Goals-based strategic planning takes a different tact than a "basic" strategic plan in that there is a singular focus by which the firm sets goals.  Focusing on financial goals is more manageable and attainable than the comprehensive strategic plan, but requires attention and accountability nonetheless.  Aspects of goals-based planning include:

1. Identifying key performance indicators that affect profitability
2. Developing goals for each indicator
3. Develop a budget based on the goals
4. Forecast earnings based on the budget
5. Measure and adjust

Identifying key performance indicators that affect profitability  - The key drivers to profit include leverage, rate, realization, productivity, margin and cash flow.  Firms may also want to include other indirect drivers such as client development (relationship building), "firm citizenship", etc. that may not have a direct impact on profitability, but are part of the core values that the firm holds.

Developing goals for each indicator - goals are particular to each fee earner but in total should reflect the financial targets for the equity partners.  Each goal should reflect the capabilities of the fee earner and the realities of the market.  For example, productivity targets may reasonably be set to 1,800 hours per year but setting the hourly billing rate at $350 may be unreasonable for a second year associate who works exclusively in insurance defense.  Set goals that are attainable.

Develop a budget based on the goals - Budgeting simply states your goals in a measurable way.  Fee earner budgets measure your productivity; client budgets measure your efficiency; expense budgets measure your spending.

Forecast earnings based on the budget - Forecasting models your budgets so that you can predict the results.  It isn't enough to just state goals. Forecasting allows you to see what the bottom line will be if you meet your goals.  If the bottom line isn't what you wanted, adjust the budgets until the forecast is agreeable.  Most businesses forecast annually with quarterly reviews.  During the quarterly review, the forecast can be adjusted based on the actuals.  If business is thriving, you can increase your forecast - if business is down, you can reduce the expectation set in your annual forecast.

Measure and adjust - like anything else you implement in the firm, you must measure performance and be willing to adjust if needed.

We have begun taking submissions for the 2008 Law Firm Economic Survey.  If your firm is interested in participating, please contact Brian by clicking here.

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• Law Firm Business Model - Leverage
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The 5 key performance indicators all law firms should measure are:

• Rate
• Realization
• Utilization/ Productivity
• Leverage
• Margin

This week each day I will focus on one of the above. Today the focus is on realization.

Realization is a word with many meanings. Depending on what you want to see, it could mean the percentage of what was billed from what was worked (billing realization), the percentage of what was collected from what was billed (collection realization), or the percentage of what was collected from what was worked at standard rates. Further, you can look at realization on the basis of standard rate or negotiated rate (standard rate realization). This article will take a look at billing, collection, and overall realization from a performance measurement perspective. For some previous posts on realization, please read What Is Realization?, Measuring Law Firm Collection Realization, Collection Realization In The Law Firm, Law Firm Standard Rate Realization, and Role of Realization in the Law Practice Business Model.

Why is it important to track realization? The answer is efficiency. How efficient are you in converting work to cash? Each percentage point lost represents money out of the pocket of the firm. Firms that don't track realization will only find success by accident. Tracking realization at every step in the process will help your firm become more efficient and thus more profitable.

Sometimes referred to as "accrual" realization, billing realization looks at what work you performed at your standard rate and compares it to what you bill. Your standard rate is the rate you would charge a new client before any negotiated discounts. Some only want to look at negotiated or actual rate that you are charging to a client and that is fine, but you should also look at what percentage you are billing based on your standard or, as I call it, your "aspirational" rate. That way you can measure the difference between what you should be receiving based on what you believe you are worth and what you are actually getting.

Let's say your standard rate is $250 per hour. For client ABC, Inc. you and your associate perform 5 hours of quality, best in-industry work on the DEF matter. Because ABC gives you 200 matters per year as part of the guaranteed 20% of their workload for your region, you have provided them a nice 30% discount on the rate. $175 x 5 hours gives you $875 of billable work. However, once you see the pre-bill, you notice that 2.5 hours was spent by your associate "reviewing draft of status letter". You aren't going to make your client pay 2.5 hours for this, so you write it down to .5, reducing the bill by $350. Your bill the client for $525.

What is your billing realization? Based on your standard rate, you would have charged $1,250. This is your standard value for the work performed. There is a $725 loss from the negotiated rate and write down. Your billing realization is determined by dividing your billed amount, $525, by the standard value, $1,250. Your billing realization based on standard rates is therefore 42%. If you based it on your negotiated rate, your realization is $525 divided by $875, or 60%. Either way it's money lost due to inefficiency.

