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…
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Intapp Time
Score 7.9 out of 10
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Intapp in Palo Alto offers Intapp Time, a legal billing application focusing on managing alternate fee structures and rich information for analysis and optimization.
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.
Time recording and time entry are such a massive and universal pain point for all timekeepers. All timekeepers perform this task on an almost daily basis. Anything that speeds up or eases that task is worth its weight in gold. Even if a timekeeper is working on a project that is billed on a fixed fee we still need accurate time entries to ensure that we are meeting our own profitability objectives.
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.
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.
There are three competitors to Intapp Time that I know of, and have looked at, but it's been years. Those competitors are Element55, Aderant Found Time and Smart Time. Every time I compared any of those products to the current version of Intapp Time then Intapp Time came out on top. Element 55 seemed have a bit of a clunky interface when I last looked. Aderant Found Time seemed like a limited success at copying Intapp Time; the software itself seemed a little burdensome, both on the client and the back end.
Obviously, time capture for billing is a vital function. At this time we believe IntApp Time is best of the breed in this regard, though competition is coming.
Recording timekeeping is something all timekeepers hate. IntApp time doesn't do as much as it potentially could to ease this pain, using predictive algorithms for example.
For timekeepers who are diligent, IntApp time provides all the tools necessary to record and closely manage worked time, its primary functionality.
