PerfectLaw Podcasts

Episode #9 - A Conversion to Remember

Roger talks about his experience converting to PerfectLaw, as well as highlighting the efficiency and accuracy of the conversion. Roger also gives us a 2-year report on the firm's experience and a peek into the future of using our product.

Full Transcript

00:00:00 Anthony Beasley

Alright, good morning everybody.

00:00:01 Anthony Beasley

This is Anthony again with perfect law software in the Lions Den.

00:00:05 Anthony Beasley

In this morning.

00:00:06 Anthony Beasley

We have on our call Roger Howerton, who is the firm administrator for Thornton.

00:00:10 Anthony Beasley

Beachland, Reynolds and career out of San Antonio, TX.

00:00:13 Anthony Beasley

Now Roger has been a client of perfect law now for a period of about two years.

00:00:20 Anthony Beasley

I think it's coming up on the two year anniversary this June. They went live. I believe it was in 2019 that came from one of our competitors that has been in the.

00:00:32 Anthony Beasley

Practice management side of things for a long time and what we want to talk to Roger about today is Roger had a very unique experience with us where doing the conversion he gave us kind of a running tally of how we were doing throughout the conversion.

00:00:48 Anthony Beasley

So I just want to give Roger some time to kind of talk to folks about.

00:00:52 Anthony Beasley

How the conversion went?

00:00:53 Anthony Beasley

Some of the things that he created.

00:00:55 Anthony Beasley

An you know maybe talk a little bit about what's going on in the.

00:00:59 Anthony Beasley

Past few years, especially since.

00:01:00 Anthony Beasley

The world is changed as of last year, would hope it and how they've been coping.

00:01:04 Anthony Beasley

So Roger.

00:01:05 Anthony Beasley

With that said, just tell us a little bit about you know the conversion process and in your thoughts on it.

00:01:12 Roger Howerton

All right, good morning Anthony and good morning everybody else.

00:01:16 Roger Howerton

It's a pleasure to be here once again be one paper with Auntie that perfect level.

00:01:18 Roger Howerton

Option one.

00:01:18 Roger Howerton

00:01:21 Roger Howerton

Right?

00:01:21 Roger Howerton

00:01:24 Roger Howerton

No prior to.

00:01:27 Roger Howerton

Having gone public law, we we looked at some other programs, but.

00:01:27 Roger Howerton

And also I will be in service.

00:01:31 Roger Howerton

What perfect law had to offer?

00:01:34 Roger Howerton

Along with the.

00:01:37 Roger Howerton

The seamless installation and conversion.

00:01:41 Roger Howerton

You know, it just made the product that much more superior.

00:01:47 Roger Howerton

It it's not a.

00:01:51 Roger Howerton

It's not a product that.

00:01:54 Roger Howerton

I regret buying there's so many features of it that I am still learning to use.

00:02:01 Roger Howerton

And you know between myself and the other, trainers are perfectly in the office. We're constantly coming up with new ways to do things, so I feel that the product evolves with your firm and your firm's workload.

00:02:22

Lost connection.

00:02:28 Anthony Beasley

I believe we lost Roger on this connection.

00:02:32 Roger Howerton

You can't hear me.

00:02:33 Anthony Beasley

Yeah, I can hear you there you go.

00:02:34 Anthony Beasley

I can hear you now I lost.

00:02:35 Anthony Beasley

You on the connection.

00:02:36 Roger Howerton

Oh

00:02:39 Anthony Beasley

The last comment you had was.

00:02:40 Anthony Beasley

Was about the workload that the product is involved with the workload overtime.

00:02:46 Roger Howerton

Right?

00:02:50 Roger Howerton

Where was I going with that?

00:02:53 Anthony Beasley

That happens this technology, right?

00:02:55 Roger Howerton

Yeah, that's technology for sure.

00:02:57 Roger Howerton

Yes, the product does evolve.

00:02:59 Roger Howerton

I think with the firm in our ever changing.

00:03:03 Roger Howerton

Needs whether it's small E billing guidelines, you know something that that a carrier or an insurance company requires.

00:03:14 Roger Howerton

You know you can only build 10 hours a day.

