Where Timing is Everything

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Where Timing is Everything
Get the Most Out of Your Online Law Firm Library
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Introduction

• Online legal research services are quickly
  evolving
• Internet has made online research big business
• Upsides of online research

• Space savings
• More up to date information
• Can quickly produce more information

• Downsides of online research

• Cost
• Many online services do not provide adequate
  usage information, cost reporting or financial
  validation.

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Usage information can be unavailable or anecdotal.
Lack of detailed information, makes it difficult
to negotiate when renewing contracts with online
research services.
What is value?
Online service vendors increase prices each year.
what is the impact?...
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you can master the situation starting with
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Vendor Negotiations

• Reliable and detailed usage and value
  information a necessity

• Who are users within the firm?

• Number of times user visits pages at each service
  site?

• How much time spent on each page?

• What information is found to be most valuable
  within each site?

• What unique research transactions can be linked
  to client matter?

arm yourself with knowledge and understand
todays
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Billing Practices
What are the trends? What are the
decision-making factors?...
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Billing Practices

• Dilemma of recouping and allocating online
  research cost

• Overhead
• Billed directly back to the individual client

• Hourly billing of online time
• Percentage billing of online time
• Combination of hourly and percentage billing,
• depending on client

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Improved Billing Practices

• Establish a one-to-one relationship between the
  research cost and a client/matter
• Inform the Client
• Cost tracking of research done directly on the
  clients behalf
• Client/Matter validation is crucial for ethical
  charge back to the client

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Other Considerations

• What research sites are important enough to
  track?
• How will the firm use the information?
• Is the cost of the software reasonable?
• What factors are involved in determining the
  return on investment?

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Utilizing Technology
the end-user
the resource manager
the technology
look for technology that will meet your long term
needs
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Software for Tracking Online Research Should

• be easy to use
• determine the exact number of resource licenses
  needed
• utilize usage information to negotiate resource
  packages
• give factual client/matter validation when
  seeking ethical cost recovery
• streamline access to research sites and support,
  by providing a consistent interface for all
  research sites
• allow for individualized Help files
• have flexible reporting
• be priced as an ongoing service that bills by
  the actual number of unique users per month

questions? comments?...
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Where Timing is Everything
www.aps-soft.com
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