Tensions between attorneys and professional staff, the divide between partners and associates… life at a law firm often feels like tug-of-war. When the tussles are between the front office and the back office, morale and productivity can suffer.
Orion’s financial management platform and service model help you create harmony between the front and back offices. Timekeepers do less administrative work. The back office runs more efficiently. Expert support is always available. People are productive, and profitability follows.
Here’s how Orion eases four major law firm conflicts.
1. Time: Everything depends on… everyone’s least favorite chore
The monthly battle over time entry is so routine it seems inevitable. Back office staff impatiently wait for time submission so they can start billing. Managing partners nag. Attorneys, paralegals, and other timekeepers push aside critical work to enter time and polish narratives.
Technology can make time entry efficient
Orion’s time management features ease the burden of time entry. Timekeepers can:
- Enter time anywhere via the iOrion mobile app.
- Start or stop any timer from desktop or mobile.
- Dictate time entries anywhere (like your evening commute).
- Copy frequently used fee entries from one client/matter to another.
- Automatically enter common narratives and create more consistent narratives with customizable shortcut codes.
Simplifying time capture reduces time entry delays and leaves more time for billable work. And timekeepers are more likely to track time contemporaneously, producing more accurate records.
2. Billing: Error checking is a time-sink
Turning time entries into receivables can also be a struggle. Back office staff play hurry-up-and-wait: rushing to locate documentation, tracking the movement of prebills, and deciphering handwritten corrections.
Timekeepers, on the other hand, are pulled away from billable work to check prebills. They worry the back office may misunderstand their revisions, causing billing errors that take even more time to resolve.
Technology can reduce uncertainty and wasted time
Front and back office staff benefit from automating much of the billing process. For example, with Orion:
- Firms can manage prebilling electronically, with real-time visibility on prebill status.
- Timekeepers can type revisions in a familiar format (similar to Microsoft Word).
- Back office can apply prebill revisions verbatim, with just a few clicks.
- Users can access billing documentation electronically.
- Firms can set up flags for words or phrases that cause billing problems.
With the right technology, firms can speed up billing cycles and improve firm cash flow. Profitability can also improve as front and back offices spend less time correcting billing errors.
3. File maintenance: Process problems = slow turnaround
To sign clients, avoid conflicts, and manage risk, attorneys need new files opened promptly. The back office, however, can’t ensure files are opened correctly without certain information. Too often, the front office’s information-gathering workflow doesn’t match the back office’s needs.
Technology can bolster firm policies and procedures
The process for opening a new file varies, and the right tech supports your choices, rather than limiting them. Orion gives you access to:
- An integrated conflict-checking module.
- Electronic file and records management support.
- Document assembly tools to simplify workflows.
As you establish procedures — and when your procedures shift — Orion’s flexible technology makes it easy to implement the choices you’ve made.
4. Security: Confidentiality and convenience vie for top priority
Confidentiality is the cornerstone of client trust. It’s not just an ethical duty; it’s smart risk management as cyber criminals continue to target law firms. IT staff often push for stronger security. Adding new tools, however, can impact both the front and back office.
Busy attorneys, for example, may default to familiar, less-secure practices, like emailing confidential documents as attachments. Back office staff sometimes report that call volumes rise as clients request technical support and portal password resets.
Technology can make security simple
Your secure sharing technology should make life easier, not harder. LexShare for Orion offers:
- Secure file-sharing from your inbox that’s just like attaching a file.
- A branded, secure portal that’s easy for clients to use.
- Bank-grade data security in transit and at rest.
- Q&A-style recipient verification, so even if confidential data is sent to the wrong person or a hacked inbox, it’s safe.
By balancing security with familiar processes, firms can increase security while minimizing conflict about new technology.
Tech adoption itself can be a tug-of-war. Orion can help.
Both front and back offices tend to split on trying new technology. Some fear that a new tool will take too much time to learn, and believe that existing processes work just fine. Others embrace the possibilities of new tech and feel impatient for change.
Orion’s service model threads that needle by:
- Constantly refining the platform to give firms maximum ROI.
- Prioritizing ease-of-use and the special needs of law firms.
- Doing complete data conversions with minimal downtime.
- Training on real work with experienced instructors (with appropriate safeguards).
- Providing on-call experts who solve problems fast.
Ready for change at your firm? Demo Orion today.