Image Integration (PDF) $ $ $ $
Essentials Invoice Conversion Not Offered Not Offered $ $
Essentials Plus Invoice Conversion Not Offered Not Offered $ $
Advanced Invoice Conversion Not Offered Not Offered $ $
Custom Invoice Conversion Not Offered Not Offered Not Offered $
General Ledger Integration $ $ $ $
Single Sign-On Integration (SAML 2.0)
$ $ $ $
Contacts / Employee Directory Integration
Not Offered Not Offered $ $
Essentials Matter Integration $ $ $ $
Essentials Plus Matter Integration $ $ $ $
Advanced Matter Integration Not Offered Not Offered $ $
Essentials Service of Process Integration
$ $ $ $
Essentials Plus Service of Process Integration
$ $ $ $
Advanced Service of Process Integration
Not Offered Not Offered $ $
Custom (Non-Standard) Integrations Not Offered Not Offered $ $
Onboarding Training Services Our offerings range from 24/7 access to online CounselLink OnDemand Training programs, to instructor-
led, web-based, or on-site training sessions.
Onboarding Essentials and Global Essentials Training
Essentials training is focused on supporting end users during the CounselLink onboarding project.
Participants receive instructor-led, web-based training during both the implementation project and after
going live with CounselLink. Live training is delivered up to 12 weeks after the contract effective date. All
users also have unlimited and free 24/7 access to comprehensive, self-paced, OnDemand training on
Essentials functionality.
• Corporate User Training
• Essentials – Implementation Training – Up to 8 hours
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 18
• In-depth training with one implementation class for Power Users, one prep session for
User Acceptance Testers and up to three one-hour classes for end users
• Training topics include standard Matter Management and/or Legal Spend Management
features
• Live instructor-led training delivered via web
Unless otherwise agreed upon by both Parties in writing, the obligation of LexisNexis to provide Essentials
Training Services to the Customer expires the earlier of: 1) completion of the Training Services described
above; or 2) 12 weeks from Contract Effective Date
Onboarding Advanced Training
To support Advanced end users during the CounselLink onboarding project, participants receive
instructor-led, web-based training during both the implementation project and after going live with
CounselLink. Live training is delivered up to 24 weeks after the contract effective date. All users also have
unlimited and free 24/7 access to comprehensive, self-paced, OnDemand training on Advanced
functionality.
• Corporate User Training
• Advanced Implementation Training – Up to 16 hours
• In-depth training with one implementation class for Power Users, one prep session for
User Acceptance Testers and up to six one-hour classes for end users
• Training topics include standard Matter Management and/or Legal Spend Management
features
• Live instructor-led training delivered via web
Unless otherwise agreed upon by both Parties in writing, the obligation of LexisNexis to provide Advanced
Training Services to the Customer expires the earlier of: 1) completion of the Training Services described
above; or 2) 24 weeks from Contract Effective Date.
Onboarding Premier Training
To support Premier end users during the CounselLink onboarding project, participants receive instructor-
led, web-based training during both the implementation project and after going live with CounselLink.
Live training is delivered up to 36 weeks after the contract effective date. All users also have unlimited
and free 24/7 access to comprehensive, self-paced, OnDemand training on Premier functionality.
• Corporate User Training
• Premier Implementation Training – Up to 24 hours
• Project team training via web providing overview of onboarding methodology and
CounselLink features and capabilities
• In-depth training into standard Matter Management and/or Legal Spend Management
features
• Instructor-led, web-based, or on-site
• Custom Training Materials
• Custom training materials, including manuals, job aids, quick start guides, electronic
presentations and FAQs, will be delivered by LexisNexis to the client at the time of Go-Live as
per Statement of Work
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 19
• Ongoing maintenance of those materials can be delivered by the LexisNexis training team for
an additional fee and approval of a separate Statement of Work
Unless otherwise agreed upon by both Parties in writing, the obligation of LexisNexis to provide Premier
Training Services to the Customer expires the earlier of: 1) completion of the Training Services described
above; or 2) 36 weeks from Contract Effective Date.
