The Law Factory and its clients gain efficiencies through use of Osprey Approach

Alex Simons, business manager at legal accounting firm The Law Factory, explains how Osprey Approach’s joined-up solution has helped the business boost efficiencies, and why it recommends the provider to its own clients.

Founded in 1990, The Law Factory LLP provides comprehensive legal accounts services for law firms of all sizes.

The Ledbury-based accounting and consultancy company has helped hundreds of businesses ease the administrative burden of back-end processes and has become an integral part of its clients’ businesses.

The Law Factory implemented Osprey Approach over 20 years ago and, since then, Osprey has been a fundamental part of its business. Osprey Approach is designed to make managing a practice easier, which is why it’s an end-to-end platform that integrates everything from case management to document production, time recording, accounts, and client CRM solution. This helps The Law Factory’s clients increase efficiencies and improve profitability. Law Factory business manager Alex Simons explains: “There are a lot of features like workflows and key dates that make Osprey very appealing to fee earners, as they can plan their day and understand just where they are at with each case. The integration with Office 365 makes it really appealing to my clients because it means they can do their jobs faster.”

Accessible anywhere, any time 

As firms move to a hybrid and flexible way of working, they need a software solution that is flexible and cloud-based, enabling clients, cases, and accounts to be managed from anywhere. Last year, this was particularly advantageous for The Law Factory, as the whole team worked from home, but it also provides flexibility when on the road and at court. “One of the important things about Osprey is that it’s cloud-based. We can access it from anywhere and anytime without any issues. It means working from home hasn’t been a problem for us during the lockdowns – and even when you’re not working from home, you may be visiting clients and you can still access the software from your mobile. It’s great for The Law Factory because we’re completely outsourced.”

Osprey Approach’s secure, co-located servers are hosted in the UK in ISO27001-certified data centres. This gives firms the confidence that their business and client files, and data, are safe and secure.

The importance of integrated accounts 

At the core of Osprey is legal accounting, which integrates seamlessly into all other areas of the case management solution. This means client and business accounts are all in one place, avoiding duplication of data and reducing the risk of errors.

Simons explains: “At no point is the client account, or the office side of the client account, split from all of the business accounts. Having your accounts integrated and all in one place where you can run, post and report, with everything happening instantly, without manual synchronisation, is a massive benefit.”

Smart and effective reporting tools

The reports feature is highly regarded by The Law Factory: “The reporting aspect is probably one of the most appealing features because every single report you can think of is on there. If you somehow manage to think of a report that isn’t on there, you can actually build it within the report writer.”

Osprey Approach offers dedicated, all-inclusive support and training for any area of the software to ensure full optimisation and return on the solution for any firm. “You can get specialist training from Osprey to help you build a report bespoke to your firm,” Simons adds.

Efficiencies can be increased thanks to the report scheduler, which has saved The Law Factory’s clients substantial time. Osprey enables teams to build, schedule and distribute reports ahead of time so that everyone is kept updated and has visibility around the firm’s performance.

“As a cashier, in a busy firm, you want a report that is self-generating – so the report-writing tool and the editability of the reporting functions are massively appealing to us.

“You can get an Accountant’s log in and they can go in and get the reports themselves because the reports are all saved within the system. But, equally, we can also send those reports to our auditing and managing accountants at the end of the year.”

A peak into the future 

Osprey Approach’s development team is continuously implementing updates and additions to better meet the needs of firms. Regardless of what type of law a firm focuses on, Osprey Approach offers a variety of focused apps that are available for both desktop and mobile, offering the flexibility firms require. Simons is looking forward to the future of the software and encourages everyone to keep an eye on Osprey Approach: “You should be looking at the benefits of those focused apps. Osprey is only going to continue to enhance the software to make everything easier to heighten efficiency.”

Simons adds that The Law Factory regularly recommends the solution to its own clients: “We’ve recommended Osprey for years because of its functionality, its ease of access and the efficiencies you can make by using it. Time is saved not only by our clients’ accounts departments but also by the fee earners. Those savings are then passed on to their clients – the most important people in the process for any law firm. We have no hesitation in recommending Osprey in the future.”