Maurice Blackburn Cashman moves to Elite 3E to Further Improve Management Capabilities

June 2007: National Australian law practice Maurice Blackburn Cashman (MBC) has become the first Thomson Elite client in Australia to move from its existing Elite Enterprise practice and financial management system to Elite 3E, the company’s business optimisation suite released globally in 2006.

Chief Financial Officer for MBC, Neil Mackay, says the firm bought Elite Enterprise two years ago and, while it remains happy with the performance of the software, it was attracted to the sophisticated technology offered by Elite 3E.

“We run a diverse legal practice and have 11 offices across three states in Australia. Elite 3E is a configurable and extensible system that will provide the right platform on which to make forward-thinking business decisions.”

In particular Mackay says MBC was attracted to the workflow and collaboration capabilities offered by Elite 3E. Every transaction and data-capture page in Elite 3E is workflow-enabled and inherent to the platform itself. The Elite 3E process manager allows administrators to control all process flows and subject them to particular business rules.

“We are impressed with how the workflow is tightly integrated with Microsoft Outlook. At the moment we have to open a new application to initiate a workflow process. But with Elite 3E a ‘submit’ button resides within the email and notifies the user that a workflow needs action. The process essentially happens within the email itself.

“Being able to collaborate and undertake approval processes in this manner is essential for us. With this type of integration we can move information and approvals electronically across offices.”

The Elite 3E collaboration service allows users to send pages amongst each other for comment and update. For example, when a lawyer is editing a bill, he/she can examine a proforma and, if necessary, send it for comment and correction to others within the firm. These comments can then be accepted, rejected or modified by the billing lawyer who can then send the proforma through the remainder of its workflow process.

Mackay says the other compelling functionality available in 3E is its built-in dynamic reporting functionality. With Elite 3E powerful reporting dashboards that offer a graphical analysis of key performance trends within the business can be established easily and efficiently.

“Leveraging web services, Elite 3E offers almost real-time data warehousing. It can pull in and retain data from different systems, giving us the opportunity to create accurate, real-time reporting with a minimum of administrative oversight.”

Mackay says utilising this type of functionality will allow the firm to remain agile. “The decision to move to Elite 3E was based on the fact that we see the platform as a good management tool. It will provide analytical information to help our fast growing practice remain competitive.”

Justin North, Thomson Elite Regional Sales & Manager, says MBC's selection of the Elite 3E platform further validates the market acceptance of Thomson Elite's leading offerings to innovative and progressive law firms.

“The firm already stands tall over its traditional competitors and peers in relation to technology adoption, specifically evident with their use of the Elite Enterprise application suite. The evolution to 3E places MBC further ahead still."

“The powerful Elite 3E features and workflow focused functionality (coupled with the latest and most advanced technology available in the industry) will provide MBC with significant competitive advantage."

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