Five minutes with... Janet Day, IT director, Berwin Leighton Paisner

Can you explain what business-process management (BPM) entails and why it is proving so relevant to firms just now?

BPM is something of an umbrella term. In its widest sense you could take it to mean ensuring that all processes in the business (whether internally or externally facing) operate within a series of constraining rules to maximise the speed and effectiveness of the process while increasing the efficiency and volume throughput. Now, BPM is mostly interpreted to mean automating processes (and probably re-engineering them on the way). In reality, though, benefits are often obtained by the analysis of the process '“ which often uncovers inbuilt or historic inefficiencies. BPM is the glue that knits people and relevant information to the process. The 'today' relevance is obvious '“ most firms are looking to do everything more efficiently, pursuing the Holy Grail of increased profitability without increased costs. Perhaps BPM has come into focus because so many of the other efficiency gains from automation have already been achieved.

What have you found to be the advantages and challenges of handling best-of-breed systems, provided by different suppliers?

The challenge in many respects is summarised in the question - it is the fact that you have to handle multiple organisations, each pursuing their own agenda, which obviously creates a management overhead. The alternatives at present are unpalatable. There is no single supplier in the market yet that can even pretend to lay claim to a best-of-breed version of a PMS, CMS, DMS and BPM '“ there are lots of options and intermediaries in this market. At BLP we are constantly striving for internal efficiency and if the cost of making the lawyers life more straightforward is that the IT team have to pedal harder - that is fine. It would be very different, however, if we were pedalling harder and the lawyers were not getting benefit. Managing multiple suppliers is a game you know you have to play in the legal IT world '“ getting the best from suppliers is generally achievable if you keep a very clear eye on your own objectives, even if that means disappointing the supplier by ignoring their agenda.

How did you come to the decision that further investment to integrate business processes would be necessary?

Many products used within the legal space have very specific purposes. For instance, there is no question that the primary purpose of a PMS is to run the firm's accounting services - it may have inbuilt workflow, but by definition you will have to force it to look at other supplier's data. BPM systems tend to be a 'glue' - they have to look across multiple data sets and tasks to ensure that they can marry the 'people and information' to the process. The decision to include a robust industry-strength BPM system has been a part of the firm's technology strategy for some time '“ we are now ready to take that step.

How did you go about finding the right solution for your firm?

We identified a large number of potential suppliers (both those with and without legal knowledge and experience) and provided them with details about what we were looking to achieve. Following initial meetings and demonstrations we decided on a medium-sized shortlist. We sent a detailed 'Request for Information' document to those on the shortlist, together with a sample process. We then interviewed each of these remaining suppliers and asked them to demonstrate the sample process in their software to show how it would perform. Lawyers have been involved in every step of the process, commenting on the information requested and received, reviewing the process analysis, and watching the product demonstrations. We also did all the things you would expect: looking at reference sites, talking to users and to other product suppliers about the interrelationships, etc.

What plans do you have for implementing the solution across the firm?

It is our intention to use this 'system' as an opportunity to review every one of our business processes that can be supported by a rule-driven system. As much as anything, that is a housekeeping exercise aimed at ensuring we know what we do, how best to do it and that we deal with any re-engineering required. Of course this will impact everyone in the firm in the longer term. Short term we believe we have identified a number of processes where we will be making a start, but I would expect to be able to say something much more interesting about what those processes are and the net result of working on them further through this process.

Janet Day is IT director at Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP). She can be contacted at janet.day@blplaw.c