Overview of Law Firm Dashboards
Law Firm dashboards are a tool that can help manage a law firm by using a single unified page or interface to provide at a glance, all the key performance measures at the firm. A firm dashboard is a sophisticated way to quickly see an overall assessment of whether the firm is on track or headed in the right direction. Clients have such dashboards as well. You may have already seen it on an approach to managing their In-House Legal Departments. Because law firms are now putting into place the ability to present all relevant data into a single view of the firm’s metrics on dashboards, they are now able to more fully compare and contrast information about the firm no matter how you want to slice or dice the data to determine if the firm is achieving its goals and if the firm is working towards meeting its overall success. The dashboard also enables you to get information on the attorneys at the firm , identify who is working with who and who works well together, look for opportunities to cross sell new business, drive training opportunities, as well as eliminate inequities when it comes to internal cash distributions. It is a very powerful tool for law firm management.
Nobody wants to spend hours preparing spreadsheets or presentations of any type when all that is required by the firm’s management or partners is a set of numbers that provide an overview of the current situation. That’s where a dashboard shines. Law firm Partners rejoice in this transformed way to measure the original objectives and goals set forth for the firm. Staff appreciate this easy and convenient solution to track current law firm objectives. Law Firm Dashboards are a welcome addition to modern Law practice. More importantly, it’s a welcome addition for Law Firm Management.
Essential Components of a Law Firm Dashboard
A law firm dashboard is only as good as its parts, and in this case, the most critical parts are the features that comprise the dashboard itself. Each of these elements functions seamlessly within a single interface, allowing you to maximize your efficiency. Since it’s easy to forget your need for integration as you address each issue individually, you should stay focused on the following: A law firm dashboard needs to accommodate all of your case management needs, from quick and simple matter lookup to complex document analysis and extensive legal research. This will allow for swift information processing relevant to a given matter, regardless of the type of data in question.
Billing and time tracking You should be able to track time against any of the matters you’re managing with your dashboard, whether billing hourly, by retainer or some other means. You should also be able to quickly review bills before sending them, making adjustment as necessary.
Client communication A law firm dashboard should make it easy to communicate with clients or with third parties, via email, self-service access to information and other means. Case updates, correspondence tracking and archiving, and client feedback capabilities should be part of the package.
Performance analytics Your dashboard should help you maintain visibility into performance metrics across the firm, allowing you to access information about profitability, productivity, utilization and realization, as well as access to information concerning equity and diversity.
Advantages of a Law Firm Dashboard
Integrating dashboards into legal practices creates advantageous opportunities for better data visualization. Law firms can track key performance indicators (KPIs) more effectively through today’s dashboards, enabling them to make better business decisions. Being able to visualize KPIs in real time enables a law firm to respond more quickly in an ever-competitive environment. With today’s increasingly sophisticated dashboards, a firm can compare information based on specific criteria rather than sifting through line items in lengthy reports. The best legal dashboards are found in today’s legal software applications designed to integrate with other practice management tools a law firm is already using, which can also boost client relationships. By maintaining a centralized hub for all these pieces and parts, a law firm becomes more productive, making it more attractive to clients. Managing a law firm today requires that the practice optimize its operational tasks. Data spreads across multiple applications and systems, leaving lawyers spending too much time using their energy and resources toward navigating those different applications. And even then, the task is not completed. By integrating data from all these different systems into a law firm dashboard, a firm can transform how they view their business. By increasing productivity, a law firm can improve its efficiency through automation. Having a clear sense of how to execute basic operational functions makes it easier for a firm to complete day-to-day tasks. And with turning the page on modernizing practice operations, a law firm improves its ability to seamlessly provide goods and services to clients. With dashboards, a firm gains a clearer, more coherent view of their operations. By being able to compare different KPIs in single view, it puts a law firm in a better position to serve clients. This creates a significant competitive advantage to firms.
Identifying the Most Appropriate Dashboard
Choosing the right law firm dashboard can be as challenging as finding a needle in a haystack. With so many options available, it’s important to identify a solution that best meets your specific needs. Customization options should be top of mind when selecting a law firm dashboard – both for your team members’ individual needs and for your firm’s overall objectives. Look for applications that can be tailored to meet the goals and strategies of your practice.
User-friendliness is also an important feature to look for when selecting a solution. No one wants to struggle with software, trying to figure out how to get the basic features to work. Instead, you want your dashboards to be accessible to everyone on your team – and easy to learn. The overall experience should be intuitive and allow you to jump from task to task, viewing different types of reports as you manage a large volume of information.
The ability to integrate into your existing systems is essential , especially if you have a number of systems currently in place. If your dashboard requires you to start from scratch, implementing it could be difficult and time-consuming. Look for options that will integrate into your existing case management and client relationship management (CRM) systems.
Scalability is another important factor to consider. When you invest in a solution, you want to be sure that it will ultimately serve the needs of your whole firm as you grow. In other words, you don’t want to have to select a new dashboard solution every time you hire a new member to your team. Also think about other areas where you might need to add data analytic functions down the road – not just to your current system, but to other aspects of your firm. If you’re likely to make any changes in the near future, scalability should be front and center in your selection process.
Adoption Issues and Solutions
For all of the promise which is offered by implementation of a law firm dashboard, there are significant practical issues associated with a successful deployment. The content and layout of a dashboard will, most often, be built out using a collection of native and 3rd party systems and software. Each of these components will have its own way of reporting data, required user permissions and access and maintenance and security needs. In the case of a system such as a BI or DMS, that integration can be complicated if the deployed application has limited APIs or requires a dedicated data feed for each Office. While this doesn’t mean implementation is impossible, it does increase the time and resources required for development.
This is just one of the challenges which could arise from a dashboard deployment. User adoption for the system can be a concern, primarily due to the fact that a successful dashboard implementation will rely heavily on the programmer’s ability to create an intuitive interface for the system. If the layout of the system is not user-friendly, firms will see poor adoption rates. So, in addition to basic software quality (does it require constant maintenance, is it buggy, etc.), special focus needs to be placed on usability planning.
Security may present another concern. By design, a dashboard is a collection of your private database information. How does a Firm ensure that its staff isn’t using this information to grow their private book of business? Depending on the types of data which are displaying, security protocols may need to be more stringent than those of traditional systems. How are logins handled? Does the system require multi-factor authentication? The answers to these questions will depend on the specific programs that you’re deploying into your dashboard, as well as the level of security you feel is necessary within your organization.
What Will the Future Hold for Law Firm Dashboards
Future trends in law firm dashboards will be continued advancements in technology. Law firms will not only be collecting more data and demanding more reporting, but it will be increasingly important to leverage advanced analytics and visualization so that the data points become information. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will be an integral part of the future landscape of law firm dashboards. Core and historical data will be used to forecast where the firm is going and where it should focus its efforts. Information will be consistently refreshed and presented in efficient formats to enhance decision making on a day to day basis. With recent developments in AI , dashboards will allow for natural language processing (NLP) and natural language generation (NLG) to enhance the user experience even more. This will allow users to simply ask questions and receive answers instantaneously through the various dashboards or applications. The time saved by attorneys, practice group leaders, and firm management alike will be tremendous as the ability to quickly get information is at their fingertips. The future dashboard will continue to evolve and maintain relevance to the business of law.