Category: Innovation

New Products in Legal Ebilling

Posted on by in EBMM, Innovation, New Product

At ILTACon 2024, I found some new products available with functionality for different purposes in legal ebilling.

Hercules AI is offering a new product called Verify that is designed to assist with Outside Counsel Compliance. So slick. Very next generation. It knocked my socks off, and I sent 6 people over to look at the product. You can learn more here: https://hercules.ai/verify/.

The week prior to the conference I received a Google Alert mentioning FulcrumGT’s Salvo product. No one on the LEDES Board had heard of it, and it was the one product that I was in search of more information on as I headed to the conference. Salvo is a new entrant in the Ebilling Administration tool market, competing against Elite eBillingHub and Aderant BillBlast. This market has long been in need of additional products, and now one exists. Interestingly, they state, “The solution can provide real-time updates across all vendor sites” which I think is a differentiator. You can learn more here: https://legacysite.fulcrumgt.com/products/salvo/.

FulcrumGT also is offering a collaborative ELM system called RapidX. It is worthy of a look from any law department or insurance organization wanting to implement legal ebilling or to change vendor systems.  The system is similarly available to law firms that would like to better collaborate with non-ebilling clients. You can learn more here: https://fulcrumgt.com/.

Finally, I wanted to mention seeing Oddr’s Invoice to Cash Platform.  I have seen this product at a couple shows now, and still am struck by their creative solution for invoice/collections/payments.  I am not aware of any other product aimed at this particular segment of the “problem” with legal ebilling.  It is not unexpected that they are picking up traction in the marketplace.  To learn more:  https://www.oddr.com/.

Twenty Years In – Reflections on Ebilling

Posted on by in EBMM, Innovation, Twenty Years Commentary

My 20th anniversary in ebilling has come and gone and I think it worthwhile to reflect back on the industry.

In 1994 law firms didn’t use Windows.  Heck, some legal finance people didn’t use a mouse until after 2000!  TyMetrix’s founder believed there had to be a way for law departments to understand their legal spend.  We worked on the prototype system and held back until the ABA/ACCA UTBMS Codes were released.  We installed the system at the first 13 firms before the end of 1995. I spent most of 1996 on the road and by May more than 220 firms had been on-boarded.  We quickly learned that law firms would not provide electronic billing data unless it was tied to payment of their invoices so, after some redesign, we began receiving invoices in August of 1996 electronically using the model still used today for ebilling.

Once the LEDES 98B format was released, it was amazing to see so many new system offerings.   We were the only company operating with a business model that required professionals from within the client company to review invoices.  And how fortunate for us.  As State Bar Associations issued ethics opinions about breach of confidentiality when invoices are released to third parties for review (intended to crush legal ebilling altogether), our business model ensured no breach of confidentiality would occur.

On the client side, streamlining the receipt, review and payment of invoices within the system made for a much more efficient process.  While some matter information was necessary to administer ebilling, by adding more fulsome matter management functionality there would be far greater ability to manipulate the paid billing data, especially if we included information on how a matter was resolved.  System functionality absolutely exploded with the addition of budgeting, case planning, timekeeper and rate management, scorecarding, accruals, global features, etc.  It was dizzying expanding in so many directions in so short a period.

I can wax nostalgic about this period because there were many visionaries working on solutions.  Really, there were a lot of smart people involved.  Many of the ebilling third-party vendor solutions have been sold, and the new owners focus on retaining clients and increasing market-share.  Today I see many caretakers, not innovators.  Except for adding BI and cross-industry metrics, not much has changed with these systems in the past decade.  And much of the functionality provided for law firms is shameful.

In the past few years there have been a couple new takes on ebilling:  project management with ebilling features (like OnIt or AlignMatters), or Viewabill’s real-time connection to WIP.  But mainstream legal ebilling exists much the same as it did in 2000.

It’s time to throw out the ebilling playbook and reenvision the industry.  If this is on your roadmap, I would be thrilled to help.

Creativity and Innovation in Business

Posted on by in Great Reads, Innovation, Leadership

I had the great good fortune to be invited to a Thomson Reuters event during Legal Tech featuring a discussion by Walter Isaacson, author of biographies on Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger.  His topic was innovation in business and he was fabulous.

As Walter pointed out, what distinguishes the truly brilliant is their attention to detail, incredible focus and their relentlessness in pursuing understanding or a solution.  These traits may not be accompanied by gracious social skills, however the truly brilliant often have the ability to inspire others to greatness or influence others with their passion.  For these people, a “good enough” solution isn’t good enough because they consider their work to be a masterpiece.

Importantly, Walter observed that the needs of a profit-driven enterprise limit creativity.  At some point the focus on innovation must cease in order for products to go to market or updates to be released.  A business must thrive in order for a creative environment to exist.  Finding balance is the trick.

I found the discussion to be very inspirational.  Like me, I’m sure the other attendees walked away re-energized, recommitted to passionately seeking better solutions and appreciative of work environments that encourage innovation.