Andover, MA, April 9, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sky Analytics, a leading provider of web-based legal spend analytics for corporate law departments, announced today the release of a collection of "Action Reports" that are designed to automatically identify inefficient billing and staffing practices buried in law firm billing data. By analyzing a company's paper, PDF or electronic invoices from outside counsel, Sky Analytics' new reports instantly present easy to understand and actionable insights that normally require hundreds of hours of manual analysis.
Since the economic recession, senior management has placed increasing pressure on legal departments to reduce spending. Yet corporate legal departments have become frustrated by the lack of transparency and accountability in law firm billing for matters exceeding budget. For some companies employing hundreds of outside attorneys, managing billing and staffing practices is a tremendous challenge.
Recently some companies have become more aggressive and have sued their own law firms for alleged over-billing.
"We believe billing transparency is key to a healthy relationship between corporate legal departments and their outside counsel," commented Chris Bullock, Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder of Sky Analytics. He continued, "These new Action Reports provide a new level of transparency and allow corporate legal departments to better to identify inefficiencies and potential over-billing with minimal effort,"
Sky Analytics is releasing seven new "Action Reports," including:
- "Junior Associates Analysis": Many companies
resist paying for entry-level attorneys since it is viewed as "on
the job training." This tool automatically identifies
associates with limited experience that are billing your
company.
- "Marginal Input Analysis": Many companies
prefer to limit the number of attorneys that are only billing small
amounts of time and consequently not adding significant value to a
matter. This report automatically identifies attorneys billing
extremely small percentage of a matter's total hours.
- "Overtime Analysis": While some matters certainly warrant extended hours, most companies do not have systems in place to monitor attorneys who consistently bill long hours. This tool automatically identifies attorneys that are regularly billing excessive numbers of hours on weeknights and weekends.
These reports along with several others released today are now available to Sky Analytics clients at no additional charge.
These new reports leverage Sky Analytics' unique invoice analysis methodology. By thoroughly researching every law firm and attorney found in client invoices, Sky Analytics enriches clients invoice data by appending value-added data points that make this level of analysis possible.
"Companies are actively seeking straight-forward ways to monitor and analyze outside legal bills to guard against over-billing of their matters," says Doug Ventola, President and co-founder of Sky Analytics. "There is tremendous knowledge locked in a corporation's invoice data. Our goal is to unlock these insights and savings for our clients in an easy to use and actionable manner. We believe it is far better to manage your outside counsel spend proactively than try to object or correct inefficiencies in hindsight."
Parties interested in seeing a demo of the new Action Reports may visit: http://www.skyanalytics.com/try-it
About Sky Analytics
Sky Analytics provides corporate law departments with web-based tools and analytics to better manage outside legal spend. Sky Analytics' legal spend management solution is quick to implement and works with paper or PDF invoices or existing e-billing programs. Visit Sky Analytics online: http://www.skyanalytics.com / https://twitter.com/LawSpendClarity.
A photo accompanying this release is available at:
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