Business Value Case Study - Posted 12/12/2006
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Phillips Fox Streamlines Case Management with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
The TV courtroom cliché of ‘Exhibit A’ or ‘Exhibit B’ doesn’t relate to the real world, where even a simple case may have more than 5,000 pieces of evidence. For top Australasian law firm Phillips Fox, the costs and operational difficulties of case management were rapidly becoming too much for its current system to handle. The product failed to take into account the varying types of evidence the firm needed to track and was expensive to license. Microsoft partner Unique World put together a pilot project using Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and independent third-party analyst BearingPoint measured the results. By improving search functionality, managing a broader range of documents and document metadata and simplifying data sharing, BearingPoint estimated Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 could provide benefits to Phillips Fox of more than A$700,000 a year through direct cost cutting, productivity gains and improved resource management.
Situation
Successful management of evidence for litigation has become one of the toughest issues facing legal firms in recent times. Not only must the data be stored securely, it also needs to be easily accessible, searchable across a variety of potential criteria, available to all staff working on the case and in a format that is easy to share with opposing lawyers and the courts. For Phillips Fox, one of Australasia’s largest law firms, the situation was becoming critical. The firm was using three disparate case management systems: two third-party products and one for smaller cases that had been developed internally. For a firm that employs more than 1,400 people in 10 offices throughout Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam, this situation was unwieldy and wasted resources. Phillips Fox identified some key areas where its primary case management system could be improved. The major issue was that client licenses were very expensive, which meant not all staff working on a specific case could access the relevant data. The existing system also worked on the assumption that all evidence was in the form of a document, failing to take into account the fluid nature of evidence in contemporary court cases. “When entering evidence, we would create a new item in the system,” says Andrew Calvin, Practice Support Unit Manager at Phillips Fox. “Some basic metadata would go with the object: who created it, who sent it, who received it. However, evidence isn’t just documents; it could be a date, an event, something like a mortgage or even a physical object. We required a system that could take all of this into account.” A further effect of this document-centric approach was the amount of data entry required. While most data entry is outsourced, a better interface would allow the firm to carry out its own data entry in smaller matters. This would avoid outsourcing roughly 16,000 documents a year and reduce barriers to using the system. Finally, the smaller case system could not effectively manage the size of some cases Phillips Fox worked on. “The largest case I’m personally involved in has 1.1 million pieces of evidence and up to 60 staff working on it,” says Calvin. “Being able to store that information centrally and have it as a searchable database that can be shared easily internally and externally is essential in serving our clients to the best of our ability. We needed a more elegant case management solution.”
Solution
Microsoft partner, Unique World, quickly identified Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 as a more suitable solution. “Phillips Fox had already made a significant investment in Microsoft infrastructure,” says Elon Aizenstros, Director of Sales and Marketing for Unique World. “Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 was the best way to leverage this investment while making the best use of the firm’s existing architecture.” Unique World began a pilot project to accurately determine the benefits Phillips Fox could gain from a case management system based on Office SharePoint Server 2007. “We were already running Office SharePoint Server 2003, but not utilizing its features fully,” says Calvin. “On paper, the 2007 release seemed perfect, but we needed to be sure.” Unique World created a test system that would allow Phillips Fox to run up to four smaller cases to determine the advantages of using SharePoint Server 2007 for case management and data sharing. “As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, we have an in-depth understanding of the unique functionality available in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007,” says Aizenstros. “We worked with Phillips Fox’s internal developers to spec out a system that took advantage of the products features to address the firm’s needs.” Unique World created a Web-enabled case management system that built on the functions of the older system. Features included: Advanced search functionality. The ability to import and export data using common formats. Image storage and annotation functionality. Shared calendars for staff involved in cases. Native document capture for common formats. Document auditing and reporting.
Benefits
As part of the pilot project, Microsoft engaged independent business analyst and consultant BearingPoint to measure the potential impact of the Microsoft solution. BearingPoint reported that the project demonstrated a number of measurable benefits, detailed below.
Operational Savings from a Streamlined Case Management Solution
“A lot of the benefits we saw from this project were about avoiding future costs,” says Calvin. “Clients want lawyers to be more productive for less. One way for us to stand out in the market is to produce the same or better results at a reduced cost.” The pilot system streamlined the process of searching for evidence by around 10 percent. This equates to a saving of roughly A$520,000 per year in wasted staff time. Similarly, using the one central case management solution would cut 50 hours a year spent logging into the different management systems, a saving of A$10,000. Moving away from the system Phillips Fox used before would also save the firm more than A$125,000 each year and A$25,000 per annum in software licensing and maintenance costs. Finally, a more efficient data entry process would reduce Phillips Fox’s reliance on outsourced data entry – currently 16,000 documents a year – and retain around A$19,000 internally. “Overall, the BearingPoint analysis revealed that the new solution would generate savings or benefits across the firm of approximately A$700,000 per annum,” says Calvin.
Strategic Benefits Company-Wide
Streamlining the case management process has flow-on benefits beyond cutting costs. “If Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 can be deployed for even 70 percent of the litigation we run, Phillips Fox can expect to see significant productivity improvements.” says Calvin. The Office SharePoint Server 2007 solution makes it easy for Phillip Fox’s IT team to configure profiles that allow staff to access the cases they are working on. This reduces help desk requests and the time staff spend waiting for technical support. While the licensing costs of the previous system restricted the number of staff who could access it, all Phillip Fox’s staff can access the new case management application. This opens cases to new points of view and fresh ideas. Staff can receive standardized training on the new system. This means they are able to work across multiple cases or switch easily from case to case without needing to refamiliarize themselves with different management systems. By taking more document processing in house, Phillips Fox also minimizes the potential exposure of case-sensitive data to external organizations. This gives privacy-minded clients greater confidence in the firm, which in turn may lead to more work.
Legal Compliance and Peace of Mind for Clients
As with all legal firms, Phillips Fox has to meet regulatory requirements around evidence discovery, retention and sharing. The ability to categorize documents as private, confidential or public, and being able to restrict access and disclosure of data on a user-by-user basis, allows the firm to fully protect the interests of its clients, a legal and commercial necessity. A case management system based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 allows case documents to be stored in their native format and makes it simple to export documents to external parties. The system can also assist with staff calendaring and court timings. “Internally we can expect better compliance with court calendars – you try hard to meet them, but communication issues can cause deadline slips,” says Calvin. “A solid management system can eliminate that and also ensure that delegated tasks are understood and don’t slip through the cracks.”
Microsoft Office System
The Microsoft Office System is the business world’s chosen environment for information work, providing the programs, servers, and services that help you succeed by transforming information into impact. For more information about the Microsoft Office System, go to: www.microsoft.com/office
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com For more information about Unique World products and services, call (612) 8001 7777 or visit the Web site at: www.uniqueworld.net For more information about Phillips Fox, call (612) 9286 8000 or visit the Web site at: the Web site at: www.phillipsfox.com.au
