Boston, MA, Dec. 11, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sky Analytics, a leading provider of web-based intelligence tools for corporate legal departments, announced today the release of two new tools to better manage non-hourly billing arrangements or alternative fee arrangements (AFAs). AFA Analyzer is designed to help in-house counsel instantly assess the cost effectiveness of past AFAs and AFA Calculator offers law departments a simple, yet powerful tool to price future AFAs.
As companies look to cut expenses in this uncertain economy, AFA's have emerged as a way to control costs and increase budget predictability. In fact, a recent survey found that cost control and reduction remain the top management priority for corporate legal departments in 2013 and more than half of the respondents are pressuring law firms to change their value proposition and utilize more non-hourly based pricing structures.*
While non-hourly billed arrangements may be desirable and on the rise, properly pricing these agreements and then analyzing their effectiveness remain a key obstacle to their adoption. Nearly 50 percent of respondents in a recent ALM survey found that a lack of data or insufficient technology to analyze pricing were top obstacles to implementing AFAs.** In this same survey nearly seven out of ten companies said that they did not have measures in place to determine the financial success realized from an AFA.
Sky Analytics AFA Calculator offers users an quick and easy way to price alternative fee arrangements. By simply inputting matter variables, the tool benchmarks thousands of past matters and then presents corporate legal departments with a suggested flat fee and blended rate arrangement. Corporate legal departments can then leverage this objective data to better negotiate AFA terms with their law firms.
Sky Analytics' AFA Analyzer allows legal departments to better analyze past AFAs by quantifying their effectiveness in cost savings. The tool also enables legal departments to accurately monitor past AFA spending trends.
These new tools currently focus on flat fee and blended rate arrangements, which are utilized by 89 percent and 47 percent of law departments respectively.** Sky Analytics will be introducing additional AFA analysis tools throughout 2013.
"We believe the timing is right to introduce this new AFA-focused toolset," said Doug Ventola, President of Sky Analytics. He continued, "As more and more legal departments look toward alternative fee arrangements as a key spend management strategy, the need for tools to both properly structure future arrangements, as well as analyze the performance of recent arrangements, becomes imperative."
Parties interested in seeing a demo of the new AFA toolset may visit: http://www.skyanalytics.com/try-it
* Altman Weil 2012 Chief Legal Officer Survey
** Speaking Different Languages: Alternative Fee Arrangements for
Law Firms and Legal Departments
About Sky Analytics
Sky Analytics provides in-house counsel with desktop access to a dashboard of exclusive tools to make informed decisions regarding corporate legal spend. Sky Analytics delivers a stand-alone legal spend management solution that is quick to implement and works with current invoices or existing e-billing programs. Visit Sky Analytics online: http://www.skyanalytics.com / and on follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawSpendClarity.