Total Spend Management: Advanced Technology Supports A More Holistic Approach To Legal Spend
The key to success is being aware of the technology that is available and prioritizing the opportunities for improvement.
Corporate law departments (CLDs) are taking a cue from their colleagues in other departments and have become more rigorous in their business processes to gain better control of their legal spend. This shift started with e-billing, which remains the most effective legal operations technology according to respondents to this year’s survey. However, CLDs are now seeking tools that supplement e-billing and help them meet their spend targets. For example, this survey shows that 20 percent of companies are already using artificial intelligence (AI) for their billing and spend management. Total Spend Management from Wolters Kluwer’s ELM Solutions is an innovative approach that adds to the tools CLDs have for running efficiently. The following are a few areas where this kind of advanced technology can help improve legal spend management.
Invoice Intake
Many invoices, especially from smaller outside counsel firms, arrive as paper or non-LEDES-compliant electronic files, such as PDF or image files. These invoices can’t be adjusted or appealed with automated e-billing tools. In addition, the data in them can’t be analyzed or reported on. Manually keying this information into the e-billing platform is an option, but is inefficient and prone to human error. This is an area where AI technology can execute a time-intensive task, allowing staff members to stay focused on work that yields greater value. AI can automatically capture and convert non-LEDES invoices without manual data entry, saving hours.
Invoice Review
Traditionally, the painstaking job of reviewing law firm invoices has fallen to the in-house attorneys assigned to a matter or central invoice review teams. Due to limited time, competing priorities, and the drudgery of scrutinizing every line item, invoices often are not reviewed as carefully as they should be. This leads to spend leakage and low compliance with billing guidelines. AI technology can analyze huge numbers of invoices quickly and flag line items that need careful attention so that human reviewers can focus these, instead of wading through every line. Here, technology does the grunt work, and people are able to spend their time efficiently.
Outside Counsel Selection
It’s common for legal teams to make outside counsel selections based on who they traditionally use or personal relationships and good impressions. But this leaves CLDs open to selecting the wrong partner, instead of the one most likely to deliver the results they want. Predictive AI offers a more reliable alternative. An AI algorithm can analyze information from past cases and performance and make a recommendation as to which firm would likely be the best fit, with no need to make a guess or rely on a gut feeling.
Many CLDs have already begun to adopt portions of the Total Spend. Many CLDs have already started to adopt portions of the Total Spend Management Approach, identifying processes and technologies that can be improved upon to better control legal spend., identifying processes and technologies that can be improved upon to better control legal spend. The key to success is being aware of the technology that is available and prioritizing the opportunities for improvement.
