Special focus: Business-centric computing: new tools for a new age

By Stuart Holden, managing director, Axxia Systems

Ten years ago, firms were an age away from matter-centric computing. They were focused on the more mundane concerns of recording fee-earner time, getting out bills and collecting cash. But with the growth of case and latterly matter-management systems and the drive towards electronic files, there has been a general acceptance of the matter as that off which everything else hangs. But as we move inexorably towards a new commercial era, the limitations of such an approach are becoming increasingly clear. The main problem is that managing matters is just a facet of the modern legal business: managing that business calls for active control of all entities, both legal and non-legal. It can’t just be about files any more, however cleverly they are assembled, distributed and stored through their lifecycle; technology systems need to guide and govern ‘through the line’ so to speak, connecting all departments and business units from finance to HR; they need to provide a controlling mechanism for all functions of a law firm, from legal file management to HR induction schemes, from business intelligence reporting to marketing campaigns, from fee-earner performance monitoring to cheque requisitions. In other words, they need to be business-centric.

To complicate matters a bit further, lawyers are now working in a climate where it is not so much what you do, but the way that you do it. We have imperceptibly moved from the ‘information age’ to the ‘process era’ where legislative change, commercial imperatives and customer dictates are driving law firms to do things in a certain way or in a given timeframe. Whether it’s to comply or to impress, to meet standards or to remain competitive, a commitment to process is a sine qua non for today’s practice. Without it, you risk sinking in a quagmire of risk and regulation, insatiable client demand, management inefficiency and business disconnection. Moreover such is the pace of change that you need to be able to react sufficiently quickly to keep pace with it – organisations need to be agile and proactive, not laboured and monolithic. Of course, such a management sea change is very much easier said than done. Many of today’s specialist legal applications are still geared to the matter, not the business, and therein lies a huge challenge for those at the top. As regards deploying next generation, business-centric systems, ‘where do we go from here?’

As the UK’s largest independent legal IT supplier, Axxia could have been expected to anticipate this question – it did just that three years ago and has spent the intervening time in developing a solution. Earlier this year, the company launched Axxia dna*, the first business management system written specifically for law firms. Axxia’s managing director, Stuart Holden, explains how dna* is moving the world on from matter-centric to business-centric computing: “First of all, one needs to take a good look at what dna* actually represents. For us it’s a business-centric application that brings together three key disciplines for the law firm, moulded together in one seamless whole:

Practice management – Time recording, enquiries, billing, reporting, KPIs;
Business process management – Case and matter management, transaction management, entity management, file management, document management, email management, CRM, HR, KM;
Enterprise resource planning – Workload monitoring, capacity planning, impact assessments, operational/financial modelling.

“It’s certainly not a rehashed PMS, nor a ‘modular’ anything but one unified application suitable for any practice, whose web-based interface links everyone to everyone else and to everything they need – files, emails, correspondence, accounts, KPIs, reports, precedents, transactional tools, time recording, bills, contacts, marketing plans, induction procedures, in fact every conceivable component, legal and non-legal, to which users need access – all from a single window. It scales effortlessly from five to 500 to 5,000 and offers up unprecedented levels of command-and-control over all business processes and activities. The matter or file is a single facet of all of this – it’s undeniably one of the most important, but it is still just one aspect.

“In answering the ‘where do we go from here’ question, we realised that we actually wanted to redefine practice management – a term that had always been a bit of a misnomer given it was really used in relation to accounts systems. To help firms cope with all the pressures brought about by compliance and regulatory change, by the need to adhere to standards and client protocols, by the ongoing drive for yet greater efficiencies and by the increasing need for more strategic planning and proactive business management, we thought we would expand practice management into just that – a system for business management. Hence, the resultant fusion of traditional PMS elements, BPM/workflow and enterprise resource planning (ERP).”

Applications on this scale obviously offer a functionally-rich environment in which to operate. One of the key criteria for the development team was that this functionality would be readily accessible - its new business-centric tool had to be equally user-oriented.

