Government Technology - April 2008 - (Page 43)

standard contract to include a quickpayment discount. The Bottom Line Phoenix identiﬁed the following beneﬁts from electronically processing invoices submitted by outside counsel: • The city takes a 2 percent discount on invoices; the savings paid for the TrialNet e-billing system within the ﬁrst year of operation. • The city more effectively and consistently enforces its billing guidelines. • Attorneys spend less time reviewing and approving invoices. • Prompt payment improves relationships with the outside law ﬁrms. • Data integrity has improved. • A complete audit ﬁle is generated that tracks all approvals and payments. • The city has increased accountability for timely invoice review and approval. • The accumulated data allows the city, for the ﬁrst time, to evaluate outside law ﬁrms’ performance using a variety of benchmarks. Implementation Challenges In early 2006, TrialNet was selected as the preferred vendor. TrialNet was implemented, up and running, and integrated with ProLaw and STARS by July 2006. A typical TrialNet e-billing implementation is straightforward: A city attorney’s office or corporate law department uploads information about its law firms, including rules based on its agreement with each law firm, and TrialNet’s team trains the firms to upload invoices electronically via the Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard format. In Phoenix’s case, however, the three-way integration with STARS and ProLaw made the implementation more complicated. The city’s electronic billing system needed to not only assist in the processing and analyses of legal bills, but also connect the ProLaw system used by the City Attorney’s Office and the STARS system used by the Risk Management Division and provide an interface for outside counsel to input information. Interfaces were developed between ProLaw and TrialNet, and between TrialNet and STARS, with the input of representatives from TrialNet, CS STARS, ProLaw, the City Attorney’s Office and the Risk Management Division. E-Billing Functionality Now, when a law firm uploads invoices using TrialNet, the system sends an e-mail notification to the attorney assigned to review those specific invoices. The reviewing attorney then accesses TrialNet via the Internet and reviews the invoices electronically. The system tests each invoice and rejects those that fail critical tests, such as billing on a closed file or invoices by an unapproved timekeeper. The law firm can adjust these invoices before the City Attorney’s Office spends time on them. Accepted invoices are routed electronically, with potential problems highlighted for simple review by the approving attorney. Attorneys can accept the invoice, reject it or modify it. For example, if a firm bills more hours for a deposition than budgeted, the approving attorney can modify the invoice. With this electronically assisted analysis, law firms are forced to comply with the guidelines outlined in their contracts, resulting in additional savings for the city. Our solution’s portability is also important to note because it allows invoices to be reviewed — and subsequently approved, questioned or modified — when attorneys are out of the office. Each night, approved invoices are electronically transmitted to an FTP site and then automatically downloaded to STARS. There, Technology Recognized The city of Phoenix earned an Honorable Mention in the Public Technology Institute’s 2006/2007 Technology Solutions Award competition for its e-billing implementation. the invoices are matched to claims, and checks are automatically processed and queued for payment. Once a check is issued, STARS sends the payment information back to the City Attorney’s Office through TrialNet, enabling the City Attorney to track payments. At the end of the cycle, the city has a complete audit file: Every detail of every invoice is electronically preserved, as are all dates associated with invoice submittal, review and payment. All personnel involved in processing the invoice are identified and their respective actions captured. Finally, all payments are reconciled against the original invoice when the invoice is paid. The e-billing process has reduced greatly the cycle length of an invoice, from weeks to days. The typical cycle length — from receipt to payment — is now three to four days instead of three to four weeks. This new process helps the city pay invoices within 10 days and recover the 2 percent discount. As the process accumulates data on law firms’ performance, the city will be able to adopt best practices that evaluate law firms against a series of benchmarks. Some of these metrics are purely financial, like a budget-against-spending analysis. Other benchmarks are tied to litigation performance. CONTRIBUTING WRITER STEPHEN CRAIG IS THE ASSISTANT CHIEF COUNSEL OF PHOENIX. 43 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - April 2008

Government Technology - April 2008 Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile On the Scene Four Questions for... Freeze Frame How Safe Is Your Data? Easy Street Gadget Overload Indiana Overhaul First Person: A Better Bill Data Defense Strength in Numbers Public Storage Products Two Cents Spectrum Personal Computing signal:noise

Government Technology - April 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.