Making Significant Improvement in KPIs

This is the continuation of the transcript of a Webinar hosted by InetSoft on the topic of "Applying Analytics to Improve Performance in Law Firms" The moderator is Mark Flaherty, CMO at InetSoft.

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But to see such a significant improvement in that KPI by itself has just been amazing for us to see. It’s a great deal of improvement in such a short time. We’ve been talking about working capital for a long time, and we’ve got dozens of reports that explain working capital and which partners are responsible for which part of it. And I’ve just been stunned to be sitting in a room with the partner’s looking at the numbers and pointing at it, and saying oh, how it can be like that.

One would ask, do you have it? Or another would say, you have to go and see the client, or can you go and ask that partner to see what’s happening with that balance due. It is amazing to see if the change in the -- they’ve sort of adopted it and driven it. So there’s been a huge increase in adoption and in getting engaged, being accountable. And also what we’re seeing is before we used to identity an issue, and it will just get parked, and then you talked about it in six months time, and it would still an issue, and nobody really advanced it.

Now I think because everyone knows it’s going to be reviewed quarterly anyway, they better act on it now. I think the partners themselves are generally more engaged. We are seeing that we have a meeting, and within two days the actions have been taken. So, for example of the working capital, there’s a data, and it looks quite large, and it’s getting old, within two days somebody’s gone and spoken to the partner that looks after that account, and action gets taken so the account has been progressed, and we’re starting to see the outcome of it all.

Mark: How do you interact with your senior management and your board? Has there been feedback from them?

Ron: I have gotten a lot of feedback from them. It’s been interesting as well. I‘ve got a board meeting in a couple of hours actually to give them an update. Yes, they’ve been ringing me up, and asking have we got this report yet. Can you make sure I get it from my iPad? And if I’ve missed the email or something, they feel left out. They’re just demanding to get it, and gobbling it up. So, it was really interesting, too, because I didn’t expect that adoption success.

Mark: Yeah, like I said that’s good engagement. They’re actually paying attention to what you’re producing for them. That’s got to be good news for you. So, next steps where do you go from here?

Ron: We’ve done two things actually today, only by coincidence, obviously. But today we were launching new dashboards with the board. We’ve got a new dashboard, similar to the performance chart we’ve just seen. We’ve called that client growth. So, the focus on that one is around client acquisition and development. So, for example if IBM was a client of ours, we’ve got 12 KPI’s for them.

We’re starting to track billing growth, profitability, and engagement, all those kinds of KPI. So we’re launching that. That’s exciting for us to get to the next level. We have got the profitability of different departments. And now we’re looking at profitability and the opportunities of their different clients.

The other development is we’re planning for the financial merger of the two organizations. That’s intending to go ahead in November. So, we’re working with the guys in the UK, in particular to start to get them acquainted with our dashboard system. They don’t have an overlapping system at all. We have been working to get them on the team, and to start to get to roll out the reporting. That’s been another project we’ve been doing in with their organization, and that’s extra for us as, well.

Mark: Is that something that they are looking forward to, or is that something that causes trepidation on their part? Do you have sense of that?

Ron: It's interesting Mark, they say, this is how we do that stuff now. So, it is a big change for them. But I think they can see a lot of opportunities for themselves, and there is a lot of excitement with their managing partners. One was out from the UK last week, and he was very excited about getting that new reporting tool. And he was impressed with the kind of work we’ve been doing. The distance makes it a little bit hard. If we could see them next door, it’d be much easier. But we’ve even worked with webcasts like this to make it easier to start work on a global scale.

Tracking the progress of a merger between two companies requires careful monitoring of key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect both the financial and operational aspects of the integration process. One crucial KPI is the integration timeline adherence, which measures how closely the merger process aligns with the planned timeline. Delays in integrating systems, processes, and teams can hinder synergy realization and impact overall business performance. Monitoring this KPI allows stakeholders to identify bottlenecks early on and take corrective actions to ensure timely integration.

Another essential KPI is employee engagement and retention rates. Mergers often bring uncertainty and anxiety among employees, leading to concerns about job security and cultural fit. Tracking employee engagement through surveys, feedback sessions, and retention rates helps gauge the effectiveness of change management initiatives and integration efforts. High employee engagement and retention rates indicate successful communication, transparent leadership, and effective integration of organizational cultures, ultimately contributing to the long-term success of the merger.

Financial KPIs such as revenue growth, cost synergies realization, and profitability improvement are also critical for tracking the progress of a merger. Revenue growth reflects the combined company's ability to capture market opportunities and cross-sell products or services to a broader customer base. Cost synergies realization measures the efficiency gains achieved through consolidating operations, reducing redundancies, and optimizing resources. Improvements in profitability demonstrate the merger's impact on the bottom line and validate the strategic rationale behind the combination. By closely monitoring these financial KPIs, stakeholders can assess the merger's financial performance and ensure that it delivers the expected value to shareholders.

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