Stuart Holden continues: “We realised that there were many systems out there providing a degree of benefit in terms of risk management, fee earner management, legislative compliance, etc., but these were gains for the firm and not necessarily the individual fee-earner or member of staff. We knew that for all the cleverness and complexity we were building into dna*, its proper utilisation – and ultimate success – would largely be determined by its appeal to the user. The “what’s in it for me/does it help me in my job/do I really have to work with this software” problem often compromises the success of any IT deployment – so we were absolutely determined to create an environment that was sympathetic to the way staff worked and that effortlessly supported them in everything they did. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that we created something sexy, but we did want users to feel completely at home with the tools they were using.

“We opted for a single window on the world, a user-defined portal that is basically a digital version of the user’s desktop. There are all the distinct piles brought together in one handy place: to-do lists, emails, timesheets, draft bills, diary, reports, files, et al. There they are on screen, all configurable, all with drill down capability at the click of a mouse.”

With dna* a lawyer can now tackle his workload as the logical process dictates and the software will track him through the sequence quite seamlessly, staying in the same window for the duration.

For example, a fee-earner starts work by assessing his ‘to-do list’, which generates a phone call, which leads to a letter, which triggers the drafting of a WIP bill, which alerts him to a still outstanding account, which stimulates whatever response the firm has proscribed. The next item on the list requires the setting up of a new client, which leads to conflict and money laundering checks, the preparation of a client care letter and CRM details added into the database. The next item is to deal with an incoming mail that then necessitates a cheque requisition. Wherever the lawyer needs or wants to go, he goes, not working up and down within multiple product silos but guided via defined workflows through and across one system, with every action automatically prompting the appropriate tool, function or document.”

And the managing partner? What does he get out of it? “A great deal more than previously: an unprecedented level of command over planning, performance and people, with his staff enjoying the same when it comes to workloads, knowledge and targets. With command also comes control: of standards; of risk; of costs; of expectations. dna* sits on every desktop, from the receptionist to the senior partner, allowing a firm to connect as never before, improving access to information, access to clients and access to each other. And with the ability to connect comes the facility to collaborate, to share knowledge, exploit resources and enable cross-team working. Most managing partners recognise that one of their main challenges is to tame the complexity that comes of having multiple businesses within a business. With dna* comes order, cohesion and leverage.”

That matters have given way to process would seem to be evidenced by the rolling BPM bandwagon. Where Axxia led, others are following, with both best-of-breed generalists moving down into the legal space and traditional PMS vendors trumpeting the virtues of workflow. But Stuart Holden is convinced dna* will set the pace in the age of business-centric computing.

“It’s the points of difference that will continue to give us an edge. First, dna* is a unified system – it achieves in one, web-based application what it usually takes multiple applications to deliver. That means substantial time and cost savings when you consider the extra investment, integration, training and maintenance requirements of a multi-layered solution.

“Second, dna* passes control back to the user. The highly intuitive Workflow Designer tool gives firms the ability to quickly and easily map every business process – legal and non-legal – into a workflow that can then be placed on the system immediately. New workflows or amendments to existing ones are no longer the preserve of the supplier or the IT department – dna* offers a programming-free environment accessible to all. As long as you can identify the step-by-step sequence of events or conditions in any given process, you can create a workflow – however awkward or complex the decision tree. That is hugely significant because, in an operating arena where responsiveness and agility are key, this tool allows you to do exactly what you need to do when you need to do it. Gone is the reliance on a third party.

Third, and vital for our existing users, we offer a measured upgrade path from our existing system. We are not forcing a ‘rip and replace’ scenario on them and are therefore taking care to safeguard operations, minimise disruption and protect the not insignificant investment in technology, training, process re-engineering and change management that our clients have made over the years. Today it’s the business that matters – and applications need to recognise that matters have moved on.”