Changing Your In-House Legal Time Management

How special the last two years have been. With the pandemic and remote working, companies around the globe were suddenly faced with multilayered challenges. Effective time management and avoiding unnecessary administrative tasks have become more important than ever. In the following article, Anastasia Hufen, Legal Counsel at Helaba, a German commercial bank, describes first-hand how the introduction of our Legal Spend Management solution supports her in overcoming these challenges on a daily basis.

I just made my first steps working with Onit’s European legal spend management solution BusyLamp eBilling.Space as a lawyer in a middle-sized German bank, and – happy to confirm – the tool is great! My favorite features that support my personal time management are the hands-on and easy implementation process, compatibility with my existing devices and tools, resiliency in change management, and advantages concerning spend management of in-house affairs. Besides this? The result is a fancy legal spend management tool that helps a dynamic, cost-conscious business area work more efficiently with external legal advisors. But allow me to pinpoint in a bit more detail:

First, the technical side: Being a stand-alone application, the tool has an easy implementation comparable to the apps you are familiar with on your mobile devices; once the configuration process by the provider is completed, it is just up to you to log in and start working. Consequently, this results in a high acceptance by users like me that share the view that digitalization’s job is to make my real life easier (and not vice versa). In my experience, the configuration process at BusyLamp is as simple as you can imagine: You supply the lists of contacts to be on-boarded along with the billing rules you wish to apply, and in turn, BusyLamp delivers your tool. By the way, it is up to you to decide on the level of customization and integration with other tools: It is either a ready-made or fully tailored solution for implementation of your legal e-billing process, starting with the engagement of an external advisor and ending with payment by the accounting department. Any and all processing may be reflected, including any and all necessary limitations and requirements. So the basic challenge here is to ensure you know your processes and what kind of tool you need.

Second, once ready to go live, you’re in the driver’s seat and taking your business relationships to the next level of professionalism and transparency. This is because you’re working directly with your private practice counterpart in the system based on the billing rules and the guidelines defined by you beforehand. My recent experience shows that one outcome of the improved client-law firm relationship is the acute objectivity: As you stay informed about the costs – throughout your process, at any time, and as detailed as you wish – the effect is undeniable collaboration and transparency in terms of contacts, connections, interactions, and costs. Plus, the advantages of organized e-billing records cannot be overrated. Using the tool means that there are no unnecessary negotiations throughout the matter’s lifetime unless you wish to make exceptions in individual cases for whatever reasons. The system gives you fully automated billing processing where your only task is to provide the correct settings and control the potential rule breakers. It provides competition, fairness, and transparency, saving you time.

And, finally – and especially for those who (like me) take fun very seriously – it’s a fancy solution, looks and feels good, and is fun to work with. Therefore, overall: BusyLamp eBilling.Space is my insider tip for your effective time management.

See it for yourself! Request your personal demo today.