It used to be the case that lawyers had close to free rein to complete their work as they wanted, or at least without direction, oversight, or too much concern about the budget, time spent, where resources were going or being spent, or how high the bill got. As long as the lawyer could deliver results for clients, the attorney could submit a non-itemized bill “for services rendered,” and even if the lawyer didn’t deliver great results, the client did not have all that much recourse as finding an attorney was mostly an inefficient word-of-mouth process.
Law Firms and Solos Can’t Ignore Project Management
These days, things have changed, and they are only going to continue to change. Clients – whether they be multinational corporations or individuals – demand value from attorneys and now have the visibility capabilities, sophistication, and competitive advantage to make attorneys play by their rules, or else those attorneys are passed over for some other attorney that can more efficiently deliver solid results at a better value. As a result, law firms and attorneys are increasingly bringing in the project management tools and approaches that other industries have used for years to maximize efficiency and keep legal projects under budget if they want to stay profitable while attracting new and repeat business.
The Hard Way to Incorporate Project Management
Of course, you can always go out and hire expensive consultants and personnel to come in and provide project management services. No doubt, you may even find that bringing in new people does improve project management capabilities. However, this involves not only great expense, but also great upheaval in an office as new people are looking over attorney’s shoulders and complicating procedures.
The Easy Way to Incorporate Project Management
The good news is that incorporating project management is as easy as unlocking the features that are already available through TimeSolv’s legal billing software application. With TimeSolv, you can enable project management features which automatically track budgetary and task-related issues as they relate to individual timekeepers.
TimeSolv lets a managing attorney or administrator assign particular tasks to attorneys and support staff with individualized codes, so that you can constantly keep track of progress at both the individual, team, and firm-wide level on matters. Budgets can be assigned and assessed based on individual tasks, matters, and timekeepers. Reports to track project management goals can be run at any time (and without having to look over your coworker’s shoulders) to manage the task-related and budgetary issues accordingly.
By incorporating the ability to manage legal projects easily and effectively (and from any laptop, tablet, or smartphone), you can reduce the number of hours spent on inefficient tasks and issues and understand where you are getting the most value from your team and resources so that you can pass on that value to your clients and win repeat business and referrals.
Get a Free 30-Day Trial of TimeSolv’s Project Management Capabilities
We know incorporating change often requires a leap of faith, but at TimeSolv we make it easy by offering you a free 30-day trial to check out not only our project management features, but all of our billing, invoicing, and reporting capabilities. One on one training is included in your free trial. Click here for more information on our project management capabilities.