Does your practice need a CRM/ERP system?

You may be using Office/Microsoft 365 with other Office applications, but is your practice actually using a CRM (customer relationship management) or ERP (enterprise resource planning) system? To answer that question you may be wondering what actually are CRM and ERP systems?

So what is a CRM?

In a few words, a CRM is a system that manages data for customers throughout the sales and marketing cycle, such as leads, quotations and lead conversion. It also provides all the appropriate resources required for an organisation's sales process in one centralised solution.

What is ERP?

Enterprise resource planning is a type of business software that manages, automates and connects day-to-day back-office business processes, such as accounting, project management or supply chain management. As with CRM systems, ERP combines all appropriate resources under one solution.   

So, in summary, a CRM deals with potential customers on the enquiry side while an ERP system deals with existing customers. The question then is how would these systems be applied to a practice?

CRM/ERP in legal practice 

Combined, a CRM and ERP solution cover the entire lifecycle of customers with an organisation. The lifecycle is not just from when someone becomes a customer, but from the moment they make an enquiry. As for where it ends, that can depend on either contractual commitments in the form of guarantees and warranties, or regulatory obligations that provide customers with measures they exercise for a certain period. So how does this transpire within a legal practice or other professional services? 

Looking at lifecycle management of customers in legal practice, it is quite long considering regulatory requirements. The Council of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) for example, requires all case records to be retained for six years. There are also practice guides on file management wherein the Law Society requires practices to:

• list all open and closed matters
• identify all matters for a single client, linking files where relevant and all files for a particular client
• ensure that files are stored in an orderly manner, such that you can identify and trace any documents, files, deeds, wills or any other items relating to the matter
• ensure that all digital data relating to the file is stored in specified locations and is fully backed up
• ensure that your systems have sufficient capacity to accommodate and manage the amount of data to be stored
• safeguard the confidentiality of client information within files (paragraphs 6, SCCS and SCCF)
• check the status of the matter and the actions taken (and ensure that other members of the firm can do the same)

The above requirements are quite extensive and do require a thorough file management policy for practices. This is where and how a CRM can help to fulfil such requirements, but how exactly?   

How can a CRM/ERP system benefit a practice?

Whilst there will still be a need for some physical documents, the bulk of filing can be stored electronically. This enables the use of cloud drives such as One Drive or file management systems like Sharepoint. But there is much more than just file management, after-all, we are talking about case management here. 

If a CRM system's purpose is to manage the complete lifecycle of a customer, in the case of a legal practice we are talking of four stages:

1. Enquiry
2. Case opened
3. Case management
4. Case closure

A well designed CRM would be able to accommodate all of the appropriate activities involved with the above stages. This does not necessarily mean everything happening in one particular application, but is essential they all integrate. 

Dynamics 365/Power Apps

We design our CRM systems with Microsoft's Dynamics 365 and Power Apps because they are able to easily integrate with essential Office applications such as Sharepoint and Outlook. One such CRM we have designed is iConveyancer which has been designed for conveyancing. You will see from the features, how it covers all four of the above stages of the lifecycle stages. 

What about various practice areas?

If your practice specializes in a number of areas, it is possible to have them all operating under one CRM system. This does not mean each practice area sharing the same application; we would create a separate application, similar to iConveyancer for each one. So, if your practice operates in family law, conveyancing and litigation, this would require three separate applications.