Coleman Greig are western Sydney’s leading law firm employing over 100 people in offices in Parramatta, Norwest, Penrith and Campbelltown-Macarthur. The firm has seen impressive growth over the past 5 years.
This position and success have not been an accident. The business has been disciplined about its planning process and all stakeholders understand the goals and the roadmap to get there. This planning covers off marketing strategy, business growth, staffing, technology and succession. A five-year horizon is maintained and continued strong growth is planned.
This plan then coalesces into a detailed financial plan and these numbers are monitored on an almost daily basis to ensure that nothing is left to chance. The firm using the Open Practice system RedView’s BI Console for OP, or “the BIC”, is a key tool used in this monitoring process.
Warrick McLean, Coleman Greig’s CEO, explains “Using the BIC, I can see every day where we are at against budget. The tool’s algorithms adjust the budget to incorporate leave and flexible hour staff and, as a result, I always have an exact position as to where we are against plan. I can easily see the performance of the each of the practice areas and drill down to individual lawyer stats where necessary”.
The information is also easily available for all team leaders and lawyers so that they can see their personal performance statistics whenever they want, rather than waiting until reports at the end of the month.
“Our firm believes in transparency”, Warrick explains, “Staff can see how they are performing at any point in time and adjust behaviour accordingly, without having to wait until the end of month when reports are provided. As a result, the team becomes self-managing and this is part of our ethos”.
Other information that is important is incoming business. The BIC provides that information on new matters allowing management to be aware of what business is coming in real time. Referral activity is also monitored.
“Every day I can see everything that comes in” says Warrick, “This lets us better understand what is necessary to service our clients. Something critical for a growing business”.