Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review This product has no redeeming features that I have found in comparison to the many other eBilling "solutions" I have used. They have no incentive to improve it because they offer law firms a very expensive monthly subscription service to assist them in using the system. So, they are being paid by the insurance companies to force law firms to use TyMetrix and then TyMetrix turns around and collects a second fee from the law firms to do what should be easy to do in the first place.
Read full review Pros The workflows are great to automate simple tasks like notifying people when an engagement letter is signed. Mobility. Because it's in the cloud it's easy to access from anywhere. The scratch pad is a good way to take quick notes. ActionStep lets you create custom fields so you can make sure the data you need is collected. Read full review I can think of no redeeming qualities of TyMetrix 360. It doesn't do anything as well as any other of the eBilling programs I have used. Read full review Cons 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. Read full review Let's start with a basic one: When you click on the "My Matters" tab, you should get to see your matters. Instead, you have to click on "all matters" and then search for your matters. The "My Matters" tab is useless. The help section is abysmal. It has improved slightly over the past three years, but they don't seem to understand the areas where users need help. It should be easy to submit invoices in an eBilling program. The program already has all of the matter data (client ID, Matter ID, tax ID, billing rates for each attorney etc.) associated with the matter. That should not need to be included in the LEDES file submission. You should be able to submit an invoice that has only the time duration, attorney initials, Phase and Task Codes, expense or time identification, and description of work for each line item with the program then assigning the rest of the info: billing rate (based upon attorney initials) , timeslip total (duration times billing rate), total for invoice, attorney tax id , client ID, matter ID, etc. The program only works with Internet Explorer or Chrome. Both are major security risks for a law firm and should not be used for submission of confidential information. The program needs to be updated to work with other browsers. Read full review Alternatives Considered 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.
Read full review In addition to
ASCENT and TyMetrix, I've used LegalExchange, BottomLine, Advocator, CounselLink and Allegient. TyMetrix is, by far, the worst of the bunch. Although none of them are great, the others are far more user friendly than TyMetrix.
Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review The impact of this program on my law firm is entirely negative. I spend inordinate amounts of otherwise valuable billable time submitting my invoices. (I refuse to pay the exorbitant monthly subscription that will theoretically eliminate the user-unfriendly-ness of the product. If you ae with an insurance company that is thinking of using this product, remember that we lawyers are your partners in defending your insureds. We don't object to you reviewing our bills and making sure that you are getting charged appropriately; but there are other eBilling solutions out there that won't be major headaches for the law firms on your panels. Get some lawyers to evaluate the eBilling programs you are considering and choose one that meets your needs without frustrating your law firms. Read full review ScreenShots