00:03:16 Roger Howerton

We're able to go in there and set these controls into so.

00:03:21 Roger Howerton

System that will alert myself if an attorney is built over X amount of hours a day.

00:03:29 Roger Howerton

It's just small features like that that.

00:03:33 Roger Howerton

The catch issues that could become potentially.

00:03:36 Roger Howerton

Larger issues down the road.

00:03:39 Anthony Beasley

OK, now when we were doing when you were going through the conversion process, one of the things that I thought was pretty neat in one of the emails you sent.

00:03:50 Anthony Beasley

Sure.

00:03:51 Anthony Beasley

So.

00:03:55 Anthony Beasley

That's the fun part about stuff like this.

00:03:57 Anthony Beasley

You get the dog in the background.

00:03:58 Roger Howerton

Yeah.

00:03:59 Anthony Beasley

You talked about the fact that you were at.

00:04:02 Anthony Beasley

I remember this you you were going through some overview or something where you had to get to some closed files and you needed to run a report.

00:04:10 Anthony Beasley

And I think.

00:04:12 Anthony Beasley

Of all the things that were impressive in your comments about the conversion process was the fact that you in the middle of a conversion?

00:04:21 Anthony Beasley

Had to get a report.

00:04:23 Anthony Beasley

Since it was a closed file, you went to the the perfect Law conversion database that was being housed here.

00:04:29 Anthony Beasley

Perfect log throughout that process and you actually pulled that report from perfect law.

00:04:34 Anthony Beasley

Versus your other vendor.

00:04:35 Roger Howerton

Yeah, and that was pretty amazing to me.

00:04:39 Roger Howerton

You know 'cause?

00:04:41 Roger Howerton

Prior to going live, your team sends us the large book of billing reports and with our old system.

00:04:52 Roger Howerton

I would have to go into the Crystal report module on the server and then literally creates a report to use to extrapolate the data I want, But I thought I would give perfect law.

00:05:06 Roger Howerton

Try right quick and I think within 10 minutes I had all the information I needed.

00:05:13 Roger Howerton

And what it was was the number of matters assigned for a client code.

00:05:21 Roger Howerton

What was built?

00:05:22 Roger Howerton

On each matter what was written off on each matter.

00:05:27 Roger Howerton

Uhm?

00:05:29 Roger Howerton

There's one other thing I remember what it was.

00:05:32

But

00:05:32 Roger Howerton

For not knowing perfect law and for me to go in there and pull this data in a matter of minutes, was just it blew my mind away, while 'cause literally in our old system I would have had to create a report in crystal reports and anyone.

00:05:47 Roger Howerton

Whoever uses crystal reports it's never a fun thing to use.

00:05:51 Anthony Beasley

Right?

00:05:53 Anthony Beasley

And that's what I think a lot of people you know.

00:05:56 Anthony Beasley

It's one of those things that I get it a lot with the sales side.

00:05:59 Anthony Beasley

You know the system can't do all the things you got.

00:06:02 Anthony Beasley

Say it can do, and one of the things that we really kind of harp on is the fact that in perfect law you have so many different ways to find that to use data.

00:06:12 Anthony Beasley

And we know that that's one of the areas that some systems lack, either because.

00:06:17 Anthony Beasley

They're using a different billing system or different case management system, and the data is not being seen by 1 system or the other, so the ability for you to go in and do certain things.

00:06:27 Anthony Beasley

Obviously it's a lot easier when you have something at your fingertips, like the the data browser or the reporting tool now.

00:06:36 Anthony Beasley

You also talked about and I remember the fact that you had your IT company and there you know they're working with us through.

00:06:45 Anthony Beasley

The whole process.

00:06:48 Anthony Beasley

Getting everything set up and how we work with them and their thoughts and I can't remember.

00:06:53 Anthony Beasley

I have the email somewhere and I can't remember exactly, but I think you're right.

00:06:57 Anthony Beasley

Company gave us some high marks as far as our competency in our quality of what we're able to produce.

00:07:02 Anthony Beasley

I don't know if you can kind of expand on.

00:07:04 Anthony Beasley

That a little bit.

