Pannone LLP is a full service law firm with 680 staff based in Manchester, UK.

Like many law firms, Pannone is extremely process-driven and subject to many rules and regulations relating to the core of its business – the provision of a high standard service and advice to all of its clients. The procedures associated with this critical process, known within Pannone as “file opening” includes reviewing and processing new clients, as well as checking for possible conflicts of interest and fraud. The firm had relied on manual methods to capture all the necessary data, input it into a Word document or hand written, and from there it was passed to Account to create the client and matter, and then passed on again to Marketing to input into the marketing database.

With 680 employees, new cases and client matters were taking days just to get a new number and approval to begin work, and there was no way to track status and history or to maintain an audit trail. The process was hindered by missing information, or bottlenecked on someone’s desk or within the internal postal system.

This particular process is used by all departments within Pannone but the procedure for opening files is slightly different for each department. In order to meet its needs of automating the procedures involved in the new file opening process, the firm sought after a solution that would streamline its procedures and provide the flexibility it required to meet its particular needs.

To accomplish this, Pannone decided to implement a Business Process Management (BPM) solution because the firm knew up front they also wanted to be able to use it on an enterprise level to improve the efficiency of the firm overall.

Pannone turned to BPM technology from Metastorm to automate procedures for new file opening. Metastorm was selected because of its proven ability to be leveraged across the firm to improve many areas of the business.

Pannone’s initial deployment was targeted at automating the file opening process in the firm’s Personal Injury department and quickly realized a dramatic reduction in the time required to move a new client from request to generation of a billable client.

All cases that come into the firm either via email, fax, telephone, or through its websites are captured in Metastorm BPM and automatically routed to the appropriate person for action. With immediate access to all forms and information, users are now able to quickly initiate a new file, make informed decisions, and begin work much faster than before.

Users are also able to view status information in real-time and are notified when information is added or changed within a file giving fee earners complete visibility into the status of each new file.

Metastorm BPM is integrated with the firm’s Web portal enabling all referrals that come in through the Web to be directly linked into Metastorm. Metastorm is also tightly integrated with the firm’s practice management system AXXIA and AFD, a post code system that helps with populating client address information for improved fraudulent checks procedure and improving data quality.

Pannone now has an enterprise platform to streamline and automate its core legal procedures. The flexibility of Metastorm enabled the firm to deploy a wide range of processes within a short timeframe and achieve a common process-centric foundation across the firm.

For its new file opening process, Metastorm BPM has helped the firm create consistency, improve efficiency, increase approval times and reduce errors associated with manual data entry. The new automated process has also given the firm the ability to capture all necessary information it could not do using paper. All users now have complete visibility of the process and can view status information at any point in the process.

Pannone reports that using Metastorm BPM has helped minimize its risk by being able to view new file information at any point in the process, and enabling management to run reports to quickly analyze how many files are open, pending, accepted or rejected, and how long it has taken to contact a client and begin work on a new file. This type of detailed information is critical to management and has provided improved content of captured information.

The firm will continue to build on these processes and will also benefit by automating additional processes, including the processes most critical to its core business.