What is Business Intelligence?

Business intelligence (BI) refers to the procedures and techniques that are used by a business to collect, store and analyse any data produced by the activities of a company. Using a BI solution to create intuitive dashboard reporting systems will allow businesses to visualise their data using easy to read reports using real time data.

As most businesses, including law firms, are now very data driven, key information obtained using a business intelligence tool can be used by law firm management to make informed decisions and help grow the business effectively.

Examples of business intelligence systems include:

• Business analytics tools
• Data management tools
• Data warehouses
• Business performance management tools
• An interactive dashboard or user interface

Business Intelligence for Law Firms

Data plays an integral part in the running of a law firm. Both structured and unstructured data are collected throughout the process of all cases. Business intelligence can be useful for all roles within a law firm, from solicitors, barristers and fee earners to the marketing team or finance team.

If your firm utilises a case management system, such as Proclaim or LEAP, it is likely that you will already have a lot of useful data which can be used and extracted from the practice management system and placed into a BI or dashboard reporting system so that it can be analysed.

Business Intelligence Reporting for Law Firms

We are in a digital age which provides us with the opportunity to examine extensive data sets with greater ease and more scrutiny.  Further, with the expansion of fixed costs throughout much of the legal industry, it is important to ensure all processes are conducted in the most cost-effective manner. Business intelligence, MI reporting and legal analytics can greatly assist in improving profitability and reducing inefficiency.  

Some examples of business intelligence and data analysis include identifying and managing key bottlenecks in processes, or determining the most profitable behaviours.  

Reporting data to external agencies on issues such as WIP and case progression can also be greatly reduced to the click of a single button, or none at all, if you wish to receive them automatically via email at scheduled times.

Predictive analytics within the legal services industry can help to improve client relationships and assist your firm in making informed decisions using artificial intelligence.

Most case management systems, such as Proclaim, can be developed to allow law firms to create BI reports and KPI dashboards as they hold endless amounts of business data.

Examples of data which can be analysed and reported upon using BI tools include:

• KPIs
• Fee earner performance
• Client feedback
• Client and matter inception data
• Profit and loss data
• Marketing data
• Amount of work in the pipeline

How Law Firms can Use Business Intelligence

The main use of business intelligence for companies is to support decisions made by management. Using current, historic and potential future data, descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics can be created and used to drive decisions.

Descriptive analytics usually form part of a dashboard or business reporting system and reveal what has happened or is happening within the business. These can help law firms to have a better understanding of their business and will help them in finding ways to improve.

Predictive analytics are a type of advanced analytic which incorporate machine learning, data mining and predictive modelling to help make predictions of future events.

Prescriptive analytics allow law firms to make decisions as they provide reasons for why a particular action should be taken.

How can Legal Practice Support Assist?

Legal Practice Support are a data driven company, with years of experience working within the legal market. We have extensive experience in creating versatile and detailed reports to provide a range of different business functions.

Financial, Management Information, Dashboard, KPI and Trend Reporting are some of the key areas in which we are skilled. In doing so, we have been able to enable many of our clients to obtain and analyse information, which in turn, has aided them experience the growth they desired.

Furthermore, with the correct setup in your case management system, you can ensure that all key data reports are scheduled to run automatically and to be disclosed to predefined contacts or locations at specified times. Thus, ensuring fee earners are never missing the information you need to make key business decisions.

 So, should you need to know how long it takes on average for a settlement to equate to physical money in your office account, we can assist. Should you wish to know how many cases lack CNFs, again not a problem. Or perhaps you just want a firm wide summary of how many cases your business has and how many are within different key stages, again we can help.

Whilst we excel in building advanced case management reports, perhaps more importantly its our ability to spot where your business would benefit from a report that really makes the difference.

If you would like to discuss how a developer from the LPS team could assist your law firm, please do not hesitate to contact enquiries@legalpracticesupport.co.uk for further information or get in touch with us via Live Chat or the contact form, below.