Ok, so you have billed $525. The invoice reaches your client, they notice a charge for .2 hours with a narrative "Telephone call with Ed regarding his paternity test - advised he should start saving for child support." Since the matter for client ABC, Inc. was related to a breach of contract claim, they requested that the time related to the erroneous entry be taken off the bill. You adjust the bill $35 and $495 is promptly paid. Your collection realization is 94%, another hit on your profits due to a lack of attention to reviewing the bill; ie, inefficiency.

Overall realization based on standard rate would be $495 divided by $1,250, or 40%. Overall realization using your negotiated rate is $495 divided by $875 or 57%. You won't make a living with these numbers. However, does any of the above (except maybe the reason for the post-bill adjustment) look that out of the ordinary? The only difference is that I am looking at realization at a per invoice level rather than a global level.

According to the 2007 Law Firm Economic Survey from LexisNexis, billing realization has a relationship to increased partner income while collection realization doesn't. Though overall realization is preferred, tracking billing realization appears to have the most impact on revenue. The charts below illustrate this:

The first graph represents cash basis, or collection realization. It is split up by quartile, the first quartile representing the best performing firms in terms of per partner income and the 4th quartile representing firms with the lowest per partner income. Note that there is no link between cash basis realization and per partner income. In fact, those in the 3rd quartile had the best collection realization, while the best performing firms in the 1st quartile were over 3 percentage points less. In the second graph, which represents billing or accrual realization, there is a clear correlation between the realization percentages and per partner income, regardless of whether you compare based on standard rates or negotiated rates.

Ultimately, the best practice would be to track overall realization based on your standard rate. However, the above provides some insight into where most of the money is being lost. It appears that if you can get control over pre-bill adjustments, your revenue will increase as will per partner income.

Ways to increase realization:

• Don't negotiate your standard rate away without volume guarantees.
• Pay attention to mark downs. If they must happen, make attorneys note a reason. If it is correctable, correct it so you can decrease mark downs.
• Bill. WIP is inventory and loses value every day it sits on the shelves (your desk).
• Don't wait months for a client to call and try to negotiate down their bill. Stay on top of receivables.
• Be efficient in how you work, how to bill and how you collect. Modify your processes to the extent you already have them. Develop a process to the extent you don't. Measure your performance and prepare to adjust if your process isn't yielding the results you desire.

Along with other key profit drivers, realization is something you should track regularly. Utilizing technology will help you achieve your goals. Tools such as Juris® Active Information can alert users when their realization goes below their desired percentage. Benchmarking tools such as Lexis® Insight can compare your realization numbers to your peers. Measure against your own goals and the performance of your peers to gain insight as you how your firm performs against others in the marketplace.

There's no reason law firms can't earn more even in a rescessionary economic cycle - unless they don't measure performance. Don't leave the financial state of your firm to chance. Measure your performance.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris®. For information about Juris products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income contact Juris National Sales Center:

877/377-3740, e-mail info@juris.com or go to www.Juris.com.

Related posts

• Law Firm Business Model - Measuring Rate
• Law Firm Business Model: Margin
• Law Firm Business Model - Leverage
• Law Firm Financial Management-Getting it Right!
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The 5 key performance indicators all law firms should measure are:

• Rate
• Realization
• Utilization/ Productivity
• Leverage
• Margin

This week each day I will focus on one of the above. Today the focus is on leverage.

Head count leverage is by far the most difficult indicator to change. Hiring new associates involves much risk, plus you not only need to have the workload, you have to have partners who are willing to share that workload. Some previous posts related to leverage are What Is Leverage?, Best Law Firm Practices for Increasing Leverage, Handling Complexities of Law Firm Leverage, Billable Hours vs. Head Count Leverage In Law Firms, and Leverage Can Help and Hurt Law Firms.

