Tag Archives for " ROI "

Resources Offering ROI

By Michael Feit | Legal Information Trends , Resources

In 2016, Feit Consulting launched the Market Trends Legal Information Series. The Series is composed of white papers and survey results on pertinent topics in the legal information arena. The Series was launched with our report on Westlaw & Lexis: Path to Commoditization discussing the historical pricing and strategies of these vendors, and detailed insights to where the legal information market is heading.

Another hot topic is the sole provider trend. In January 2017, Feit Consulting released The Sole Provider Playbook and the Sole Provider Viability Decision Guide. These resources provide more than a high-level discussion about the trend. These resources can be used by firms and organizations as how-to guides, walking them through the process of evaluating, assessing, and implementing change. Out hope is that more firms will take on a proactive approach to evaluating the option, not waiting to the last minute when their hands are tied by the vendor. We want to provide firms and organizations with tools, concrete steps for making the best decision for their legal information strategy and bottom line.

This past summer, Feit Consulting released Optimizing Legal Information Pricing. A unique resource offering Feit Consulting’s view of pricing in the market. This is an excellent resource for getting a general sense of how your firm or organization’s contracts measure up. Feit Consulting can also conduct personalized benchmarking for your firm or organization.  This is highly recommended for anyone who has not received a Lexis or Westlaw price adjustment since 2008.

In developing these reports, we utilized surveys and conducted one-on-one interviews with experts in the field to provide comprehensive resources. What we heard over and over again from firms and organizations who purchased these reports has been how impressed they are with the wealth of knowledge and detail provided.

Whether you have unused funds for 2017, or want to get head of the game for anticipated 2018 projects, the Market Trends Legal Information Series provides a wealth of knowledge, guidance and processes for ROI of your legal information portfolio. Contact Feit today for year-end special pricing. Click here to learn more about all the reports and surveys we offer.

Spend Those Year-End Reserves on Help for 2018

By Michael Feit | Benchmarking , Resources

If you are fortunate, you may have leftover dollars on some of your budget lines. Think about how you will spend those year-end reserves to best set yourself up for 2018. Spending remaining 2017 reserves wisely can prove to a great investment in the future.

Provided here are quick, year-end solutions that offer excellent Return on Investment for your 2018 bottom line.

• Benchmark your Lexis and Westlaw Contracts. Feit Consulting will evaluate your contracts, analyzing the Spend Per Attorney, geographical location, practice group mix, and other metrics to provide your firm or organization with a realistic view of how well your pricing and terms are.

• Purchase rich resources specific to an anticipated 2018 project, such as Feit Consulting white-papers.  One of many white papers Feit offers on various legal information management needs is the Sole Provider Viability Decision Guide. This report provides clear steps to analyzing your strategy and evaluating whether vendor elimination is a good option for your firm or organization.

• Schedule a Market Overview Presentation. Gain an understanding of current market trends including pricing stats, strategies and anticipated outcomes for your upcoming contract negotiations – presented in a 1 hour presentation by Feit Consulting Experts.

Contact Feit Consulting today to learn how we can address your legal information year-end needs, and 2018 goals. Click here to get started.

Budgeting to Maximize ROI

By Michael Feit | Budgeting , Modern Law Library , Resources

Will you play it safe or take a risk for greater returns?  

The Modern Library requires individuals to change their mindset from maintaining the status quo and becoming open to new ways of doing things. Budget season is here. Now is the time to consider how you will shape your budget with new solutions to your organization’s anticipated changes in 2018.

• ERM (Electronic Resource management system): If your firm doesn’t already have an ERM, it may be time. Read more here.
• Content Aggregators: Influencing the firm’s bottom line with current awareness on clients and potential business.
• Library Membership Fees: Save on subscription costs, fill content gaps at a lesser cost, access to archival and historical collections and just-in-time document delivery.
• New Software: Consider software that offers newer efficiencies, extensive analysis and taming big data.
• Outside Services: Budgeting for value-added insights on those special projects, allocating funds for consultancy services or to purchase resources that will provide critical insights on pricing, creating efficiencies and library modernization to name a few. Tap into Feit Consulting’s white papers or other consultants’ resources.
• Conferences and Events: Be smart in which topic class or conference you decide to attend. Think about who may also attend as networking is as valuable as the content offered. Specialized topics covered by ILTA or the Ark Group offer valuable takeaways on timely topics that will affect your bottom line. Discounts available for multiple attendees from your organization.
• Staffing: Do your foresee a need to add staffing capacity? Will it be a short-term need or long-term? Hiring temporary or permanent staff is one option as well as outsourcing depending on how each option delivers return on the expense.

FEIT Consulting will be attending AALL; we want to know what our clients want to know!

By Michael Feit | Associations , Events , Modern Law Library

It will be a whirlwind few days of educational events, starting with the PLLIP Summit 2017: Nexus of Knowledge and Legal Tech. Always a one-day intensive experience, the summit, now in its seventh year, will once again provide an offering described as “thought-provoking insight and practical application to the private law librarian community”.