00:07:06 Roger Howerton

Yeah, so you know I I do specifically remember that as well.

00:07:10 Roger Howerton

Anthony, in that company is called Bridgehead it in there here out of San Antonio as well.

00:07:16 Roger Howerton

But you know I think it was a total three data dumps we had to do into your system over in Miami.

00:07:24 Roger Howerton

And then you know your guys would work through the data and then give me a workable.

00:07:30 Roger Howerton

Database.

00:07:32 Roger Howerton

The ease at which our data was copied over to your servers and how it was put into your system.

00:07:43 Roger Howerton

And within a few days I was able to log in and actually start messing with manners.

00:07:49 Anthony Beasley

Yeah.

00:07:50 Roger Howerton

The conversion was not a difficult process.

00:07:54 Roger Howerton

At all.

00:07:56 Roger Howerton

And Bridge had it made that comment of how amazing they are.

00:08:04 Roger Howerton

By your data conversion process and how you guys do it.

00:08:10 Anthony Beasley

Right?

00:08:11 Anthony Beasley

OK yeah, we work with them well we're starting to work with them in other places.

00:08:15 Anthony Beasley

They popped up obviously.

00:08:16 Anthony Beasley

You know the neat thing is, you guys are only San Antonio Baker and we have plenty of Texas firms, yeah?

00:08:24 Anthony Beasley

In Full disclosure, with me living in San Antonio is always a personal goal of mine.

00:08:28 Anthony Beasley

To get a San Antonio based law firm, but I think that that's one of the things that a lot of people.

00:08:34 Anthony Beasley

Fear the conversion process of making a change, and it's hard.

00:08:38 Anthony Beasley

It's never you know, all of them are never easy.

00:08:41 Anthony Beasley

There is work, but the question is is who does the work and I think that on some levels the firm will always have some work.

00:08:48 Anthony Beasley

They're going to have to do.

00:08:49 Anthony Beasley

But of course our goal is that when you go live that the data is, you know what you're looking at.

00:08:54 Anthony Beasley

Is this close to being perfect as we can get it?

00:08:56 Roger Howerton

Right?

00:08:57 Anthony Beasley

And I think that that's you know that's how we all work hand in hand to make that happen.

00:09:02 Anthony Beasley

Now Fast forward last year, of course the whole world changed for everybody and all this came along, you know, now it's it's almost a year since you've been installed.

00:09:15 Anthony Beasley

And I reached out to you and you know wanted to know how you were doing and you made a comment about how the productivity of the firm actually had increased in how things were going.

00:09:26 Anthony Beasley

So let's just kind of go back to that point in time and just tell us a little bit about, you know when the world came to a screeching halt for everyone.

00:09:37 Anthony Beasley

How you know to be Slim was able to kind of make that turn to this whole New world that we're now living in.

00:09:44 Roger Howerton

We know it was.

00:09:45 Roger Howerton

Kind of iffy at first, 'cause we made the decision on March 17th of 2022.

00:09:52 Roger Howerton

To close down and I literally had 48 hours to.

00:09:57 Roger Howerton

Mobilize the entire firm.

00:09:59 Roger Howerton

And get everybody home and up and running.

00:10:02 Roger Howerton

But you know, using the remote desktop services and connecting to front office and back office that way.

00:10:13 Roger Howerton

It was extremely easy.

00:10:15 Roger Howerton

There was no issues with it, and one of the reasons it's so easy in my eyes is perfect law is not a heavy product that.

00:10:27 Roger Howerton

Utilizes so many resources so you know for us, going remote and having 85 people log in at the same time the first time that's ever happen.

00:10:39 Roger Howerton

You know our RDS servers were able to load balance and it was a smooth transition.

00:10:46 Roger Howerton

There was no issues at all.

00:10:48 Anthony Beasley

Good, and as far as.

00:10:49 Anthony Beasley

The productivity of the firm, I mean at that point in time, you know, everybody's always afraid. Well now people are working from home. How do we get our work done? I mean, one thing that is to connect with the other side of it is the the work. The actual hands on getting the job done like they were in the office. How did that process go for you guys?

