Getting Started with Legal e-Billing

A Beginner’s Guide to Project Success
From Start to Finish

The old adage “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” has become a business driver behind the rapid adoption of legal spend management practices. In fact, for an increasing number of corporate legal and insurance claims departments, the ability to measure legal spend has its roots in electronic billing. When done properly, the implementation of a legal e-billing program not only results in a considerable return on investment, but also facilitates unprecedented efficiency, insight and control of outside legal spend.

The following steps are excerpted from Bottomline’s five-page Executive Insight Report, Legal e-Billing Implementation Best Practices. To download the complete report, including tips on how to choose a vendor, visit http://www.bottomline.com/forms/legal/lex_ebilling_bp.aspx.

Assign a Project Team
The first step of an implementation should actually take place prior to final selection of an e-billing vendor: the creation of a project team. At many companies, this process begins with the project sponsor who decides to purchase a legal spend management solution. This person is typically a high-ranking member of the organization who has overall responsibility for the initiative and decision-making authority throughout the process.

Kickoff: Your Most Important Meeting
Once a vendor has been selected, a comprehensive kickoff meeting should be scheduled with the vendor’s project manager and the internal project team. The vendor should be expected to provide a detailed meeting agenda that will include a complete project plan review and implementation guide describing the implementation process from start to finish.

Build and Track a Project Plan
Shortly after the kickoff meeting, the vendor’s project manager should provide a detailed analysis confirming both the existing legal invoice workflow and the desired invoice workflow. This report may suggest changes to the existing process based on industry best practices and the vendor’s prior experiences. It’s important to leverage the vendor’s expertise: solicit their suggestions based on successful implementations at similar companies.

Getting Law Firms On Board Quickly
Naturally, the success of any e-billing initiative is predicated on the rapid adoption of the technology solution by outside law firms. Early in the implementation process, the project team must identify the law firms that will be expected to submit invoices on the system and determine a process for enrolling them quickly. Some practices include:

• The “Big Bang Approach” whereby clients bring all firms on board simultaneously during the go-live process. This is the most common approach, and is generally the best way to build momentum and ensure compliance by both firms and internal counsel.
• The “80/20 Approach” of phased law firm implementation, where the initial focus is on the subset of firms which comprise the largest billings.
• A “Compliance-Driven Approach” focuses on those firms that have been identified as not consistently complying with existing billing guidelines.
• The “Vendor Network Approach” focuses first on firms that already use the selected vendor’s e-billing system to invoice other clients, turning to other firms later.

Law Firm Implementation
The vendor should take responsibility for implementing and training the law firms as quickly as possible. Be prepared to provide the vendor with a list of law firms, including the billing partner, as well as a signed letter from a senior executive that explains the e-billing initiative (the vendor should have sample templates). The vendor should provide a sample invoice and perform telephone or Web-based training with the law firms. To minimize confusion, the vendor should also confirm that firms know which matters are available to bill against, and that all timekeepers have been entered properly.

Creating Load Files and Billing Rules
Once the system workflow is fully designed, the next step in the implementation process involves collecting and creating “load files” from templates provided by the vendor, such as timekeeper rate files. This step translates negotiated billing guidelines into electronic billing rules within the system, by firm and by matter. If billing guidelines don’t already exist, this phase of the process provides the best opportunity to create them.

Training
Training is a critical element to success, and one that’s too often treated as an afterthought. Training planning should be considered early in the process, and should include the number of people to be trained, physical location of those people, and the training facilities and staff available for the project. Your vendor should provide multiple training options, including in-person classroom training, live Web-based training, online tutorials and a “train the trainer” option.

Testing
The final milestone will be comprehensive testing before “go-live”. The vendor project manager should be asked to populate the e-billing system with sample data, allowing the project team to test how data will flow based on the configurations selected. Assuming you’ve selected a configurable e-billing solution, testing provides the opportunity to make changes to views and displays prior to going live. Once testing is complete, the implementation team should formally review and sign off on the project status and confirm that it’s ready to go into production.

Going Live and Following Up
On the go-live date, the vendor’s project manager should be onsite to confirm the system is working as planned and to address any final issues. Within a week or two after “go live,” a follow-up call allows team members to raise and discuss key questions: Did the go-live meet expectations? Does anything need to be changed? Do open items remain that must be addressed? If the installation is being completed in stages, is everything in place for the next steps?

For complete details on implementation best practices and a thorough understanding of each phase, download Bottomline’s five-page Executive Insight Report, Legal e-Billing Implementation Best Practices, call 1.888.923.9553 or contact Bottomline at legalexchange@bottomline.com.