“Many, many firms use about one-eighth of the capability of their system,” he explained.

“When I talk to legal practices about utilising a system, invariably the need and the want are the same. They are, usually, three items: matter and document management, billing, and trust.

“There are several other integrations you can have, including integrating with a search provider, a VOI provider, a payment gateway, for instance, and they add to those needs.” 

What he therefore suggested – both for emerging and established boutique law firms that might be evaluating their systems – is to ask what does the firm really want and what does it really need?

“There are systems out there that provide absolutely everything, but you might only want the first three, and yet you’re going to pay for the entire amount,” he advised.

The Remote Expert founder and principal Emma Heuston, who also appeared on the episode, agreed.

“‘What do I need’ are the four words you must think about. I’ve had pretty much every practice management provider try to sell me their software. Some of it does fantastic stuff, but I had one provider telling me, ‘It does XYZ with conveyancing and family law and litigation’, and I had to say, ‘I don’t work in those areas’.

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“For me, I’m sure those workflows and bells and whistles are great, and I know people in those practice areas who use and like those features, but often for me, they’re not fit for purpose.” 

Understanding and remembering how one operates is a key element to such an evaluation, Ms Heuston added.

“I’m very niche. I’m virtual. I’m more of a ‘prevention is better than the cure’ lawyer. I do a lot of agreement drafting, so I rarely even have a lawyer on the other side. I don’t do a lot of transactional stuff or litigation or dispute work. So, for me, I had to realise and say that I don’t really need these things. I don’t want to pay five times as much for the things I’m not going to use. So that’s probably why I did hold off for quite a while with legal practice management software.”

For those firms looking for a new practice management system, mattero chief solutions officer Chris Porter said simplicity should be first and foremost.

“If things are complex, things take a long time to set up, it’s not going to happen. Having an intelligent toolset that allows people to increase productivity and profitability is also absolutely crucial,” he opined.

“You need to get people on board and hit the ground running absolutely fast. In this day and age, technology is all about that. It’s jumping on board, having an induction program where you can watch a few videos on how to do the crucial things that you need to do, at your own pace, at your own time.”

Mattero, he identified, ticks these boxes for firms.

Another critical element, Mr Porter went on, is having flexibility by way of starting out with what one needs and growing from there, rather than then having to work backwards.

“Just start out with managing your clients and your matters and your documents, and then, at a later stage, you can bring on your billing, your integration with zero, your trust accounting, you can bring those things on later. I think it’s so important for people to start getting a foundation in place and then building on that foundation from there.” 

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Chris Porter, Ben Deverson, and Emma Heuston, click below: