Can a practice management developer and supplier truly be the master of all the functionality a legal firm needs, from a core Business Process Management (BPM) solution through case, document and client relationship management and more? Axxia Managing Director Stuart Holden believes that – at last – the answer is “yes”.

Picture the scenario. A fee-earner sits down at her desk at the beginning of the working day. She has a number of tasks to achieve during the first half of the morning, before a major client meeting at 11 o’clock.  

She logs on and accesses her To Do list. It’s long, and she doesn’t have much time. But she’s confident she can achieve all the most immediate tasks, because she has complete confidence in the new web-based, unified legal application that her firm has recently installed.

First, a phone call, activating her time recording with one click she carries out the call and is ready for the resulting actions, the generation of a letter. On completion the system automatically produces a skeleton letter ensuring minimum input is required, letter complete, the clock is stopped. This in turn triggers the drafting of a bill, which she signs off with confidence assured it will be accurate and correct. She is alerted to an outstanding account, and immediately takes the action her firm stipulates. Task completed.

Next, she has to set up a new client on the system. Due to the workflow capabilities her involvement in all tasks and procedures are predefined only requiring her input on specific areas thus minimising time spent on actions outside her role, benefiting both the fee earner and her clients. Immediately, she’s prompted to put in conflict and money-laundering checks, to prepare a welcome letter and to add all CRM details of the database. Task completed.

Next, she turns to an item of incoming post, which leads to a cheque requisition. Task completed.

She completes another five tasks just as quickly and easily and even has time for a coffee and a scan of the agenda before her meeting starts.

In none of these tasks has she had to move between one ‘siloed’ area and another. Rather, she has been guided through and across a single, integrated system with all the legal-specific, administrative, accounting, reporting and other functionality she needs to do her job – swiftly, efficiently and effectively.

Quite simply, she can do this because her firm has questioned the benefit of following the in vogue ‘best of breed’ approach to IT, where buyers select software from different vendors to ensure that they can gain from specialist expertise in every area.

After due research and consideration, her firm chose another route – that of buying a complete solution designed specifically for the legal profession.  

It’s an approach that increasing numbers of firms are choosing, chiefly because of the streamlined workflows it enables to deliver better control over regulatory and compliance factors across file and non-file related issues. These firms are also discovering that it provides a host of efficiency, training and admin cost savings, as well as reduced user intervention through process automation.  

I for one am delighted, because at Axxia, after more than three years’ dedicated research that has swallowed some 15% of our annual revenues, we have recently introduced DNA, a complete, unified legal application. Today, the market response is plainly showing that we’ve moved legal computing to a new level.

Our approach has been to create a new solution around a legal Business Process Management (BPM) platform, on which sit applications such as customer relationship, document, case and financial management and more. In this way, DNA provides a complete business view with no need for the management and support of third party products (although, of course, it can integrate with third party applications).

Unlike the best of breed approach, ensuring smooth, efficient workflow to tame the complexity of the modern law firm is DNA’s primary aim. This is achieved through the Workflow Modelling Studio, a process management engine that enables a firm to design, deploy and adapt workflows to govern every aspect of their operation, both legal and non-legal.

The benefits have been described very well by Patrick Gaul, managing partner of top-75 firm Weightmans, who are shortly to roll DNA out to all their 750 staff. As he says, “The beauty of DNA is in its entity structure and workflow modelling tool which gives us in-house control over the design and deployment of even highly complex workflows which means we can be responsive to changes affecting the business and gain a competitive edge.”

He goes on, “That’s in addition to all the inherent advantages of BPM – consistent standards, production efficiencies, cost-reduction, enhanced risk management and performance monitoring. We are excited by this enabling technology and we intend to maximise our investment in it.”

Minter Ellison, part of the Asia Pacific region’s largest law firm, has also selected DNA to underpin its future business strategy and customer service offerings. Following two weeks’ of intensive lab-testing, the firm’s director of innovation, Ian Thomson, could see how it could help improve service levels. As he said, “DNA will allow us to offer a collaborative communication service, successfully delivering an improved service to clients while being cost-effective and differentiating us from our competitors.”

Of course, we are not alone in challenging the best-of-breed supremacy. Across the generic business landscape, Microsoft’s Sharepoint is leading a groundswell of opinion among forward-thinking IT professionals.  

But at Axxia, we are showing how a complete solution built from the ground up to meet the specific needs of the legal profession is delivering the tangible efficiency, service and cost benefits that provide genuine competitive advantage.