<b><i>Product Review</b></i> Corprasoft Legal Desktop

For a busy corporate law department, any matter management system that helps to monitor various activities and streamline the management of legal affairs is a valuable tool indeed. But what happens if you have to start from scratch in the deployment of that system? What if you have to leave the familiarity of your existing management system and convert to an entirely new platform?

Throughout the 1990s, The Williams Companies used an application that was at one time the leading matter management system for corporate law departments. Unfortunately, the vendor determined that the product would no longer be supported beyond 2004.

After an extensive search and evaluation process for a replacement system, Williams selected Corprasoft Legal Desktop, the Web-based matter management system from Dallas-based Corprasoft, Inc.

About Legal Desktop

The Corprasoft Legal Desktop matter management system is very sophisticated and is able to address a variety of needs. Corprasoft has demonstrated a long-term vision for product development, which is perhaps the greatest strength of the company.

Corprasoft Legal Desktop is built on proven Web technology from Microsoft, so we can trust its reliability and functionality. Indeed, some of our top IT professionals at Williams have said the system's design is based on one of the most stable, secure and flexible software architectures available. That's because Corprasoft built it right by creating a full-featured Web application from the ground up.

The system allows our managers to make more well-informed decisions about the matters they're handling. It drives down our costs in a variety of ways, primarily by helping us to better manage our department resources, including dollars spent on outside counsel, and measure our performance. It accomplishes this by improving the internal accountability for how our employees are allocating their time and by providing matter-specific information related to spending on outside services.

Moreover, Legal Desktop has made a significant impact on our operations due to its ability to integrate with, and enhance, various departmental processes. For instance, it allows us to increase the speed of our external reporting and responsiveness to internal clients. It is also useful for consolidating systems, such as claims and relationship management, and for integrating systems, such as document management, e-mail, imaging and accounting. We use it as the operating system for our corporate legal department. It is truly a full-featured work management tool.

It is no secret that Williams has faced a series of substantial business challenges in the past year. Throughout these tough times, we have relied on Legal Desktop more than ever. For example, in light of new cost-containment requirements, we have used Legal Desktop as our key tool for managing costs and budgeting outside counsel expenditures. In addition, as we have restructured our operations, Legal Desktop has given us the unique ability to quickly transition information and knowledge efficiently to new managers and throughout the organization. This has been particularly valuable because it has enabled us to smoothly manage some of the downsizing we've been forced to implement; as any in-house counsel knows, just because your head count goes down doesn't mean the work responsibilities go away.

Four Winning Features of Legal Desktop

When we asked our department members what makes Legal Desktop a robust system – they named four primary factors:

• More user-friendly. It's very easy to train our staff members to use Legal Desktop. The product is simple to use, intuitive and flows very well from one feature to another.
• Corprasoft is our partner. Corprasoft is interested in learning about our needs at every level of the department and working on-site with us to build a different kind of customer relationship, not simply in chalking us up as another sale. This partnership has been truly reciprocal, as both of our companies have relied on each other during good times and challenging times.
• Elegant design. Legal Desktop provides a flexible platform easily supported and integrated into other enterprise information systems. In addition, the system is easily tailored and configured from the very beginning.
• More flexible functions. Legal Desktop's features are extremely flexible. It's also very fast, very comprehensive and very easy for our attorneys and other staff members to use. Those are achievements that make this system a valuable tool.

Lessons for Other Law Departments

The first piece of advice we always offer is that you start by asking what you specifically want from a matter management system and why you need those functions. It's critical that your department establishes a clear understanding of the functionalities you need at the outset of the process — otherwise, you'll end up conforming your business systems to the product's set-up.

The next piece of advice is to go out and find a matter management system that is flexible enough to support your defined needs and also has the flexibility to grow and change as your organization and needs evolve. It's important to understand that there are a number of inexpensive matter management systems available, but for the most part they are inflexible, scale only to a limited number of users and lack the range of features you might want in a system. You also need to be aware that a customized software application may exceed a six-figure cost to license and implement. The advantage of a sophisticated system that was designed exclusively for corporate legal departments (eg, Corprasoft Legal Desktop) is that you enjoy all of the rich features your department needs without incurring the significant development expenses.

The next point is to look for technology that matches your own corporate technology standards. It's important that you find a matter management system that uses industry standard components, such as Microsoft programs. Systems that rely upon proprietary components rather than industry standard components can be very difficult to upgrade and enhance according to your evolving needs.

We would also advise you to look for a vendor that has a vision for its product and a track record of successful implementations to match that vision. Our internal estimates were that we needed to get three years of high-performance use out of a matter management system in order to pay for our investment and as many as 5 years in order for it to be a big win. Make sure that you see long-term viability in the system you're evaluating. Finally, our experience has taught us the most important lesson: Find a software provider that demonstrates a strong sense of corporate ethics. It's very important that you work with a partner that is truthful and candid with you as a valued customer and partner. We rely on Corprasoft to provide us with direct answers about product implementation, enhancement and customization. This level of credibility from your matter management system provider is essential if you are going to be able to make meaningful progress together.

