What’s my favourite PMS?

PMS: A “single solution” Practice Management System (PMS) system is designed to provide all the functionality that law firms need to manage their Matters by tracking case and client records, billing, time recording, dates, appointments, documents and emails.

Note: My observations are on these systems rather than “best of breed” standalone finance systems.

I get asked “What’s my favourite PMS?” very often when I’m helping clients, and I thought to myself, that would be a good article title. So here we are… do you have a favourite PMS?

Spoiler alert – I do not have a favourite – they all have good and bad points… in my opinion, some have more bad points than others!

The UK Legal market has seen an implosion of choices with “traditional” systems such as Envision and Norwel Prescient Plus being “end of life” and amalgamator technology firms purchasing multiple competitive PMS products. As a result of these market changes there are not a lot of “single solution” PMSs to choose from, off the top of my head I think there are four “favourites”, by favourite I mean the most popular, for mid-sized law firms.

For obvious reasons I won’t name them so let’s call them PMS 1, PMS 2, PMS 3 and PMS 4.

Each of these PMSs have their pros and cons, also not every law firm using the system will experience the same pros and cons as each other. Each law firm has their unique culture, different needs and work processes. In my experience a PMS can normally match around 75% – 80% of a firm’s needs “out of the box” (with configuration), with some minor customisations and sometimes development can take a system up to 85% – 90% – this includes having the firm’s documents and templates added in. But the other 10% can be limitations in the system meaning that either the system won’t work for the firm, or they have to adapt the system by using third-party integrations.

With the limitations in the system you can create workarounds, again, for each system and firm there will be different work arounds.

Here are some examples:

PMS 1

Limitations

That is not a browser-based system and therefore it is more difficult to open multi-windows and spread different windows across different screens. Where this is an older non-cloud-based system the “plug and play” approach is difficult as there’s no open API, so more bespoke development is needed.

Due to its age, we often get comments that it does not have a modern look and feel.

Advantages

Lots of functionality built up over the years, so however a firm works there will be a way to tailor the system to their processes

PMS 2

Limitations

Another non-browser-based product but a more modern product, again there is limited API but more people have written integrations for this PMS. The workflow is limited giving you one step at a time.

Also, being a slightly newer product in the UK market it is still maturing in the functionality.

Advantages

Functionally lots of features and have a good road map to make use of AI.

PMS 3

Limitations

PMS 3 is a pure cloud product and has all the good look and feel you would expect from a modern, clean application. Being browser based you lose some functionality in terms of keyboard shortcuts. This particular product again is maturing for the UK market. It started its life as focusing on matter management and has grown to be a full PMS and as a result has some features, particularly in the finance module, that are missing or are in development.

One particular issue is that you cannot easily copy workflow code from one matter type to another.

Advantages

Look and feel is nice and modern, reporting is easy to set up and lots of options for integration with other products

PMS 4

Limitations

Again, this is a pure cloud product and is very new to the UK market. The disadvantage of this is that it is a bit of an unknown and there are not yet a lot of referenceable client sites, however, this product is primarily a finance system which has gown outwards to become a full PMS. This means it has a strong finance core that, for the right firm and use case, can compete with the “big firm” best of bread finance systems.

One particular issue is that you cannot easily copy workflow code from one matter type to another.

Advantages

This Company are very keen to impress and work on new features alongside new clients.

So, back to the spoiler, I do not have a favourite PMS but, when we go through a selection process with a firm, we can align the firm’s needs against the features available in each system to make sure we get the closest match, picking the “favourite” for our clients. This is why getting good engagement through our discovery sessions with clients are so important.

Remember it is unlikely that a PMS will match a firm’s needs 100% without work but knowing what a firm wants and does not want is a great first step!

If you are going through a PMS refresh and would like some assistance, get in touch with me or one of the other Consultants at Baskerville Drummond LLP.

Beccy Scobell

07471 897833

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