The two types of leverage that will be the subject of this article are head count leverage and billable hour leverage. Head count leverage is the ratio of all non-equity partner fee earners to equity partners. Billable hour leverage is the total sum of all non-equity partner fee earner billable hours divided by the total billable hours of equity partners. The goal is to increase leverage if your partners have reached or exceeded the target billable hour threshold per year. What that number is varies from firm to firm, but in the 2007 Law Firm Economic Survey by LexisNexis , we used a baseline of 1,800 billable hours. I consider 2,000 hours (40 hours per week based on a 50 week work year) as the maximum reasonable output that one should expect from a fee earner. Of that, 4 hours per week can be reasonably dedicated to non-billable activities. As so many who argue for alternative fee arrangements, there are only so many hours an individual may work. After reaching this threshold, it is imperative that work is passed to another fee earner if you want to increase income over the long term (ie, firm growth). Increasing the headcount of non-equity fee earners to handle accretive work (as opposed to absorbing work that could be handled by others) is central in making leverage work to increase income.

According to the 2007 LexisNexis survey, partners are still billing more than associates but continue to project that they will pass work on and reduce their own workload. It appears talking about it is easier than doing it.

Head count leverage is obviously risky if you don't have full utilization of your existing fee earners. If you add staff before full utilization, you are merely absorbing someone else's work - a sure way to lower profits. Plans to increase head count leverage are discussed in years, not months. First and foremost there must be a need. Otherwise, it isn't going to benefit the firm. Still, if used correctly, increasing leverage will increase partner income. The best performing firms in the 2007 LexisNexis survey also had the highest head count leverage.

The best performing firms also had the highest billable hour leverage. This is where firms can make immediate changes and get results measured in months. The key is measuring fee earner productivity. In mid-size firms, partners typically outwork the associates. In order to benefit from leverage (whether it be head count or billable hour leverage), associated must be fully utilized. Before I go any further, let me clarify what I mean by "fully utilized". It doesn't mean "work the suckers until they keel over". It means determining what the maximum amount of billable hours should be (governed by firm culture and reasonable expectations) and don't hire a single person until associates reach that threshold consistently. The whining about associates being overworked may be true in biglaw, but it doesn't appear to exist in mid-sized firms. In mid-size firms, partners are the overworked ones and most don't complain. Finding young associates who have proper work ethic is more the concern (as one managing partner told me recently, "we can't find associates that want to work!") but that is a topic for another article.

What are some ways to increase billable hour leverage?

• Increase paralegal hours or don't retain them. Paralegals are chronically underutilized. If you don't intend on using them, don't hire them. If you only have 600 hours of billable work for a paralegal and your associates are billing 1,300 hours, the paralegal is lowering both productivity and effective rate.
• Introduce partner caps on billable hours. This is one I expect will be well-received by work hoarders. The idea is to set a maximum annual billable hour requirement - once reached, all further work must go to client development and all billable work must be shifted to available resources. This is a drastic measure and should be instituted only to initiate change when other attempts at shifting workload have failed. It is not feasible over the long term and in firms that have a lockstep compensation system it isn't a good idea period. However, excessive workload is an important requirement to increasing leverage. Client development is key to bringing in more work and partners are in the best position to do rainmaking activities. Whatever it takes to get partners to act like owners of a company (not a confederation of sole proprietors) is worth trying.
• Mentoring activities. Mentoring is a nonbillable but crucial activity. Encouraging mentoring will force partners to do things besides bill time - things that will ultimately make the firm more competitive and profitable. Mentoring is an art not used enough and associates who are properly mentored are in a better position to succeed and develop into good future partners. The work that would have been done by the partner will then get shifted to the associate. Partners should focus on doing work that demands the highest rate so that there isn't as much of a profit hit when implementing mentorship programs.
• Change the criteria for achieving partnership status. Do away with lockstep compensation and similar paths to partnership. In its place create compensation plans based not only on billable work but firm citizenship. Introduce non-equity partnership programs that provide a place for excellent associates who may not be good owners (ie, don't have the drive or talent for client development and management - ie, grinders).
• Change your compensation plan to reward not only billable activities, but non-billable activities. Make shifting workload with mentoring a measurable performance indicator for compensation purposes.

It takes planning to make leverage work to improve profits. Determine where you want to be in terms of fee earner headcount. Look at where you are today in terms of client development. Look at where you are in utilizing your non-equity fee earners. Make your objectives clear and measurable. Track them - and hold everyone accountable for the success of the plan.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris®. For information about Juris products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income contact Juris National Sales Center:

877/377-3740, e-mail info@juris.com or go to www.Juris.com.