00:11:09 Roger Howerton

I have notice that certain employees have been more productive.

00:11:15 Roger Howerton

And there's a wide variety of reasons why I think that is the case.

00:11:22 Roger Howerton

But mainly 'cause not being bothered as much as they would in the office, obviously.

00:11:26 Anthony Beasley

Right?

00:11:28 Roger Howerton

But you know also there were.

00:11:31 Roger Howerton

Without me there to hold their hand, they were kind of forced.

00:11:37 Roger Howerton

To jump on the system and use it more.

00:11:40 Roger Howerton

And like I said, it's it's a light product.

00:11:44 Roger Howerton

Has a lot of.

00:11:45 Roger Howerton

Features, but if you can get in there.

00:11:48 Roger Howerton

And just stare at it long enough.

00:11:49 Roger Howerton

You can figure out a process and.

00:11:51 Anthony Beasley

Right?

00:11:53 Roger Howerton

To me, you know, considering that I've been there 19 years and some of these employees are just old school and don't like change, but you know they were able to get in there and manage.

00:12:05 Roger Howerton

With our previous program, I don't think that would have been the case at all.

00:12:11 Anthony Beasley

Now now we're going and you know we're.

00:12:15 Anthony Beasley

Hitting the two year anniversary Mark, you're not talked a lot about a lot of different things.

00:12:20 Anthony Beasley

Of course you are one of those advising members on our National Board of users that we have that work.

00:12:27 Anthony Beasley

You know, different people working user groups across the country, and folks like you that may not have a lot of firms around you, but we still value your opinion.

00:12:34 Anthony Beasley

So we have you.

00:12:35 Anthony Beasley

As one of the members on the board in you know what?

00:12:41 Anthony Beasley

What do you see the future of perfect?

00:12:42 Anthony Beasley

Law at the firm.

00:12:44 Anthony Beasley

It knows you kind of keep growing from here.

00:12:51 Roger Howerton

You know it.

00:12:54 Roger Howerton

I I take perfect law as a company that's always evolving.

00:12:59 Roger Howerton

Ann

00:13:00 Roger Howerton

Who listens to their customers?

00:13:02 Roger Howerton

So we try to create, you know, a new module to help out or.

00:13:08 Roger Howerton

Improve the current module to help out.

00:13:13 Roger Howerton

I don't have any doubt that.

00:13:16 Roger Howerton

I will be using perfect law for at least the next 10 years or even more.

00:13:21 Roger Howerton

I mean, I've been that happy with the product and as long as your developers are always working behind the scenes.

00:13:29 Roger Howerton

Making some changes, upgrading stuff.

00:13:33 Roger Howerton

I don't think I have a problem at all.

00:13:35 Roger Howerton

Continuing to use the product.

00:13:37 Anthony Beasley

Great, well Roger, we appreciate you giving us some time today.

00:13:42 Anthony Beasley

I know a lot goes on in a law firm and you know, I I tell people, I'm always mindful of the fact that 15 minutes is an hour in law firm time sometimes.

00:13:51 Anthony Beasley

I certainly appreciate it.

00:13:53 Anthony Beasley

We certainly value you as a customer.

00:13:55 Anthony Beasley

You've been.

00:13:56 Anthony Beasley

A great person to work with, I mean in Full disclosure, I think you and I had talked for years before becoming a perfect law client.

00:14:04 Anthony Beasley

I mean that happens routinely here in this business.

00:14:07 Anthony Beasley

It's it's one of those things that I tell people that I'm aware does a badge of honor when I can say I've talked to someone for years before they signed with this, because they understand that, you know.

00:14:16 Anthony Beasley

Who we are as a company where we're as much family as anything.

00:14:20 Anthony Beasley

Because I've always been there so we do appreciate you.

00:14:22 Anthony Beasley

We look forward to.

00:14:24 Anthony Beasley

Your input we look forward to more opportunities to talk with you and in here your comments more, but also hopefully share some of your knowledge with other folks in the future.

00:14:35 Anthony Beasley

So thank you again for your time.

00:14:37 Roger Howerton

Thank you Anthony, I do appreciate it.