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Most pain points that a firm identifies as candidates for primary process automation are those that operate daily such as New Matter Intake or Check Request.  Others tend to be further down the priority list as the frequency of use and pain tolerance dictate.

Some of the most overlooked processes that could benefit greatly from automation include annual processes that do require substantial administrative time to initiate, manage, and resolve in their current state.  Examples of annual processes might include Annual Rate Review, Annual Performance Review, and Inactive Client/Matter Review which put heavy stress on staff and attorneys during their relatively short run time. 

One firm recently tackled an Annual Rate Review project and has seen dramatic improvement in efficency, impressive attorney adoption, and reduced administrative load.  Let's take a look at why this process needed help.

This manual process had a number of very difficult and time intensive steps such as:

1. Staff compilation of multiple reports into single distributable report

2. Distribution of hardcopy or PDF

3. Attorney Review of PDF/Printed Copy with handwritten or email reponses

4. Compilation of responses and determination of required approval

5. Approvals distribution and response compilation

6. Manual data entry into financial systems

7. Manual reminder emails and tracking down slow responders

The new automated process has the following steps:

1. Process Administrator sets parameters of process such as deadline date and executes start of process.

 * Process generates task for each attorney which includes editable form and PDF report for print/manual edit capability. 

 * Process generates summary notification to Dept/Office heads

2.  Attorneys or assistants review assigned tasks and provide input. Changes or additions that are outside of defined thresholds are immedately flagged as requiring authorization.

3.  Final approval and review required before the new data is committed to financial systems

4. Upon approval, changes updated in financial system automatically

* Process generates Reminders and deadlines to provide summary reports and notifications to attorneys/staff/management to alert them of pre and post deadline requirements.

The firm now has an efficient, auditable, and automated process that reduced the manual workload of this process for all users and provides much better visibility with metrics like throughput, load balances, response rates, and much more.  The first time use of this process was quite a departure from the old manual process but it garnered favorable feedback from all involved, even with the rollout technical issues and training challenges. This is but one example of many processes that today are inefficient and require inordinate effort to manually complete but tomorrow could be smart, fast, and easy with process automation.