Written by:
Grant Yuill
Head of Marketing & Customer Engagement
Every great business has an agent of change driving it forward, is that you?
I’m a firm believer that in business you are only one smart decision away from completely changing your working life. I also believe that you can learn from those who have driven their business forward.
Emma King, Director at Complete Clarity Solicitors, did exactly that. She’s taken on the mantle of spearheading a change in her firm. She recognised that change was required to allow her business to grow, move forward and prosper. We asked Emma about the change process…
1.What business issues were you facing that made you want new case management software?
As a business we were accustomed to using a CMS however, I recognised that the system we were using was not delivering the efficiency we desired. We were content to plod along, like many firms do. However, as the challenges increased – such as connectivity to that system becoming an issue and a lack of modernisation of processes – they started to lead to us losing business. We felt the system did not provide us with necessary tools to transform our working environment. Nowadays we are so technologically dependent we felt change was needed to maximise our growth opportunity. We’re a busy firm, so having a reliable case management system in place is paramount to our success.
2.How important was it for your business to find solutions to these issues?
It became business critical. The frustrating thing was, I understand and recognise that faults happen with even the best of systems. We felt we could almost live with the connection issues, but we wanted the system to do more for us. We wanted the system to provide us with more automation, with better ways to manage our clients onboarding process and the ability to report on our business performance, to name a few. There wasn’t the same level of desire as was apparent on our side to get things rectified. As a result of the system issues shining a light on the existing CMS, it allowed for focus on areas which we could introduce far greater efficiencies and accountability.
3.How did you go about selecting new CMS? How did you find that process/ experience?
Quite simply we went to market – we sought recommendations from other practitioners as well as researching the marketplace. What we then did was reach out to our short list of providers, arranged meetings with each and explained to them our requirements both now and what we would anticipate and want to grow to in the future.
4.Why did Denovo become your preferred partners?
We were impressed by the fact that Denovo listened to what we wanted and were very responsive to that. With some other providers it felt very much like we would be getting an ‘off the shelf’ product and we were to fit in to that. In contrast, with Denovo, we felt that we were able to outline what we wanted the system to do. We were impressed by the response and how simple it was to customise the system. Allowing us to create a bespoke package which would let us work the way we want to. We felt that Denovo could become not simply our case management supplier but work in partnership with us to help us achieve our goals and aims.
5.At this stage are your business aims being realised?
Absolutely. We have, within a short space of time, managed to introduce a working, refined case management platform which is allowing us to bring together different systems and processes which previously worked disparately and across a range of mediums, meaning that cohesive oversight was difficult to achieve. Now we have everything we need in one place. However, the aims are never static. We are a firm who wish to continually grow and develop and through our experience with Denovo so far, I’m confident that as we grow, develop, and refine, our case management system will do so with us.
6.If you could give one piece of advice to another law firm about changing their case management software, what would it be?
Invest your time. The introduction, or change, of a case management system is a significant fiscal investment. For me this project would have been a massive failure if we had simply achieved a system which worked the way our previous one did. To make sure that wasn’t the case we, as a firm, and me personally, have invested significant time in this project both in terms of the preparation for the changeover but probably and more relevantly since the changeover has taken place. The goals and objectives are to make sure that the system works as well as it possibly can to meet our business needs. Denovo’s system is fantastic but to guarantee success, that requires input from us.
