Firm Benefits Overview

Things Your Firm Should Know About Serengeti

Help Your Clients Evaluate E-billing Systems

Support & Getting Started

Invoicing Specifications

E-billing Certification

SERENGETI - RANKED #1 AMONG LAW FIRMS

In a nationwide survey conducted by ALM Research, Serengeti was the most preferred e-billing vendor by a wide 3:1 margin. This is consistent with recent law department surveys showing that Serengeti is also top-ranked among corporate clients.

Serengeti is an easy, efficient and secure way for law firms and corporate law departments to share information within a single Web-based system. Thousands of lawyers, paralegals, and billing managers at more than firms in countries are strengthening their working relationships with their corporate clients by keeping them abreast of key matter developments, spending, and results through Serengeti Tracker. Serengeti gives law firms a faster way to provide electronic information to their clients securely and cost free. Additionally, through the Tracker World Wide Directory, your law firm has the opportunity to be engaged by over in-house counsel who use Serengeti to assign and manage new work.

Help Your Clients select a system that works for you

SERENGETI BENEFITS TO LAW FIRM USERS

No Cost to Law Firms
No Customization of E-Billing Data Standard
No UTBMS Task and Activity Codes Required
Ease of Setup and Use
Quick Training and High Implementation Success
Foreign Currency Billing and Reports
Ability to Share Information in Addition to Bills
Visibility to Other Potential Corporate Clients

Recent surveys indicate that nearly one-third of corporate law departments are currently using or considering electronic billing from their law firms. In the past, most law firms have waited for their clients to tell them what systems they have to use. However, a LawNet report found that this has led to widespread law firm dissatisfaction with many of the electronic billing systems imposed by their clients.

From experience, law firms have discovered that not all e-billing systems were created equally. As firms have tried to use these systems, they have discovered hidden expenses and difficult setup requirements, as well as significant annual fees (sometimes a percentage of the amounts billed). Getting started on some systems is so complex that firms have had to hire consultants.

As a result, many law firms are becoming more proactive, encouraging their clients to involve them in the process of selecting an electronic billing vendor that is easy to implement, and that works well for them, as well as for the clients. What are the factors that law firms should consider when discussing e-billing/matter management systems with their corporate clients?

No Cost to Law Firms

LAW FIRM INSIGHT

"...Some e-billing services charge firms. Bereskin & Parr, [a Toronto-based intellectual property law firm with about 70 lawyers], for example, pays TyMetrix US $2,200 a year per client. Serengeti doesn't charge."

PREPARING FOR THE E-BILLING REVOLUTION
By Gerry Blackwell - Canadian Lawyer - June 07

Firms should consider the internal costs to set and maintain an e-billing system. Unlike its competitors, Serengeti does not charge law firms for use of e-billing or any other system features. Rather, the corporate law departments bear the fixed monthly cost for the entire system. Many e-billing systems levy large fees on law firms to send bills through the system.

In some cases, vendors charge a flat per client/per year fee. Others charge a percentage of the amounts billed, significantly increasing the cost of transmitting larger bills. These fees can multiply as firms are asked to send bills electronically to multiple clients. Additionally, there is no new hardware of software for the law firm to install or maintain. Law departments pick up the entire costs for all users, both in-house users and their law firms. Without any cost to the law firms, Serengeti allows law firms to transmit bills and other vital matter information to their corporate clients.

No Customization of E-Billing Data Standard

Serengeti does not require your law firm to change its time and billing system to submit electronic bills to your clients. For instance, many electronic billing vendors require customization of the LEDES standard data output, which can involve time-consuming, costly modifications to law firm time and billing systems. Such customizations negate the reason for having the LEDES standard and result in law firms having to meet different standards for various clients. Serengeti adheres strictly to the LEDES 1998B standard, without any modifications.

For foreign law firms, or domestic law firms that have time and billing systems that cannot generate even the standard LEDES data, Serengeti can also accept non-LEDES bills (Word, Acrobat, rich text, etc.). This is important if the corporate law department wants to have all of its information in a single system and does not want to maintain and work in two separate systems, one for electronic bills and one for paper bills.

No UTBMS Task and Activity Codes Required

Some systems require that every time entry in a bill be accompanied by a separate UTBMS task code and an activity code in order to be accepted. Such coding is time-consuming for law firms to enter and check. However, most corporate clients have found that such data is not helpful, and that there are better ways to manage spending (e.g. through budget management). A recent survey of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) members found that only 4% of law departments now require UTBMS coding from any of their firms, and one-fourth of them admit that they don’t even use the data that they receive. Therefore, although Serengeti accepts UTBMS coding, it does not require it. Some law departments using Tracker do require UTBMS coding only of expenses, which is generally easily generated by law firm time and billing systems.