Related posts

• Law Firm Business Model: Margin
• Law Firm Business Model - Realization
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• Billable Hours vs. Head Count Leverage in Law Firms
• Best Law Firm Practices for Increasing Utilization

The 5 key performance indicators all law firms should measure are:

• Rate
• Realization
• Utilization/ Productivity
• Leverage
• Margin

This week each day I will focus on one of the above. Today the focus is on margin.

Margin is partners' profits divided by firm revenues. It is the percentage of revenue left after all operating expenses have been paid (not including partner salaries and distributions). For previous posts on margin, look here, here, here, here, and here.

There's no secret to increasing margin. Do a good job, be fair to clients, focus on client development, bill what you are worth, never devalue your time, and make sure costs rise proportionately to revenue. You don't increase margin over the long term by cutting costs. Reducing expenses is either done to correct a past mistake in investment or to replace lost revenues. Neither are positive causes. If you want to grow, you have to spend.

The point is made in the 2007 Law Firm Economic Survey from LexisNexis as well. The firms who had the highest per partner income spent the most. The firms with the highest margins spent the most.

The firms with the highest per partner income are represented in the Q1 column. The operating margin is at nearly 51% and their expenses per head are nearly $100,000. Compare that to the lowest performing firms. In the Q4 column, margin is a paltry 29% but they saved money - only $84,000 per head cost. You can't grow with a constrictive operating budget. Note that both the best performing and worst performing firms also spent a nearly identical percentage of their budgets on technology. This could mean that technology isn't being utilized properly in the poor performing firms (due no doubt to a lack of services if experience tells me anything) or that poor performing firms are attempting to utilize technology to manage their practice. I am encouraged to think the latter and am curious as to whether those firms are improving their practice as a result. There are so many variables to successful implementation of a process, but looking at these firms in 5 years might be a good follow up.

The way to improve margins may be different for each firm depending on where they start, but there are still two constants: cutting costs do not equate to long-term increases in per partner income and measurement improves results. With any action geared to improve the financial performance of your firm, you must measure it and adjust when you get off track.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris®. For information about Juris products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income contact Juris National Sales Center:

877/377-3740, e-mail info@juris.com or go to www.Juris.com.

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The 5 key performance indicators all law firms should measure are:

• Rate
• Realization
• Utilization/ Productivity
• Leverage
• Margin

This week each day I will focus on one of the above. Today the focus is on rate.

For a primer, look at some prior posts related to rate here, here, here, here, and here. The importance of tracking rate shouldn't surprise anyone. However, I run into firm after firm who either don't increase rates annually or don't track effective rate. How can you improve performance if you don't measure it?

Source: Timothy McMahon (http://www.inflationdata.com)

The above chart shows the trend in inflation since 1990. Failure to increase rates annually at the rate of inflation during the 1990's wouldn't have as much of an effect on profits considering the economic boom the US experienced along with low inflation. That changed in 2002 and there has been a steady increase in inflation for the past 6 years. In fact, as of December, 2007, the consumer price index (which includes the price for food and oil) was at 4%. If you are not increasing your rate at least by the percentage of inflation, you are working for less money every year. It isn't known where inflation will be at the end of this year, and some are forecasting that this year will see some lower inflation, but the point isn't to predict lower profits when inflation is higher or higher profits when inflation is lower - it is to keep up with the rate of inflation and be certain your rate increases take it into consideration so that you are immune to the index altogether.

Inflation is a starting point - other factors such as relative expertise in a given area of law can also factor into rate. In your retention agreements, you can provide cost predictability to your clients by treating it like one would a long-term lease. You factor price increases into the agreement so that they know the percentage increase each year. In volatile times (such as the last few years), it may be better to treat it more like a mortage, setting a range of increase that won't go beyond a certain ceiling. Then annual increases can meet margin goals as well as inflation.

Measure the effective blended rate consistently so that you know if the rate is going up and down throughout the year. Why is this important? Assuming that your firm has established rate goals for the year, the blended rate (the combined average of all fee earners' rates) should be known. If the rate is decreasing, then something is wrong. The most likely culprit is pre-bill or post-bill adjustments. If your attorneys are devaluing their work, there needs to be a reason - otherwise, you will be sending a signal to the client that you are over charging them and adjusting to make it more fair. This is not the way to make it easier to raise rates in the future. Further, if you are trying to meet a financial objective, write downs and mark offs go directly to the bottom line and put you behind in reaching your financial goals.

The effective rate is calculated after the invoice is paid. It gives you the actual value of your services. In the report below, productivity, realization, and rate are tracked. The image below it is a blow up of the rate section of the report. In it you can see the value of the hours worked at your standard rate, your actual or negotiated rate, the billed rate after mark down but before invoice discounts, the billed rate after discounts, and the collected rate after post-bill adjustments. It is broken down both by both worked hours and billed hours.

In the above, you can instantly see that the time keeper is writing up his negotiated rate at pre-bill edit to conform with his desired standard rate. One way you achieve this (ethically) is by the use of firm-wide standards for the cost of a task. You must determine the time it takes generally to do the task and then price it accordingly. If you have efficient attorneys that can do the task in less time than the standard, he/she may write up the bill to conform (likewise, if it takes longer, you must write it down). This way an efficient attorney may mark up his time and thus increase his effective rate. For those who advocate value billing, here it is at work. The better value goes to either the efficient attorney or the client of the inefficient attorney. Tracking effective blended rate regularly will allow you to determine whether your attorneys are being efficient in their processes and if they are on track to reach the financial goals or not. If they are not, you can act on it well before it becomes an uncorrectable problem.

At the same time, the above time keeper may be increasing his rate unethically, which may lead to undesirable consequences (firm reputation as well as ethical violations may be the result). Without regular reporting on the above, you won't have the information to know which is occurring.

Price increase is one factor to consider in increasing effective blended rate. It isn't the only factor. Many firms, especially those who work in corporate defense litigation, have traded high rates for volume. In practice areas where there is not a lot of price flexibility and the rate is usually heavily discounted to get the business, the key is to have an efficient workflow process and be very wary of mark downs. In some firms, the rate can absorb an inefficient operation. In corporate defense, you may not have that luxury. On top of that, more and more corporate clients are levying restrictive billing guidelines that can seriously affect effective rate. Not only can non-compliance with client billing guidelines delay payment, it can lead to nonpayment of certain tasks altogether.

Improving workflow efficiency is the easiest way to increase effective rate. However, expectation of reciprocity from a client who expects you to provide quality service at a reduced rate wouldn't hurt. Why is it that a client can expect you to lower rate for their volume when you are not guaranteed any volume from them? In my opinion, not only would I work to increase rate, I would tie the frequency and level of the increase on the volume the client provides. If the client is willing to guarantee a certain percentage of their work for a given year, I would be more willing to hold rates steady or only increase them by the annual rate of inflation. Don't be afraid to treat your corporate clients like a corporation. They are treating you like a business. Although restrictive, billing guidelines provide a measure of cost certainty by the tracking of costs associated with a task. They know what it costs for you to do your work. You better know it too - and make sure you are making a profit from the work you do.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris®. For information about Juris products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income contact Juris National Sales Center:

877/377-3740, e-mail info@juris.com or go to www.Juris.com.

Related posts

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Providing case-related information to law firm clients has become a weapon to win and secure corporate business.

One of the speakers at the 2007 LegalTech conference told his audience that most of the extranets and other similar technology investments by law firms would wind up on the junk pile. Why? Because a corporate law firm can’t continue to go to more and more extranets, each using a different user interface and a different proprietary arrangement of case information.

Corporate clients will eventually have to go to a single digital information center and each law firm's information will have to flow into that system, much like electron billing is currently handled. What the speaker envisions would require “standards” like those being developed by LEDES and the development of value-added networks that will receive information fees from multiple law firms and then convert the received information from the standard formats to that required by the corporation. 

I suspect it will happen, but the timeline will be longer than the speaker envisions and the road there will be a winding one.  In the meantime, extranets for communicating with a law firm’s clients can provide a competitive edge worth going for. However, before you set out to build your silver bullet for winning a particular client’s business, my advice is to go visit them.  Spend time learning about the reports, charts, graphics, and key performance indicators they use to manage their relationship with outside council and to stay on top of the matters being handled by the law department.

Plato recognized that “Necessity Mothers Invention” as early as 360 B.C. Your law firm’s clients are inventive.  They will find a way to piece together solutions that enable them to get the job done.  You are likely to find great ideas that would have been missed in designing things from the view of the law firm.  Here is a secret worth remembering: Rather than offering something that has to complete the solutions your client has already invented, why not make yourself a shoe-in for winning their business—making their idea and approach even better.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc.  For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.