For a busy corporate law department, any matter management system that helps to monitor various activities and streamline the management of legal affairs is a valuable tool indeed. But what happens if you have to start from scratch in the deployment of that system? What if you have to leave the familiarity of your existing management system and convert to an entirely new platform?

Throughout the 1990s, The Williams Companies used an application that was at one time the leading matter management system for corporate law departments. Unfortunately, the vendor determined that the product would no longer be supported beyond 2004.

After an extensive search and evaluation process for a replacement system, Williams selected Corprasoft Legal Desktop, the Web-based matter management system from Dallas-based Corprasoft, Inc.

About Legal Desktop

The Corprasoft Legal Desktop matter management system is very sophisticated and is able to address a variety of needs. Corprasoft has demonstrated a long-term vision for product development, which is perhaps the greatest strength of the company.

Corprasoft Legal Desktop is built on proven Web technology from Microsoft, so we can trust its reliability and functionality. Indeed, some of our top IT professionals at Williams have said the system's design is based on one of the most stable, secure and flexible software architectures available. That's because Corprasoft built it right by creating a full-featured Web application from the ground up.

The system allows our managers to make more well-informed decisions about the matters they're handling. It drives down our costs in a variety of ways, primarily by helping us to better manage our department resources, including dollars spent on outside counsel, and measure our performance. It accomplishes this by improving the internal accountability for how our employees are allocating their time and by providing matter-specific information related to spending on outside services.

Moreover, Legal Desktop has made a significant impact on our operations due to its ability to integrate with, and enhance, various departmental processes. For instance, it allows us to increase the speed of our external reporting and responsiveness to internal clients. It is also useful for consolidating systems, such as claims and relationship management, and for integrating systems, such as document management, e-mail, imaging and accounting. We use it as the operating system for our corporate legal department. It is truly a full-featured work management tool.

It is no secret that Williams has faced a series of substantial business challenges in the past year. Throughout these tough times, we have relied on Legal Desktop more than ever. For example, in light of new cost-containment requirements, we have used Legal Desktop as our key tool for managing costs and budgeting outside counsel expenditures. In addition, as we have restructured our operations, Legal Desktop has given us the unique ability to quickly transition information and knowledge efficiently to new managers and throughout the organization. This has been particularly valuable because it has enabled us to smoothly manage some of the downsizing we've been forced to implement; as any in-house counsel knows, just because your head count goes down doesn't mean the work responsibilities go away.

Four Winning Features of Legal Desktop

When we asked our department members what makes Legal Desktop a robust system – they named four primary factors:

• More user-friendly. It's very easy to train our staff members to use Legal Desktop. The product is simple to use, intuitive and flows very well from one feature to another.
• Corprasoft is our partner. Corprasoft is interested in learning about our needs at every level of the department and working on-site with us to build a different kind of customer relationship, not simply in chalking us up as another sale. This partnership has been truly reciprocal, as both of our companies have relied on each other during good times and challenging times.
• Elegant design. Legal Desktop provides a flexible platform easily supported and integrated into other enterprise information systems. In addition, the system is easily tailored and configured from the very beginning.
• More flexible functions. Legal Desktop's features are extremely flexible. It's also very fast, very comprehensive and very easy for our attorneys and other staff members to use. Those are achievements that make this system a valuable tool.

Lessons for Other Law Departments

The first piece of advice we always offer is that you start by asking what you specifically want from a matter management system and why you need those functions. It's critical that your department establishes a clear understanding of the functionalities you need at the outset of the process — otherwise, you'll end up conforming your business systems to the product's set-up.

The next piece of advice is to go out and find a matter management system that is flexible enough to support your defined needs and also has the flexibility to grow and change as your organization and needs evolve. It's important to understand that there are a number of inexpensive matter management systems available, but for the most part they are inflexible, scale only to a limited number of users and lack the range of features you might want in a system. You also need to be aware that a customized software application may exceed a six-figure cost to license and implement. The advantage of a sophisticated system that was designed exclusively for corporate legal departments (eg, Corprasoft Legal Desktop) is that you enjoy all of the rich features your department needs without incurring the significant development expenses.

The next point is to look for technology that matches your own corporate technology standards. It's important that you find a matter management system that uses industry standard components, such as Microsoft programs. Systems that rely upon proprietary components rather than industry standard components can be very difficult to upgrade and enhance according to your evolving needs.

We would also advise you to look for a vendor that has a vision for its product and a track record of successful implementations to match that vision. Our internal estimates were that we needed to get three years of high-performance use out of a matter management system in order to pay for our investment and as many as 5 years in order for it to be a big win. Make sure that you see long-term viability in the system you're evaluating. Finally, our experience has taught us the most important lesson: Find a software provider that demonstrates a strong sense of corporate ethics. It's very important that you work with a partner that is truthful and candid with you as a valued customer and partner. We rely on Corprasoft to provide us with direct answers about product implementation, enhancement and customization. This level of credibility from your matter management system provider is essential if you are going to be able to make meaningful progress together.