s Project Management for Legal Services

Project Management for Legal Services

Litigation & Legal Services Provider

"Now we can manage lots of projects…proactively correct a situation…which keeps our clients happy. We also gained greater control over all company processes and operations at all our locations."
- Chief Technology Officer

Main Challenges

When this customer began with a few employees, they developed a home grown system for time tracking and project status monitoring. Since there was no central database for projects, it was difficult to track the progress of various projects to determine their status and whether they were on budget. The system was also very time-consuming.

  • Used a home grown project management system that restricted growth rather than accelerated it
  • Lacked visibility to track and manage all projects over multiple locations
  • Lacked an end-to-end solution that controlled processes from planning to billing

As the company grew, their project tracking system became increasingly inadequate. "We started looking for an end-to-end project management solution that could take us from planning a project, to tracking progress and, finally, billing," explains their chief technology officer (CTO). "We went through a build vs. buy decision process. We decided to buy when we realized there were solutions available that covered over 85% of our requirements. The rest could be customized to our specific needs."

Why Project Insight

The IT group partnered with both the operations and finance groups to select a project management solution that was agreeable to all three. "We looked seriously at some six different solutions before we chose Project Insight," says their CTO. "Our decision was based on four criteria:

  • Delivered an on premise solution to protect customer confidentiality
  • Offered transparency and oversight for multiple, global locations
  • Included a rich set of customizable Web APIs
  • Provided a solution that met the needs of IT, operations and finance

We required an on premise solution we could host ourselves because we could not have data residing outside the company firewall for confidentiality and data protection reasons. Project Insight included a rich set of customizable APIs that easily integrated with our other systems. We liked the people we worked with at Project Insight. They are a company that listens and truly cares about their clients Project Insight had excellent references. Everyone we interviewed had great things to say about the company. The price was right. "Installation was very easy—it only took a few hours. What took much longer was the internal adoption of the system and customizing the software to meet the specific needs. The IT department went through an intricate process as procedures evolved. "All in all it took about six to nine months to get the process in place where all project teams and constituencies were operational," their CTO reports, "which is a reasonable time for this sort of installation."

The Results

  • Scales easily to help the company grow rapidly
  • Offers instant access to project status to identify problems for quick fixes
  • Allows management to measure productivity regarding projects, staffing and billing
  • Produces reports in minutes, not days, for greater control of processes

When Project Insight project management software was installed five years ago, this customer had 250 employees and team members using the solution. Today they have over 800. "The software scaled very nicely," their CTO noted. "Its flexible structure allowed us to grow fairly rapidly." The project management software gives them a more disciplined approach to project delivery and tracking. Management can instantly view the status of every project in the company and where it stands from a staffing and billing perspective. Because reports are generated almost instantaneously, reports that once took a couple of days are now available in minutes. These reports enable the company to compare where a given project should be based on the plan vs. its actual status.

Reports also measure the productivity of various projects, staffing levels, whether any projects are running the risk of not being delivered on time and on budget, and financial reports for billing and internal budgeting. "With Project Insight project management software we have the transparency we wanted," their CTO adds. "Now we can manage lots of projects across multiple locations and know their status at any given time. This allows us to proactively correct a situation if the project is off track, which keeps our clients happy. We also gained greater control over all company processes and operations at all our locations as well as company-wide visibility." "Customer support has been extremely helpful," their CTO concludes. "Whenever we raise an issue it's handled promptly and professionally. In addition, Project Insight's customer representatives contact us all the time to ensure we're happy with the product. They truly care about our success."