The Checks and Balances of
Our "Legal System"

Insight into Performance of Outside Counsel Governs
New Legal Spend Landscape

As experts on the topic of legal e-billing, Bottomline has had the unique opportunity to speak with hundreds of corporate counsel and outside law firms over the years about the challenges they face in trying to manage legal spend and the enormous potential e-billing solutions have to transform invoice approval and payment processes into a truly powerful business analysis tool.

To quickly test your knowledge of what today's legal spend management solutions can do for you, ask yourself the following:

• What law firms are you doing business with, how much do you spend annually with each one, and what type of value are you realizing from each relationship?
• Are these law firms complying with your billing guidelines? Negotiated rates? Pre-established budgets? How can you be sure?
• What percentage of your legal invoices contain errors? How long do these generally take to resolve?
• How long does it take your staff to review and adjust invoices? How much time are they spending re-keying invoice data into your ERP or matter management systems?

Time's up. If you can't answer these questions easily, you're in good company. In speaking with corporate legal professionals across the country, Bottomline has found that a majority of legal invoicing remains a seriously paper-laden, labor-intensive process. So much so that there's often little time left for analyzing the details of each invoice or achieving the level of insight that helps you know you've got the best firm assigned to the matter at hand. Never mind investigating a more efficient way to manage all the paper.

By way of introduction, "legal spend" simply refers to all of the costs - large and small - associated with an organization's matter-related expenditures. Many corporations are able to account for basic expenditures such as fees paid to outside counsel. Far fewer understand how the fees compare to pre-set budget limits, or how the costs for similar matters vary by firm. Those operating with only a snapshot into legal spend gain no true indication as to the return on investment they're receiving through their outside legal relationships.

For corporate legal departments, an advanced - yet easy-to-use - hosted legal e-billing solution can become the primary mechanism for managing legal spend. With a sophisticated rules engine that automates workflow and accelerates the invoice review and approval process, Bottomline's Legal eXchange® can provide you with the efficiency and visibility necessary to conduct short- and long-term analysis into the effectiveness of individual, outside legal relationships. The ability to benchmark performance helps you make more informed decisions when assigning new matters, and provides the checks and balances necessary to know you're getting the most from your outside counsel at the precise rates and budget you pre-determine.

Independent Survey Reveals More Law Firms
Recommend Bottomline

In a recent University-led survey of more than 3,000 legal counsel already using Legal eXchange to submit invoices to corporate clients:

• Three out of four firms reported they would recommend Legal eXchange to their corporate clients.
• Of the 92 percent who indicated that they use more then one legal e-billing system, over half cited that Legal eXchange was easier to use than other e-billing systems.
• On average, staff were able to become proficient with the extensive functionality of Legal eXchange in less than 60 minutes.
• Once trained, users reported that it took them 30% less time than the industry average to prepare and submit an electronic invoice.

To learn more about Bottomline's Legal eXchange Legal Spend Management solution, visit http://www.bottomline.com/products_services_legal/.