This document provides an overview of the Microsoft xRM4Legal 2013 system. It discusses how the system can help different user types within a law firm, including partners/lawyers, support staff, marketing/business development, and IT. It describes functionality to improve client data quality, relationship management, marketing activities, and enterprise matter management. The goal is to help law firms become more effective at business development, increasing billings with less effort through better systems and processes.

1. Microsoft xRM4Legal 2013
Legal IT Solutions for Dynamics CRM
System Overview – January 2013

2. Contents
1. Introduction
2. Industry insights
3. What law firms want
4. Different types of users
5. Partners and lawyers
6. Secretaries and practice group
admins
7. Marketing and BD
8. IT users
9. xRM for Enterprise Matter
Management
10. Conclusion

3. Helping law firms become more
effective business developers
What we do is help law firms and We can help law firm staff to
their staff become more effective become systematic, organized,
business developers – to increase disciplined, innovative and
client billings with less effort tenacious in their business
development activities
What we believe in is that it is
no longer just enough to be good Why use us? Track record – We are
at what you do. You must also be more focused on change and
good at winning new clients and education, not just systems
have systems in place to retain
them
What are we looking for? Firms that share our beliefs and want to
create a consistent source of new clients and secure revenue streams
where they are in control and are prepared to invest to get it

4. The best client experiences…
…begin with your people

5. But your people face challenges
every day
“Our software systems “Our people do
are just too hard to not have access to the
use” information they need
to succeed”
“Our lawyers do not “Our firm is too stuck
follow any defined in its old ways to
processes” realize the potential of
new ways of doing
things”
“It’s hard to tap into
other practice areas “There is just no spare
when information is time available”
scattered across the
firm”

6. By giving your people the right systems…
… you can generate new, sustainable income
Attract more Improve
prospects service
Close Discover
deals faster insights
Keep Enhance
clients relationships
That’s the power of Microsoft
Dynamics xRM4Legal 2013

7. System Overview
xRM4Legal 2013, powered by Microsoft Dynamics
CRM – more than just marketing and BD

8. What law firms want
• For law firms they typically want three things:
1. Data quality
2. List management
3. Relationship intelligence (Who Knows Who)
• Marketing List functionality is particularly important as the “center
piece” of law firm marketing activity – the sending of newsletters
and other publications and invitations for events (seminars, golf
days, VIP lunches and dinners)
• Over and above that there are many (potentially hundreds) of
additional “functional requirements”

9. Four distinct groups of user
• The first thing to understand about legal CRM is that there are four
distinct groups of users, all with different roles and requirements:
1. Partners and lawyers
2. Secretaries and practice group administrators (the
“support staff”)
3. Marketing and business development (BD) and,
4. Information technology (IT)

10. Traditional legal CRM
• For a long time in professional firms, CRM system management has
been relegated to the marketing department. CRM is “just for
marketing” is often the feedback. What this has meant is the rest of
the firm really does not understand what CRM is or the benefits
that it offers. It also means that marketing is often left to do the
“heavy lifting” of managing client contact and other records,
assigning people to marketing lists etc – often without
understanding who these people actually are. With many firms
having thousands, even tens of thousands of contact records the
data becomes out of date and stale very quickly. Attempts by the
marketing department to keep the information current means that
they regularly pester the professional staff for updates to marketing
lists in an effort to update the CRM system. The result has been
that CRM quickly becomes a dirty word

11. Partners and lawyers

12. Partners and lawyers
• Partners and lawyers
rarely add contacts and
opportunities themselves,
often asking their
secretaries to do it for
them
• They do need, however,
quick access to
information (minimal
mouse clicks)
• A customized navigation
“Shortcuts” menu lists
items relevant to their job
role

13. Secretaries and
practice group admins

14. If you know how to use Outlook, you can use CRM
• Working with partners
and lawyers, secretaries
are closest to law firm
clients
• Entering Outlook contacts
and clicking Track in CRM
updates CRM across the
firm to help ensure the
best quality data
• Card scan devices make
entry quick and easy.
Synchronization between
Outlook and CRM ensures
that change in one is
automatically reflected in
the other

15. Marketing and
business development
(BD) users

16. Client / contact segmentation
• Marketing and BD users
take the “base” contact
records entered by
secretaries and add extra
details such as
organization
classifications, practice
areas, business
information etc
• All this is very important
for client and contact
segmentation
• Integration with social
web connectors supports
automatic updates

17. Contact marketing & communications
• For individual contact
records, marketing/BD will
classify, add personal
information and
Marcomms (professional
interests, publications and
memberships)
• Workflow rules ensure
that marketing/BD are
notified each time a new
contact record is entered
by secretaries, ready for
review and update

18. Connections
• Workflow is used to create
and update Connections
that display relationships
that clients have with
other clients, contacts and
lawyers within the firm

19. Marketing lists
• Professional interests will
often determine what
events the contact is
invited to
• Publications will define
what newsletters they will
receive
• These settings will be used
to update Marketing Lists
whether static or dynamic

20. Marketing events
• Marketing/BD users will
schedule and maintain
events
• Event details will include
the format, catering
arrangements, room
setup, staffing and
financial analysis

21. Planning activities
• Planning activities will
reflect the checklist of
tasks to be performed as
part of holding the event

22. Event responses
• Event responses will be
used to update client
contact records, create
name badges and record
special dietary
requirements

23. Opportunity management
• From the seminars, golf
days and VIP events,
marketing/BD will use
opportunity records to
track deal flow
• This includes who might
have referred the
prospective client,
forecast billings/fees and
selection
criteria/processes

24. Deal information
• Deal information will also
be recorded for
lodgement with league
tables/directories

25. Information
Technology (IT) users

26. System administration
• Important to IT users is
easy user maintenance
and integration with
Active Directory/HR
databases, understanding
of data management
/duplicate detection,
workflow and system jobs
that run in background
• We have experience with
integrating major law firm
practice and document
management systems eg.
Thomson Elite, Aderant
Expert, iManage etc

27. Matter inceptions
• To assist PMS integration,
we have custom entities
called Matter Inception
and Matters
• The Matter Inception
record manages the
”handover” from
marketing/BD to finance
and the professional staff.
It records the base client
and matter details
together with rates and
other information leading
to formal engagement
letter and client
instructions

28. Matters
• The Matter record
displays the information
typically synchronized
with PMS. These include
client and matter details,
dates, status, professional
staff working on the
matter and financial
details. Information will
be used by Marketing/BD
to create case studies,
update partner profiles
and firm specializations.
Client, matter and value
confidentiality will define
how much information
can be publicized

29. “x”RM – extended
Relationship
Management

30. Enterprise matter management
• Diving into the inner
workings of a law firm,
xRM4Legal IP
Management for
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
is an example of how the
platform can be used for
managing individual
practice areas. To date,
we have experience with
Intellectual
Property/Trademark
Management, Self
Managed Superannuation
Funds and Mortgage
Default Management

31. IP/Trademark management
• Checklists and key dates
can be maintained with
summary information,
billing details and detailed
matter records
• Filing records track dates,
advertising and renewal
• Disputes record type,
applicant, plaintiff and
related status

32. In summary, achieve new levels of BD
productivity through better targeting, activity,
communication and opportunity management
 Help all staff increase productivity
 Close more deals
 Improve client satisfaction
 Deliver innovation
 Drive firm excellence
 Reduce costs
For more information email:
DBlumentals@xRM4Legal.com