5 Signs You Should Break Up With Your Current Legal Management Software

We’ve all reached a point in our lives, be it in the workplace or in a relationship, where we know something needs to change. The love’s no longer there, a partner – or software – no longer meets your needs or your current approach to solving issues is simply outdated and inefficient. The same is true with legal management software.

Whatever the case may be, it’s important to occasionally review your business needs to make sure your legal management choice delivers the most updated, efficient and cost-effective approach to solving your legal operations problems.

Here’s five signs it might be time to “break up” with your current matter management strategy:

1 – You’re not able to easily pull the reports leadership needs from your department.

Let’s face it. It’s your data, you should be able to access it. With just a few clicks, you should be able to report on the crossover between legal matters and spend management from both your e-Billing and legal management systems. That way you gain actionable insights to determine which outside counsel provides your business with the best value.

You should be able to easily determine the tradeoff you’re willing to make by comparing the costs of timekeeping versus the actual results and outcomes of your preferred law firms. Translating these results into easy-to-digest reports for management will help create value for your legal department.

2 – You’re struggling to convince your attorneys to use your current system.

User adoption can create big problems. After all, a system can’t work properly if nobody uses it and your staff should be excited about the new technology tools at their disposal. If this is the case, ask yourself a few questions:

• Is this a design issue? Are the screens not customizable enough to meet your individual team member’s needs?
• Is the problem with integration? Does your legal management platform not integrate well with the other programs and softwares your team members absolutely rely on? Are there too many steps from point A to point B?

“People don’t want to type something into their e-Billing system, then type it into their document management system, then type it into their summary notes for the week. Choose a software solution that makes sure employees don’t have to rekey the same information over again,” now Mitratech resident expert, Brian McGovern says. 

A true software solution for legal management should allow your users to design their screen, without extra coding, to fit their needs and easily connect with your preferred document management systems from within a single platform.

3 – Your department added a new group in legal and your current system doesn’t support their needs.  

This can often happen in a shifting market where companies are constantly acquiring (and being acquired by) new companies. As your company grows and changes, the legal department will inevitably grow and change with it. You need a legal management solution that is flexible and diverse enough to support that change.

For instance, maybe your legal department used to focus almost exclusively on litigation. With the new addition however, perhaps you need a solution that can handle multiple different types of legal matters. Maybe now your new group is tasked with handling employee incidents, compliance, real estate issues, workman’s compensation – all new items that are definitely not litigation focused.

In this case, you need a solution that can handle all types of enterprise legal matters. Sure, you can keep tacking on new vendors with new software on top of your current vendor and software. But what if you could find a single provider with a single solution for all your growing pains?

4 – You expanded overseas and your current system doesn’t handle international requirements.

As technology brings the globe – and global markets – closer and closer together, it’s imperative that your legal management solution do the same for your international legal department. After all, if a global implementation of your current software fails, that could have widespread (not to mention expensive) repercussions for your business.

A true software solution for global markets should have a track record of successful global implementations. It should also automatically include the native languages, currencies and tax structures of your new markets wherever in the world they may be.  

5 – Leadership perceives your legal department as reactive and non-strategic and thinks your system is behind the times.

The right legal technology can help build and manage your business processes, increase collaboration across the corporation and provide insights into your practices and results so you can make decisions based off the available data. A valuable solution can also help increase process consistency. These benefits directly impact legal’s ability to drive value across the entire organization by increasing efficiency, decreasing costs and ultimately benefiting a company’s ROI and bottom line.

Imagine what your legal department could achieve if you could become the drivers of true value and innovation for your entire organization.  

Not sure if your current software provides the solution you need? Take the Quiz to see how your current legal management software stacks up against the solutions used by your competitors. 

Ready to break up with your current software provider? Connect with us today to find out how our solutions could fit your needs.