Innovative mid-sized law firm enhances profitability with BigHand Business Intelligence switch

Law firms are placing a greater emphasis on financial awareness and accountability across the business to increase practice efficiency and profitability. However, this can only be achieved if partners, fee earners and operations teams are empowered with financial insights to understand and improve matter management. The Head of Finance & Compliance at a leading independent law firm in Australia explains how implementing BigHand Business Intelligence helped them achieve this and more, building financial viability into the very essence of what it means to work in a law firm. 

The Challenge

Established in the 1920s, the firm has 25+ partners and more than 150 staff who offer a full range of commercial and private legal services. To continue providing great service, the firm was looking for a way to enhance the collaboration between finance teams and lawyers. The finance team wanted to raise financial awareness throughout the firm by providing greater transparency into key financial and operational metrics.

This prompted the Head of Finance & Compliance to look into BigHand. "We were looking to introduce a tool that would clearly visualize and analyze our financial data not only for the finance team but for fee earners, the partners, and other operational teams within the business, so that they could assess the financial performance of the matters they are working on at any point in time," they said. "BigHand ticked those boxes in the most simple and accessible way for our users."

Having initially implemented BigHand's previous BI solution, the firm was one of the first to roll out BigHand's newer Business Intelligence solution after the acquisition of Iridium in 2022. The Head of Finance & Compliance explains, "Our transition to BigHand Business Intelligence was very positive. For one thing, it was a very smooth implementation process, and the transition was complete within one month."

The Solution

The upgraded BigHand Business Intelligence solution uses role-based reporting and intuitive dashboards to deliver the right financial data to the right person. The flexible data warehouse replaces manual reporting with data visibility from firm level to individual clients and matters, while self-service analytics provide controlled access to relevant metrics that empower users with immediate financial insight. 

On seeing the new capabilities in action, the Head of Finance & Compliance comments: “We quickly realised there are even more options available to us in terms of how we slice and dice the data per individuals, partners, titles and practice groups. The new solution gives us access to all kinds of additional metrics and even greater flexibility. Since each fee earner and team operates differently, we can easily tailor the data we share to suit their unique needs.”  

However, they emphasise that it is not only the use of the solution that translates into business benefits but also the supportive consultation provided by the team at BigHand. 

“As a firm, we have introduced many new systems in the past three years: a practice management system, BigHand Business Intelligence, a document management system, and other software we're using with our CRM. It has taught us that, while the features of a product can be fantastic – and the new BigHand Business Intelligence features are – if the consultant is not fully supportive of your vision and decisions throughout the implementation process, then it's just not the best experience. The support and consultation provided to us was simply fantastic. There is so much BigHand Business Intelligence can do, and our consultant listened to our vision and brought that to life for us.”

With the introduction of BigHand Business Intelligence, the finance team wanted to make financial information more transparent and accessible throughout the firm to encourage more financial awareness. The solution has been part of a far broader cultural change that emphasizes practice, efficiency and profitability.

The Results

They say: “BigHand Business Intelligence has now been rolled out to all fee earners, with the exception of legal assistants. The goal at the time was to share relevant financial information relating to the firm’s performance that would help improve tracking actual performance but also help with budgeting. We wanted to raise financial awareness throughout the business, but I don’t think we realised then just how embedded into the firm’s culture it could become.”  

Financial data, once a secondary consideration, is now a central focus, discussed frequently amongst fee earners and integrated into the firm’s capability frameworks. Now, every lawyer must understand what it means to be financially viable in a law firm. 

Discussing the benefits for partners, they add: “Now they have the data, they can’t live without it. While revenue has always been important, the BI dashboard allows them to shift their focus to profitability by connecting the dots with utilisation or recovery rates. Seeing this data daily has definitely opened their eyes to the financial aspects of managing their matters and identifying the areas of improvement." 

For the finance team, more financial accountability amongst fee earners as they progress matters has resulted in substantial time savings. For example, there is no longer a need for dedicated meetings to discuss recovery rates. The dashboard has also eliminated the manual generation and distribution of monthly reports, which used to take the team up to two days to complete. The finance team no longer needs to be involved in regular training or discussions about practice performance, as everything is available on the dashboard.  

Manual reports to the business development team have also been replaced by the BI dashboard, which is configured to provide insights into clients, open matters, the profitability of those matters, the frequency of securing peripheral work, and more. 

The Head of Finance & Compliance concludes: “The idea behind what we have done is to make everyone self-sufficient, allowing them to access and use financial data autonomously. Not only has this shift increased financial awareness and viability within the firm, but it has improved stakeholder relations and productivity. Everyone is speaking the same language and seeing ‘one version of the truth’ financial data.” 

Conclusion

Law firms have an opportunity to maximise profitability by improving financial awareness throughout the business, but to do so requires the right tools and technologies to share timely, accurate, easy-to-understand financial data. Not only does this empower partners and fee earners to make more profitable commercial decisions, but it can alleviate the administrative load on finance and operations teams, allowing them to focus on higher value work that drives business growth. As this firm demonstrates, with BigHand Business Intelligence, it’s possible to build profitability into the very culture of the business and ensure all stakeholders are aligned on key performance indicators that champion financial viability and efficiency. 

Unlock the benefits of BigHand Business Intelligence’s advanced features. Contact us today. 

About BigHand Business Intelligence

BigHand’s Legal Business Intelligence is the most advanced BI solution for law firms. It’s flexible, autonomous and source agnostic data warehouse solution, replaces manual law firm finance reporting with a real-time digital overview of your financial data.

Specifically tailored for lawyers, finance and management teams, it strips the complexity away from the mountains of information you generate. The self-service tool gives users controlled access to the appropriate legal finance data which can be quickly and easily shown through any visualisation tool of choice, including PowerBI.

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