The summit examines the rapid pace of change in legal technology and how information professionals can leverage that change in their organizations. This is of particular interest to FEIT Consulting as we work on our upcoming white paper, Beyond Virtualization: Transforming the Law Library. Summit panelists will explore how reporting up to the CIO has redefined the way librarians are viewed in their organizations and provides leverage for library innovation.

While choosing from the multitude of program offerings will be difficult, we want to attend programs on issues where clients look to us for solutions. What exactly is the role of outsourcing in the modern library? Does it have a place, and how exactly do we approach the so-called “elephant in the room” when our legal administrators bring up the topic? Interdepartmental cooperation and leveraging librarian value are hot topics and certainly have a role in the Modern Library.
We are also focused on the basics:
– Showcasing value of the library to upper management
– Developing a budget that allows you to achieve your strategic goals
– Understanding the library’s ROI for value and strategic purposes

It will be an exhilarating week as we attend informative sessions, go to fun events, and network with clients and peers. For Feit Consulting, we will be excited to share our library modernization survey at the conference. Looking forward to seeing you in Austin!

The Value of Electronic Resource Management (ERM) Tools for Law Firms

By Michael Feit | Best Practices , Resources

There is great value in providing metrics to management on the utilization of library resources. To be a truly modern library, you need to be able to access and analyze real-time data about your online subscriptions and library services and how they are being utilized. With many Electronic Resource Management (ERM) tools on the market, if your firm doesn’t already have one in place, it may be the time to consider such an investment. While the upfront expense might seem significant, presenting the purchase to management in a business case and showing return on investment that the ERM will provide can go far to help management better understand the value of the purchase.

The data analysis and insight an ERM tool provides in evaluating electronic subscriptions for renewal or cancellation may in fact help to offset the actual costs of the ERM purchase. In terms of contract negotiations for electronic subscriptions, ERMs provide you with the raw data regarding actual usage of your online vendors.  This is powerful information and can help guide your decisions on whether to retain or cancel an expensive subscription or try to negotiate a lower fee if usage is low. You can pull reports and chart usage with ease based on a wide variety of criteria, including office location, practice group, individual user, and date ranges. The canned reports allow you the flexibility of charts and graphs to help explain to management library expenses, especially at budget time. ERMs can also fulfill many other functions.

Key benefits and capabilities of ERMs:

• Help manage your contracts.

• Review research queries within databases to identify users who may require additional training.

• Utilize password management tools to make it easy for users to hop onto databases by having their passwords pre-populated and allow users instant access to firm-wide resources.

• Identify the top users of online resources to inform them of database enhancements and additional training.

• Analyze usage, allowing the library to market any under-utilized online resources.

• Avoid out-of-contract costs by including warning screens and messaging in online databases to direct your users to alternate resources when they go to excluded content.

• As many ERMs allow for client/matter number validation, track and bill clients for time spent performing research on databases.

• Promote mobile research and access to online resources and passwords.

• By tracking research and reference queries, many ERMs allow users to submit research requests online, which provides a centralized place to manage library research requests and allows for easy reporting of statistics.

• Track metrics that make it easier to communicate the value of the library to firm management.

A few key players in this space are Priory Solutions (ResearchMonitor), OneLog, and Lucidea (LookUp Precision). As described above, the ERM product suite is robust. You do not have to buy everything at once. Assess your immediate needs and go from there. Purchase and implement; then see how the product allows you to calculate metrics. Show that data to management. In doing so, future ERM module purchases will be easier for management to understand because they are already seeing the power of the ERM tool. `

Measuring The Modern Library – What exactly do your metrics show?

By Michael Feit | Best Practices , Modern Law Library

Change is the only constant. There are changes we can forecast, and there are those to which we must react. Utilizing metrics and analytics will help support everyday operations, and changes at the firm that effect the Library. This data can come from an array of sources: Budget, Electronic Resource Management (ERM), User Feedback and even Associations Surveys.

Let’s start with the budget since this is almost the end of the year and most of our clients are finalizing renewals and expense projections. Consider just how meaningful is your budget? Does it truly reflect your operations? Are you capturing and monitoring revenue streams as well as expense? Are you billing for research services? If so, are you analyzing this data to identify which attorneys are passing on costs, and who is writing off client related expense.

For those with an ERM in place, whether monitoring reference requests or analyzing user data to assess ROI, ERMs are a valuable tool in the arsenal of the Modern Library. Robust reporting capabilities allow the Librarian to slice, dice and analyze data providing a better understanding of what is working in the Modern Library and what might need adjusting, like contracts for online resources seldom used or identification of training opportunities.

Since the Library provides many services, soliciting user feedback is valuable in figuring out what is working and what isn’t bringing value. The Modern Library is responsive to change when it needs to occur. A simple “how are we doing” at the end of a fulfilled request provides real time information and allows for agile change.

With the recent publication of the 2017 Biennial AALL Salary Survey & Organizational Characteristics, valuable metrics regarding salary, staffing patterns, Librarian attorney ratios are available allowing you to benchmark your Library. Are staffing and salaries where they should be for a firm your size?

The value of all these metrics lies in the data the Librarian can use to justify staffing, budgets and to assess the general ROI of the Library. For law firm Administrators, hard data turned into informative charts and graphs can tell the story of the modern Library in a visual way that is powerful beyond the numbers.