| Orion Law
Management Systems Case Study |
| Orion Law Management Systems |
| Version 4.3 Customer Solution |
| Orion is what integrated software is meant to be |
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Web site: www.skoler-abbott.com Customer size: Seven partners, one associate, one Location: Customer Profile For over 40 years,
Skoler, Abbott & Presser has exclusively practiced labor and employment
law, representing the interests of management and employers. A boutique firm, Skoler, Abbott &
Presser has a main office in Springfield, MA and two satellite offices—one in
Worcester, Massachusetts and an additional office in Meriden, Connecticut. The firm currently consists of seven
partners, one associate, one office manager and one bookkeeper. Software and Services · Orion Financial Management - Time Management - Law Office Accounting - eBilling - Cost Recovery · Orion Firm Management - Conflicts of Interest - Marketing - Orion Reporting System - Event Driven Alerts · Orion Practice Management - Contact Management - E-mail Management - Document Assembly - Document Management - Case Management - Calendar/Docket Management - Client Intake Management Technology · Orion for Microsoft Windows Server · Pervasive.SQL Database Server |
From Dissonance to Consonance: |
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Business Problem In 2010, the
firm’s desire for integrated software coincided with an unavoidable and
costly upgrade to their current software.
They were using older versions of various software from the year 2005
and were essentially being forced to upgrade to a 2010 version, the cost of
which really brought to the fore how they could improve our financial and
practice management through an integrated software solution. Licenses were also maxing out before the
firm was able to have access to the software and, therefore, the information
they needed. This technology situation
was a firm-wide a, knowledge-sharing problem, as well as a financial one. It takes a great
deal of time to make decisions about technology, especially for a firm this
size, considering the financial investment it entails to choose a new
software product. The firm wanted to
make sure all of its employees would be on board with the ultimate decision
and that the new software product would, indeed, improve their financial and
practice management. |
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Jamie Martin |
Solution As the
search began for the right software, Skoler, Abbott & Presser decided to
leverage their connections in the greater legal community to find out what
the best products were. The firm is a
Worklaw® Network affiliate - a nationwide
network of management labor and employment law firms (www.worklaw.com) as well
as a founding firm. This national
network consists of firms of a variety of sizes and experience, and so they began
their search for a new software product by reaching out to other firms in
this community. They received a
variety of feedback and suggestions, including West’s ProLaw, LexisNexis’
Time Matters, and Orion SFE (Small Firm Edition). Orion (www.orionlaw.com) stood out for the firm
initially because they don’t outsource payroll—they handle it entirely
in-house. Orion offered a payroll
package, and that was very appealing to the firm. Also, Orion’s Small Firm Edition (SFE) had
recently been released and its pricing was within the firm’s reach. Orion’s SFE provides the same powerful
software as the main system, which is built for firms larger than Skoler,
Abbott & Presser, but the pricing is affordable for smaller firms. The
firm made a decision to schedule a demonstration of Orion. The fact that an
Orion staff member was demonstrating software on the firm’s employee desktops
while speaking with them on the phone was very helpful. It
didn’t take long before the firm’s office manager and all the partners wanted
to take a look. The
decision came unanimously to purchase Orion SFE in early 2008. First, the firm waited a few months before
installation so they could close the books on their previous fiscal
year. In October of 2008, the Orion
support staff came in for training and implemented a step-installation over a
6 month period, adding each aspect in the order the firm desired. The firm started with the installation of
Orion’s financial system, then the file systems, then email. The installation of the financial system
was the most complex; yet, Orion got it up and running in a quick two
weeks. When the time came for the
email install, it was able to be done by phone. The installation was smooth in all cases,
and the firm was pleased with how the Orion staff worked with them. |
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Jamie Martin Bookkeeper |
When
Orion was installed, the firm had to upgrade their server, which they were
due for anyway. They also purchased
some additional training and implementation services and custom report/screen
designs that increased the price somewhat.
Orion SFE is defined by the number of Timekeepers (those that bill for
their time) and is priced around $1500 per Timekeeper. For the firm’s initial proposal, excluding
optional software and services, the cost ran $23,450.00, roughly $1564.00
total for 15 Timekeepers.
