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R. Savitha

Law firms might have answers to difficult legal questions but when it comes to how they manage their own data and employee teams, technology holds the answers, says Pune-based Uberall Solutions Ltd.

The company has come out with a solution for the legal profession, UberallLaw 1.0, which, it says, help law firms to bring more efficiency into their operations. It integrates time, billing, and practice management, says Pravin Kulkarni, Director, Ub erall. Be it document management, calendaring, case information, HR, payroll or intellectual property practice management, the software helps organise and use data effectively, he says.

One of the early adopters of the software solution is legal firm Khaitan and Co. Khaitan says the solution is helping it manage its employees’ time and practice better. Chargeable and non-chargeable time, billing, etc can be managed with less hassle, says Tina Gosar of Khaitan.

Khaitan earlier used different systems for various purposes. But with Uberall’s solution, billing lawyers’ time, calculating travel expenditure, courier costs, stationery, etc, have been made integrated and easy. The solution ensures that all internal workflows are fully automated. The company’s EPABX and attendance system are also integrated with the solution, says Tina Gosar.

Kulkarni of Uberall gives some indication of the return on investment with the use of this solution.

Typical ROI, in terms of time savings, for a firm with 25 to 50 lawyers, ranges from 45 to 60 days. If a lawyer firm has about 50 lawyers and an average hourly billing rate of Rs 4,500 per hour, with the time saved by each billable associate per day (30 minutes), after the implementation of the software, the return on investment is around 32 days. The software cost is Rs 35 lakh.

It reduces time spent by lawyers on tasks such as data duplication and paper work, time spent on managing documents, appointments, resources, addresses, telephone numbers, case numbers, case history, checking for conflict of interest, etc.

“Due to its impact on operational efficiencies, a few new modules and features have been proposed by clients, including integration with Government Web sites and online systems, law industry-specific CRM systems, mobile platforms, photocopy machines and business networking sites, says Pravin.

The software was beta tested about three months ago in Mumbai and the company is looking at an installed base of about 100 clients in the next few months, he says.

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