30
I
n 2018, Bryan Cave and Berwin Leighton
Paisner merged into one law firm: Bryan Cave
Leighton Paisner. In line with the combined
firm's dedication to operating seamlessly as one firm, a
decision was made to merge all major company systems
such as document management, finance-accounting,
client intake-conflicts, and time entry. The original
mandate was to accomplish this within 12 months of the
merger date. Those involved soon realized, however,
that moving to a combined finance and accounting
system would require that one of the two systems be
upgraded. The experts' projection for this upgrade
was 12 months minimum; the desired timeframe was
six months to meet the 12-month, fully merged system
timeline.
Many firm systems interact with the finance-
accounting system via automated technical processes
and non-automated processes. These processes have
been developed over several years by many people
and may or may not be well documented. Downstream
systems receiving data from the finance-accounting
system include the major systems mentioned above, like
document management and reporting systems, as well
as 30 to 40 other systems that require basic data, like a
client\matter list.
Data Lakes, Master Data
Databases, and Upgrading
Major Systems Faster than
You Thought Possible
C A S E S T U D I E S
B Y T O D D P A I N T E R
A decision
was made
to merge all
major company
systems such
as document
management,
finance-
accounting,
client intake-
conflicts, and
time entry.
ELITE
DOCUMENT
MANAGEMENT
ELITE
CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP
ELITE INTRANET
ELITE TIME ENTRY
ELITE ROOM BOOKING
ELITE FAX/MAILING
