peter scott / andrew simmans the winning firm alliance

Peter Scott / Andrew SimmansThe Winning Firm Alliance

Projects Finding and implementing great benefits

Measure what matters Measures are there to help you focus on

what you need to do. Training / Support to Raise Productivity

Without people technology does nothing!

Good Competitive Advantage “Have to” - essential to operate as a business Productivity / Cost Saving

Bad System failed to deliver – discontinued System there but not really being taken

advantage of Indifferent

Don’t know if it is helping!

Digital Dictation

Voice Recognition

Case Management

Knowledge ManagementElectronic Archiving

Document Management

Microsoft Office

Photocopy / Printer Usage tracking HR Systems

Management InformationIntranets

External Internet ServicesExtranet

Time Recording

Accounts / PMS

Money Laundering

Discovery Systems

Email Management

Intelligent Searching

Workflow / Authorisation

Secure email

Social Networking

Web based services

Blogs

System Integration

Technology without people does nothing

Law firms are people businesses PEOPLE use technology Are the people getting the most benefit

out of it?

Provide better service Improve productivity Build competitive advantage Build Profitability

Client service delivery Financial management Business development Knowledge management Risk management Compliance Others?

Do you know how much you spend each year on IT?

If so - are you getting financial value from your spend?

If not – then why not?

It is just another tool to be used by you in your business to help you make profit

Is it doing so? Do you analyse the cost / benefits of

the IT you use? Could you use it better?

• What hurdles have you found to date stopping you implementing / using existing technology to gain optimum efficiency (and thus profitability) for your firm?

Partners / staff not willing to change

Package / System does not do what you expected

Not seen the expected benefits

Cost too much / taking too long

No-one using system

Don’t know what could be done with system

System is unreliable / fails to run quickly / has errors

System makes business process worse not better!

Unrealistic expectations of what Partners / Staff could do

System is “far too complicated”

Project “feels” stuck or going wrong.

System is “taking over” – takes longer to maintain the system than provide the service!

• Known Frustrations / Shortcomings

• Find new “Quick Win” opportunities?

Data being manually copied from one area to another

Same data keyed in time and time again

Providing information so that people can work better / smarter

Reviewing all the facilities in your existing systems – explore unused menus!

Staff experiences from other firms

Exhibitions – look at competitor products to your suppliers – stimulate ideas about how to use existing product.

Exhibitions – what features of your existing product does the supplier emphasise to new prospects – are you using those features?

Wasted Admin time – is the result worth the effort?

Analyse time recording / ask some staff to keep a record of how they spend their time.

Marketing – find opportunities from existing client base

Analyse / Understand your client base.

Keep focus on Business Objectives Go for 80% benefit for 20% effort Think about how to do it before you

start Have a plan Monitor / Revise

Peter Scott / Andrew SimmansThe Winning Firm Alliance

Keep it simple

To provide clear information to those running the business to enable them to:

Monitor what is happening in the business Project what is likely to happen in the

business Make decisions as to what needs to be

done

Why do we produce this information? Does it tell us what we need to know

about our business? Do we ever use this information? If not then why do we produce it? What information do we not produce,

the absence of which is preventing us from effectively driving financial performance?

How can we measure the financial performance of each part of our firm?

How profitable / loss making are our clients?

Which parts of our firm generate good cash flow / soak up cash?

What do you measure and why?

Input v Target Aged WIP v Target Billings v Target Aged Debtors Aged Lock Up Realisation % Utilisation %

Frequency of measurement

Trends for all of these

Client Satisfaction New work won Sell on in existing Clients New Clients New Opportunities Staff Satisfaction

Is IT helping or hindering your financial measurement and reporting?

What are you using / what have you found effective?

Excel – a quick win Can read the PMS direct! Pivot tables / Pivot graphs very powerful With Intranet and Macros provide quick /

simple reports

Sophisticated Packages Are they value for money?

Excel Real time reading of data Overnight refresh Manual update / adjustment Manual entry and reports

Andrew Simmans / Peter ScottThe Winning Firm Alliance

How to use the computer systemPLUS!

Helping people work effectively Spreading “Best Practice” Encouraging “Standards” Getting feedback / ideas

Department Heads Partners Fee Earners Secretaries Accounts Marketing HR

How to do it Why we are doing it What are others doing that could benefit

you Desk side support IT error fixing

Feedback of ideas / issues !

Born in 80s and 90s Now coming into Workplace Computers are natural Expect

Social Networking Newsgroups Blogs Wikkis

Born post War Will retire in next 10 years Computers are learnt (or SEP) Expect:

Computers at work are for work What is Facebook anyhow?

Take Training / Support seriously Think about who does the training

Super users Central Specialist (IT / Business) External Trainers

Think about who needs training Generation Y – quick to learn but need to

emphasise risks / controls Baby boomers – take it more slowly

Think about how Floor walk (strongly recommend) 1 to 1 Desk side groups Short 1 hour briefing sessions Full Training Sessions External Courses On-line Books

Record who attends course Chase up / enforce attendance

Get ideas fed back to centre New Starters

Can “correct” bad habits in existing staff Ongoing review / feedback