Table 4.1: CounselLink Training Comparison
Onboarding Training Essentials Global Essentials Advanced Premier
Training
Corporate User OnDemand Training ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Law Firm User OnDemand Training ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Corporate User Instructor-Led Training
✓ Up to 8 hours ✓ Up to 8 hours ✓ Up to 8 hours ✓ Up to 8 hours
Law Firm Instructor-Led Webinar ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
On-Site Training Not Offered Not Offered $ per scoped SOW ✓
Custom Training $ per scoped SOW $ per scoped SOW $ per scoped SOW $ per scoped SOW
Custom Training Materials Not Offered Not Offered Not Offered $ per scoped SOW
Strategic Consulting Group (SCG) Services SCG offerings help customers advance operationally – to set and achieve strategic goals through
optimizing the use of CounselLink and mining the data captured within it. Projects are scoped with
customer-specific goals in mind, and delivered by highly experienced strategic consultants.
Foundational Offerings
Foundational offerings are designed to help customers optimize their use of CounselLink and the
processes that support it. Customers often benefit from foundational offerings after they have been using
CounselLink for a few years and have either had a shift in strategic departmental priorities and/or
significant staff turnover.
• Billing Guidelines Optimization
• Benefits – clarity of communication with outside counsel, standardization of matter
management, process and billing expectations, and increased savings in outside counsel
spending
• Consultants interview departmental attorneys and staff and draft guidelines based on
industry best practices and departmental input
• Frequently paired with a Rules Optimization project to ensure that guidelines are enforced
by optimal rules
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 20
• Rules Optimization
• Benefits – increased savings in outside counsel spending and improved efficiency for invoice
approvers
• Consultants perform analysis on trends in invoice adjustments and apply industry best
practices to recommend additional rules, modifications to rules, and/or removal of rules
• Projects often point to areas of need for re-training and/or process changes
• Health Check
• Benefits – roadmap prioritizes initiatives that will optimize legal department maturity
• Health Checks usually occur after a legal department has used CounselLink at least 2 years
• Consultants meet on site with departmental stakeholders for 1-2 days and review current
feature usage to recommend initiatives to consider in multiple areas including:
• Capturing meaningful data for analytics
• Process improvements
• Managing outside counsel spending
• Feature usage
• Quick Hits for Operations
• Benefits – new operational staff quickly understands the nuances of their CounselLink
configuration and receives recommendations for deeper training opportunities and potential
configuration changes
• The Configuration Reboot is intended for legal departments that have had significant staff
turnover, have lost internal knowledge related to the initial implementation of CounselLink,
and/or have some specific pain points to be addressed
• Consultants spend half-day with customer to review CounselLink configuration, address
known pain points, and conduct training that addresses pain points. Suggestions to address
additional needs beyond the half-day scope are communicated to customer
• Reporting Roadmap
• Benefits – improved transparency of information by knowing which standard or custom
reports will address legal department needs
• Consultants review current reports in use (both CounselLink and others) by operational
managers, interview stakeholders regarding data and reporting needs, and provide
recommendation for CounselLink reports that will meet needs, as well as a recommended
timeline to develop and/or start utilizing each report
• Recommendations may include custom report or dashboard development
Operational Offerings
Operational offerings are designed to help customers move beyond the fundamentals and begin to
rigorously take advantage of more advanced features as well as data captured in CounselLink. Legal
departments benefit from operational offerings by having a greater ability to showcase the value they
bring to the organization and by having substantially higher returns on investment from CounselLink.
