Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/7694
www.iltanet.org The Business of Law 19 business and risk-related IT cost centers into true competitive advantages. The result is a redefined approach to new business intake that is strategic, safe and fast. evoLuTion: now Serving CLienT/ MaTTer nuMBer . . . Simply put, lawyers want to begin billing right away, which makes new business intake all about getting to the client/matter number as quickly as possible. Historically, however, new business intake has been a largely manual process requiring a tremendous amount of human resources. Re-keying information, a time-consuming and error-prone process, became the norm. Lengthy tomes containing details of potential conflicts were printed and routed not only to the requesting lawyer, but to all others in the firm involved in potential "hits." Lawyers had to take precious billable time to review these long reports for potential issues or, worse, just skimmed through them, possibly missing red flags. Bottlenecks associated with paper-based routing and approvals, and wasted time spent on repetitive tasks, made it clear that technology could be implemented to reduce these inefficiencies. IT has always been charged with finding the right tools to do the job easily, effectively and with as little maintenance effort as possible. We need a customer relationship management (CRM) system (check), time entry system (check), document management system (check), and so on. With such clear-cut needs for other back- office functions, firms were on a fairly level playing field. Firm size was what typically drove the selection of one vendor's technology over another. But when it came to new business intake, one clear technology solution didn't emerge. Depending on the firm, information needed for evaluating potential business and assigning a client/matter number could come from time and billing system reports, conflicts management systems or any number of information repositories within the firm. Business rules for evaluation and approvals also varied. IT turned to off-the-shelf, bespoke and hybrid workflow tools that could help automate and streamline processes to reduce the time required to open new business. Still used today, these new business intake systems automate the steps in the review and approval process, and then trigger the issuance of the client/matter number. IT did "new business intake systems in use today were not likely developed in cooperation with firm risk management leadership and may not be reflective of a firm's current risk profile and practices."