Actionstep in Richmond offers their flagship legal practice management software as an end-to-end solution, containing both matter management tools and business administration automation, with an internal billing and accounting system.
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Advanced ALB Legal Software
Score 8.8 out of 10
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ALB is a comprehensive UK Legal Practice Case Management solution that integrates all law firm processes into one system, including legal accounting, document management, time recording and client / matter management. The vendor states that their system is used by 700+ UK legal firms, and 68 per cent of them reported that ALB helps their fee earners save time every single day. They further state their customers gain real benefits in improved efficiencies, better management, consistent customer…
ActionStep is a powerful CRM and matter management tool. It provides many other good benefits too. For example powerful accounting and billing, time tracking and document management. Only in highly specific areas, like multiple many to many contact relations has it fallen short. But even in this highly specialized area, so many other benefits are provided that it hardly matters.
It has all you need built in right out of the box with all the core features you'd expect; Client Matter Inception process, Time Recording, Diary, Customisable Workflow modules, Billing, etc. Then there's all the extra modules which other products don't necessarily have; Wills and Deeds databases, Purchase Ledger (Accounts and Cashiers love everything to do with the accounts side), Laserform Integration, pdfDocs integration, OverVu integration for easy reporting.
Inevitably there will be compromises as with any piece of software. Especially one that covers off so many angles. The development tools could be stronger, the way addresses are handled seems to me to be overly complex. Having said that though, the software's primary purpose is to help Fee Earners and support staff provide services to clients and it does this admirably. You can't expect Visual Studio. I've seen users make a mess of the simplest of address databases with strong training provided so it might not be to my taste but I imagine they didn't develop it for fun.
My biggest gripe with the software is that some errors look severe. Other software would trap them in a more gentle manner. However, users quickly adjust to this and Advanced do some very clear monitoring to reduce them as the product mores forward.
ActionStep is difficult to setup. I suggest working with a consultant which increases cost.
Needs mobile app.
One of our practice areas, Property Law, request we have a many to many contact relation. ActionStep cannot accommodate this. However, no other software I have reviewed can do this either. ActionStep is the most robust that I have seen and comes closest to making this work.
At times the dashboard and User Experience and User Interface do not follow a logical pathway. It can be confusing at times, but not extremely detrimental.
The client portal has also experienced some issues with the User interface and user experience functions as well.
The usability is slightly above average. The all-in-one approach has been great and useful, but some of the functionality and user experience and user interface issues can affect usability. Some might be nitpicky, but not following logical pathways or ones that may pose issues for those that have disabilities can really create issues.
The support, if we are talking about technical support with the product itself when issues arise, is average. It's not terrible, but not great either. It is average and what you might expect. Some issues are delayed in getting responses and we constantly have to be upgrading to higher tiers or developers. Some responses are quick though. Response time could be improved, much like other organizations.
I have worked with a lot of software. Each one has a different focus. ActionStep is better at workflow and task automation that the items above, in my opinion. However, having gone through many different deployments, what really matters is identifying your key requirements and needs. Then evaluation software against those. Once you have your requirements and software, focus on using that software to fix issues in existing workflow. This, when compared with ongoing training, is what it means to invest in software. Simply purchasing ActionStep or any software without identifying needs, problems in workflow or an investment in training is not a good plan. Neither is comparing the vendors to one another without knowing all of your specific needs.
ALB Legal Software is a more efficient product than MyCase and PracticePanther mostly for the integration it allows and the "all in one" approach that it takes. It takes several different areas and functions of legal practice and puts in one platform eliminating the need to leverage 2-3 platforms sometimes i.e. timekeeping, document management, mobile access, client portal, etc. Keeping it under one roof helps.
I love the workflows that can be deployed for practice areas to ensure consistency. This has reduced new employee onboarding time and increased the speed at which we can complete matters.
Since ActionStep lives in the cloud, and we have O365 our firm is very mobile without spending lots of money in TS or other such infrastructure.
Creating the workflows is a bit complex, so this increases the overall cost and makes an ROI take longer. I suggest spending a bit more initially to get everything setup and working with a consultant to learn how to do this on your own during that initial setup.