Ease of Setup and Use

LAW FIRM COMMENT

"After using Serengeti for over four years with more than a dozen clients, I can say with confidence that it is a great fit for international law firms like ours. Although our firm is based in Santiago, Chile, we've had no trouble setting up the system or using the various features. Serengeti makes it much easier to share information directly with our corporate clients around the world."

Viviane Paeile
Accounts Controller
Sargent & Krahn - Santiago, Chile

Many electronic billing systems require that law firms complete a lengthy implementation process, including advance approval of all timekeepers and rates, use of client billing numbers, etc. Before seriously considering a system, it is important to find out the specific setup requirements. Because Serengeti corporate clients authorize timekeepers, rates, and other information for each matter as they review bills, there is no complicated implementation process for law firms to get started on Serengeti.

It is also important to understand the steps necessary to submit multiple invoices, and how to resolve errors that may occur. For LEDES bills, Serengeti accepts an unlimited number of bills for a client in a single batch, which can be uploaded with one click. If there is an error in a bill (whether uploaded individually, or part of a batch), Serengeti not only provides an immediate notice to the firm which includes the type and location of the error, but also describes how to resolve the error.

Finally, Serengeti does not change your law firms established work patterns, including document creation, email, document management, case management and personal electronic calendars. Serengeti simply facilitates the exchange of electronic information through organized online files that are shared with your clients.

Quick Training and High Implementation Success

LawNet's e-billing survey found that there were e-billing implementations that took many months, resulted in the connection of only some of a corporation’s law firms, or failed altogether. It is therefore important to examine a vendor’s past implementations to determine how long they normally take, and whether they are complete. All of Serengeti’s implementations have resulted in connection to all law firms working with a law department (not just those that generate special data or codes).

One reason implementation is so efficient is the system is so easy to use. Serengeti offers a flexible schedule of phone-based training that takes just an hour at your desk, plus, an extensive, comprehensive online Help system is available to all firm users.

Profile: Implementing a small law department | Profile: Implementing a large law department

Foreign Currency Billing and Reports

For non-U.S. law firms, it is important that the e-billing system be able to accommodate foreign currencies and value added taxes. It is also important that such information automatically convert into single currency reports for whatever currency is selected by an in-house user creating reports.

Serengeti is accepting bills from law firms in more than countries and can accept bills in over 150 different currencies. Each individual user can select a currency preference for viewing bills, budgets, and other financial information in all of their matters and reports. The company can also select a currency preference for all of its global matters and reports.

Ability to Share Information in Addition to Bills

LAW FIRM COMMENT

"Eversheds' project management approach means giving our clients exactly what they want in the way they want it. Serengeti supports that by providing us with a convenient way to send electronic bills and matter information directly to our clients whilst allowing currency conversion and tax tracking, which is important for our multiple offices around the world - and there is no cost to use the system."

Martin Hopkins
Partner
Eversheds - Birmingham, UK

Many e-billing systems transmit only billing data. As a result, law firms and clients still must exchange budgets, status updates, documents, deadlines, and other information in paper form or by unencrypted email. As a result, the client has to organize and process this additional information, perform its own actual-to-budget comparisons, and create its own reports that include status and results information in addition to their billing reports.

Serengeti Tracker integrates e-billing with overall matter management in a single shared system, which is accessed online by both law firm and law department users. Budgets, status updates, documents, and other key information are shared electronically, and kept in organized matter folders, accessible by authorized team members. The system automatically compares actual spending vs. budgets, and includes status and results information with spending information in reports.

Visibility to Other Potential Corporate Clients

Serengeti’s unique many-to-many architecture permits companies who are seeking to assign work to new law firms to search for and view information about any of the law firms who are working with other companies on the system. Most other systems require law firms to enter and maintain separate sets of background information for each client. In Serengeti, law firms provide one set of profile information about their offices, individual attorneys, practice areas, representative clients, etc. which is accessible by all corporate law departments on the platform. Corporate users search through the Tracker Worldwide Directory by jurisdiction and/or practice area to locate qualified law firms who are already on Serengeti. As a result, law firms have a unique, free marketing opportunity to the thousands of in-house counsel who are on Serengeti and who use it to find and retain new law firms who are already using the system.

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