Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50887
costs — most notably in advance of pay- ment. As with the others, its automated invoice-routing-and-review process can be tailored to meet a corporation's spe- cific work-flow and business rules. AIMS also integrates with existing systems and provides secure access to invoice details, work-flow status, cost-management re- ports, and matter information. By way of example, one of DataC- ert's pharmaceutical clients receives a 300-page invoice from its outside counsel every quarter that includes upwards of 30,000 line items. In the past, says Don Schad, general manager of corporate legal solutions, the bill would then be put on someone's desk for review and sign off. "But their ability to audit that was virtually impossible," says Schad. How- ever, once in-house counsel established, among other things, various billing and disbursement guidelines and the proper routing for approvals, reviewing those invoices became much easier. CardScan® Card Scanner While each program offers a variety of ways to receive billing information from outside counsel, the CounselLink appli- cation from LexisNexis can even handle a fax. "We're the only ones that can handle invoices in any format," says Marcus Lin- den, vice president and COO for Lexis- Nexis. "We have a technology that dis- sects the verbs and nouns in the invoice, and, for many counsel, that's important, because they don't want to disrupt their relationships with their law firms." Like 360°, AIMS, and Tracker, the CounselLink system automatically re- views invoices against a corporation's billing requirements, flags any question- able charges, and routes it to the appro- priate reviewers. This reduces the overall invoice-processing time and keeps the in- voice moving through the review cycle. Regardless of how sexy the program 153927 DD RXHLFA-06 OP InHs 2/12/08 4:54 PM Page 1 Business With over 20,000 Office Products finding what you want is easy. looks or how accommodating the vendor is, e-billing applications need to deliver more than just accounting and bill-pro- cessing functionality in order to provide real value. They need to give in-house counsel greater insight into total legal spend, allow for budgeting and forecast- ing of files, reduce the time spent by law- yers on the bill-review process, enhance communication and collaboration with outside counsel, and generate savings. Case studies and testimonials from all the major players are showing that e-billing achieves the goals it sets out to achieve, that you don't have to change the way you do business to use it, and that even the biggest technophobe in the office can feel comfortable navigating through it. Even law firms are coming to terms with the idea, so for in-house counsel whose job it is to drive a file, make deci- sions, and monitor the performance of outside counsel six minutes at a time, e- billing can be the means to a very happy ending. IH Turns contact information into actionable data using full-featured contact management software. Ideal for the power user. Colour scanning in only 3 seconds per card. Synchronize easily with Outlook® GoldMine® , Palm™ , Windows® mobile, Smart phones, ACT™ , Lotus® , Notes® and . To order quote code #41106-00 for 1 user (Executive) or #41109-00 for 2 users (Team) yourONE source supplier for Office & Furniture Products Corporate Promotional Products Printing & Graphic Services Law Office Essentials Corporate Supplies Search & Registration Services dyedurhambasics.ca 1-888-393-3874 S I NCE 19 9 C E &DUR H PREFERRED SUPPLIER A Fax: 1-800-263-2772 OFFICE & FURNITURE PRODUCTS C ANADIAN Lawyer INHOUSE APRIL 2008 37 W e ' r e a y C a n a p d i m a n o a n M D Y 8