• Budget Implementation Program
• Benefits – outside counsel spending management, improved communication with outside
counsel
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 21
• Consultants design and administer a pilot program for collecting matter budgets. Includes
documentation of design of budget process, templates, and reports
• Following the pilot, legal departments typically roll out the budget program with remaining
practice areas/law firms independently
• Analytics Fundamentals
• Benefits – legal department staff learns how to use CounselLink Reporting to analyze data
and succinctly answer key business questions, both routinely and on an ad hoc basis
• Consultants spend a day on site with operational staff responsible for analysis to conduct
hands-on training of the CounselLink analytic framework – an approach to respond to
business questions or delve into trends by delving into the underlying drivers of operational
results
• Legal department individuals participating in this offering must be highly proficient with
CounselLink reporting. This offering is not reporting training (refer to training offerings)
• Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Advisement
• Benefits – improved transparency of information and tracking against departmental strategy
• Consultants interview General Counsel and other stakeholders to understand departmental
strategy and recommend metrics that measure achievement of strategy and influencers of
strategy
• KPI Advisement projects are often paired with a Dashboard Advisement project
• Dashboard/Custom Report Advisement
• Benefits – improved transparency of information and tracking against departmental strategy
• Consultants recommend optimal visual presentation of KPIs or other data of interest to
departmental leadership. Approved report mock-ups are created and deployed in
CounselLink Reporting by a report developer
• Rate Analysis
• Benefits – identification of opportunities for management/reduction of outside counsel
spending
• Consultants meet with departmental management to understand pricing strategy and
conduct a deep three-year trend analysis of rates billed by firm, timekeeper, matter type,
etc., to identify outliers and opportunities for rate negotiation
• Rate Analysis projects are often paired with Custom Benchmarking projects
• Custom Benchmarking
• Benefits – benchmark data provides a more complete set of information for decision making
regarding outside counsel spending management
• Consultants mine CounselLink data for comparable information based on customer-specific
criteria. Criteria may include specific types of legal work, groupings of specific law firms, etc.
• Information provided as a result of Custom Benchmarking projects is entirely anonymous.
No law firm names, timekeeper information, matter names, etc., are shared
COUNSELLINK ONBOARDING AND SERVICES GUIDE | 22
Strategic Offerings
Strategic offerings are designed to assist legal departments in implementing specific strategic initiatives.
Such initiatives require expertise in change management, process development, and the use of data to
guide decision making as well as measure results.
• Vendor Management Programs
• Benefits – improved communication with law firms regarding expectations, improved
outcomes, outside counsel spending management
• Consultants interview department stakeholders to understand characteristics of valued law
firms and recommend key metrics for a law firm scorecard, a process for using the
information on the scorecard and sharing information with law firms
• Vendor Management Programs can also incorporate an RFP process to select a law firm
panel
• Pricing Strategy
• Benefits – outside counsel cost savings and predictability
• Consultants categorize the matters of the legal department based on complexity, strategic
value, and relative volume. Categories determine whether work merits premium or
commoditized pricing levels. Specific recommendations are delivered by matter category
• Pricing Strategy projects are often paired with Alternative Fee Advisement projects
• Alternative Fee Advisement & Fee Structure Optimization
• Benefits – cost savings and predictability
• Consultants interview practice area leaders to assess interest in and goals for using
alternative pricing Historic matter data is analyzed for patterns and key law firms
interviewed. Specific AFAs and pricing are recommended by matter type/portfolio
• Consultants ensure that an appropriate CounselLink fee structure is set up for each AFA
offered and that corporate and law firm users understand their application and
administration
• Diversity Program
• Benefits – ability to demonstrate legal department support of corporate diversity vision,
improved communication with law firms
• Consultants work with legal department leaders to understand diversity goals and help
communicate expectations to law firms
• Custom data fields are set up as needed and reports are created to assess diversity by firm
and to share information with law firms as appropriate
See how CounselLink Analytics can help you gain insight into your legal matters.
LexisNexis and the Knowledge Burst logo are registered trademarks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under license. CounselLink is
a registered trademark of LexisNexis, Inc. Other products or services may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
companies. © 2017 LexisNexis. All rights reserved.
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