Orion
completed a customization to help the firm further track data. They developed two tabs (combination of
custom tables and fields setup to display within a “tab” type view) to track
both general case information (e.g. Plaintiff, Defendant, Type of Matter, the
Nature of the Case, Date of Filing, Alleged Employment Violation Date,
Docket/Case Number and other various EEOC information) as well as case status
info (e.g. Filing Status, Discovery Order, Type of Trial and
Court/Jury/Settlement Information). This information, coupled with a
list of key related contacts, a list of key case documents and docket dates
is then assembled into one of two custom reports developed for the
firm. Since these reports collect data from one source – Orion - the
process takes seconds vs. hours spent collecting the data manually. In
addition to the time-saving aspect, virtually anyone at the firm has access
to both the information and the reports without having to ask for the report
or wait until it is compiled manually. |
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Jamie Martin
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In addition to these “tabs” for the firm’s
practice, Orion also implemented a more streamlined approach for Skoler’s
marketing efforts. As with the employment law practice tabs, Orion also
created custom tabs (again, a series of custom tables, fields and tab type
view) to track the source of referral (i.e. where did they hear about the firm),
what industries relate to their clients and prospective clients, the types of
mailings (i.e. holiday cards, firm announcements, etc.) and/or alerts (i.e.
change in law that may affect them) that may interest various firm
related contacts (performed by exporting data from Orion directly to
Constant Contact or any merge form such as a mailing label or letter) as well
as the seminars that they wish to be invited to (and which they actually
attended for historic purposes). Queries and Reports too were written that
allow the firm to analyze these contacts. Lastly, Orion also created various “standard”
firm documents (merge forms) using Orion’s “Document Library”. These
vary from a separate letterhead that merges information from a contact and
related case to simple things like a fax coversheet, envelope and various
mailing labels. Not only does each merge data from Orion into a Word or
WordPerfect document, each is profiled into Orion’s document management
system while allowing each timekeeper the ability to track and record their
time related to producing the document. The
Orion Difference Orion
SFE has changed how the firm does everything. Every matter is now
integrated: every email, every
document, note and journal entry is linked to each case and accessible from
anywhere at anytime. This makes a huge
difference in the firm’s practice management.
It helps attorneys access their files when they are unable to come
into the office, and facilitates teamwork between attorneys and improved
services to the firm’s clients. If a
client urgently needs information regarding a case but is unable to reach a
particular attorney, another lawyer can easily access complete, updated
information about the client in Orion to be of assistance. Everybody wins. Orion has
also made a huge difference in the firm’s financial management. The integration features of Orion are
incredible for time entry. An attorney
can now take a phone call, make a journal entry, and bill all at the same time. This translates into more accurate billing
because the attorneys are entering the necessary information faster and more
efficiently in real time. |
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Tell Us Your Story To learn more
about Orion’s http://orionlaw.com/contact.htm . For additional information visit
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Orion
improves small issues such as check requests by instantly telling the firm
who needs how much, what account to charge to, and when. They are also seeing a faster response time
in the manner in which they open files and provide the information everyone
needs. One specific example including Skoler,
Abbott & Presser and how they deal with a lot of insurance companies who
have extremely strict guidelines in their billing procedures, and sometimes
the approvals from these companies come on a quarterly basis—that’s a long
time for fees to be sitting out there, especially if the approval is not
given on the basis of some kind of inaccuracy or missed protocol. Orion has completely streamlined this process. The firm now does not have to go back and
redo the invoices because there has been an erroneous over-billing or the
time entries or codes have been entered incorrectly. Orion
SFE has made a major difference in the firm’s financial and practice management. All of their files are now integrated which
is something we wanted for a long time.
This has improved communications between attorneys as well as with
their clients. Matter tracking is easier. The savings are everywhere. There has been noticeable shrinkage in
paper and supplies use because everything is electronic. Less paper and supply usage means reduced
expenses, plus a definite green benefit as well. This
beneficial trend will only continue.
Attorneys are increasingly mobile and increasingly need electronic
access to their files. Orion can
synchronize contact, task and calendar information to connect to Outlook on
their smartphones—and the firm is looking into that for themselves for future
implementation. Even the courts are
beginning to want attorneys to file electronically. And it’s all there with Orion. Skoler,
Abbott & Presser just finished their second fiscal year with Orion SFE
financial management systems and are about a year and a half through their
practice management implementation.
Orion SFE has improved the billing performance of each individual
attorney in the firm as well as teamwork firm-wide, not to mention their
client communications. Bookkeeper for
Skoler, Abbott & Presser, Jamie Martin, is delighted with the streamlined
accuracy and efficiency of the integrated financial management system. They are also very happy with more billable
hours and more dollars coming to the firm.
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