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In a previous post, I referred to a soon-to-be-released survey. Well, it has been released. Juris, Inc. just announced the release of the latest annual Juris Law Firm Economic Survey. The survey of midsized firms covers financial results for the year 2005.

The survey identifies ten important factors that influence law firm financial performance. You will find that the top performing firms excelled across all key performance indicators, not just one or two. Firms that understood those factors, set goals, measured performance, and held people accountable dramatically outperformed others. The disparity in per-partner income between the top performing 25 percent of firms and the rest of the pack is eye-opening. Partners in the top 25 percent earn twice the income of the next quartile and more than seven times the per-partner income of the lowest 25 percent.

The Juris economic survey, one of the largest in the legal community, is unique in targeting midsized law firms. This year’s survey results are compiled from 274 participating midsized firms in 142 cities spread over 40 states and represent 6,000 lawyers.

Midsized law firms can use the 55-page survey report to identify where they stand against their peers. They will find the accompanying analysis and recommendations of the Juris team a useful tool for increasing financial performance.

The annual Juris survey is shipped automatically to those firms who participated in the survey. This year’s survey is available to others for $375. For more information, select the link below.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.
 

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Races are won by fractions of seconds, but not by accident.  Athletes measure performance and train to win. Is your law firm up to the competitive race? How physically fit and well trained is your team? 

Athletes understand that they must measure everything they do to achieve exceptional performance. Marathoners can remember all their best times; everyone knows their heart rate training zones. Cyclists know their power and aerodynamic drag numbers.  In fact, Lance Armstrong’s cycling power output was a closely guarded secret because his coaches knew that if a competitor knew that number, they would have a target.  Athletes instinctively understand that measurement increases performance. They break down all the key components of performance and then develop training regimens to improve their fitness and skills in order to give them the best chance to succeed.  Fitness and skill development combined with the proper attitude translates to winning…in sports and in business. 

What about your law firm? How fit is it?  Do you measure and train for success? Do you know what your key performance indicators are?  Do you break down the components of those key performance indicators and train to trim off time? How does the time capture process work in your firm?  How long does it take?  What aspects are repetitive, error-prone, slow or wasteful? The difference between a champion and the field is usually less than 5%.  But the champion reaps all the benefits.

The cyclist in the photo is Stephen Collins, president of Juris, Inc. He along with other Juris competitors are members of TriStar CyclingTriStar, sponsored by Juris and Bank America, counts several doctors, lawyers, bankers, entrepreneurs and other professionals among their members. The team is a 501c (3) charitable organization focused on the development of junior cyclists (ages 10 to 18), providing mentorship, coaching, and financial assistance. This year, the team is promoting the Edgar Soto Memorial Stage Race to promote the Share the Road initiative to raise awareness for safe cycling.  If you would like to help TriStar with its charitable mission, send your donation to TriStar Cycling, c/o Juris, Inc., 5106 Maryland Way, Brentwood, TN 37027.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc.  For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com. 

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Forget reports. Today’s pace is too fast for yesterday’s news. Business Week Online let out the secret being used by major corporate CEOs to guide their business. The February 13th article reported that major corporate leaders are relying on “Dashboard” technology. The Business Week article said “dashboards pull up everything the CEO needs to run the show.” Corporate executives have learned to focus on key performance indicators that measure the direction of movement and speed of movement for their organization. Dashboards quickly point out areas that need the executive’s attention.

Dashboards provide situational awareness and couple that with drill-down capability for actionable information. The technology has given these executives the tools to change the outcome rather than just analyze, after the fact, what has happened.

Dashboards are starting to show up in Law Office Business Software suites like the Juris® system. They fit the “part-time management” style of law firms perfectly. Law firm managing partners split their attention between lawyering and managing. They don’t have time to dig through last month’s reports. They need information current as to the moment in a form that is instantly digestible. That information needs to be actionable—it should imply the corrective action needed and clearly point to the cause of the deviation from target or norms.

Successful executives understand and focus on the key performance indicators that drive their business. Dashboards are the new instruments for keeping the law firm on track. Dashboard views can be customized to provide an individualized field-of-view over the legal professional’s area of responsibility.

To ditch out-of-date reports and start flying by instruments contact your business software vendor for an update on dashboard plans or availability. Juris law firms can call 877/377-3740 or e-mail sales@juris.com for more information about MyJuris, the dashboard portion of the Juris software suite.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.
 

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