India’s Largest Law Firm Now Live on Elite 3E - Set to Reap Benefits of Advanced Solution

June 2008: Amarchand Mangaldas (Amarchand), India’s largest law firm, has completed its implementation of Elite 3E – the advanced practice and financial management system from Elite.

The firm is one of the first in the world to launch on the new business management system, which is now running live at all five of Amarchand’s metropolitan offices – in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata.

Cyril Shroff, Managing Partner of Amarchand Mangaldas, says the firm selected Elite 3E in order to support its aim of providing consistently high quality professional advice and service to its clients.

"We now have a presence in all the major cities in India. We needed a system that could empower our capability in supporting our operations across offices and one that ensures international statutory compliance.

"3E will provide accurate and timely information, and help us extract growth analysis in order to make more informed and effective business decisions."

Gaining a global advantage
Built entirely on a .NET platform using Web 2.0 concepts and collaboration tools, Elite designed 3E to adapt to the changing business needs of law firms worldwide.

Mark Gower, Elite’s Regional Sales Manager – Asia Pacific says the successful go-live of 3E at Amarchand Mangaldas is testament to the versatility of the software.

"India has its own unique conditions and Amarchand has business processes unique to itself. Elite 3E was designed to cater for this and incorporates special international features that allow it to operate across as many different jurisdictions as possible and adapt to a variety of different commercial and accounting models."

Amarchand’s Chief Financial Officer, Mumbai Office, Ashwin Maheshwari, says the firm has experienced rapid growth in recent years and its management requirements had become much more complex. As a result Amarchand was in need of a Practice Management System that had effective Financial Reporting capabilities.

Says Maheshwari: "We evaluated many products; however most of them did not have the necessary flexibility we required for our billing system. The billing capabilities of 3E are designed around the way law firms operate, and billing integrates with the other financial management components in a seamless manner."

Developing software to suit
Amarchand’s Chief Technology Officer, Sharmila Unni says, one of the critical factors in the firm’s decision to implement 3E was the product’s rapid application development capability. Elite 3E being an extremely scalable system, Elite 3E would allow the firm, in future, to customise the software to suit its growing needs.

"The fact that the system could be configured was a major plus point for us," says Unni. "We will need some customisations made in order to integrate the solution more tightly with our existing business requirement. Looking ahead, we also want to develop our own workflows and with 3E that will be easy to undertake."

In addition, Unni says, the .NET platform and XML communication protocols will “optimise the performance of the application from the users' perspective and will also reduce the need for client-side technical support".

Staff from Amarchand Mangaldas and Elite celebrate the go-live of 3E.

Looking forward to long-term benefits
Amarchand has adopted a phased approach to the introduction of the Elite 3E functionality, bedding in core billing and financial operations and giving fee-earners time to adjust to the contemporary system before it installs conflict management and other functionality.

Unni says that since go-live the system has been performing well. "It is stable and we didn’t have any major implementation issues. We have been well supported throughout the process by the project management team from Elite.

Amarchand’s Chief Financial Officer, Delhi Office, Bithika Anand says, 3E provides the firm’s Lawyers with the tools to enhance their productivity, benchmark their performance. Also, with access to accurate and timely information they will be able to serve clients better and make more effective decisions.

The budgeting and forecasting processes at the firm will also improve, says Anand, thanks to the greater depth of financial information that can be extracted from the system. "Department heads can better direct resource thanks to a clear view of fee-earner activity and central management will gain the benefit of having statistics such as aged WIP, Debtors, P&L and realisation at their fingertips."

Cyril Shroff says, change management of a firm is always challenging. “We have moved from having disparate systems for financials and time-recording to a very advanced integrated solution. Our lawyers are already beginning to see the advantage of having information available at their fingertips."

“The firm is looking forward to a long-term partnership with Elite based on a product that will develop and adapt to suit the firm’s tactical and strategic goals.

“Elite 3E will give us a business and technology platform which will enable us to operate competitively in a global environment."

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