Serengeti Enhances Top-Rated System for Matter Management and E-Billing

Serengeti Law today announced the release of major new features for Serengeti Tracker, the highest rated and most widely used matter management and e-billing system according to recent surveys of in-house counsel. Tracker version 7.1 is immediately available to the more than 35,000 in-house and outside counsel in over 125 countries who work together on the system.

“Serengeti customers appreciate the fact that when we build new functionality incorporating best practices from some law departments, everyone can use it without additional charge,” said Tom Melling, Serengeti’s Vice-President of Product Development. “Our special relationships with our customers and their professional organizations have helped us to develop eleven new releases during the past four years, continuously enhancing our position as the leading system for managing legal work.”

Tracking Work Performed by the Law Department

Law departments frequently need to compare in-house vs. outside counsel costs when deciding what work to retain. They also often have to allocate internal legal costs to specific business units or product lines. Until now there has been no practical way for in-house counsel to perform these functions because the time tracking systems used by law firms generally require too much effort and detail.

With this release, Serengeti gives law departments a practical way to track where their time is being spent. On a weekly basis, in-house counsel can either allocate their time by percentage to active projects, or enter approximate time spent. The law department creates an hourly rate in the system for each person using direct compensation and an allocation of overhead. As result, law department costs are quickly captured and automatically allocated to specific projects, business units, and other reporting categories. Like other modules in Tracker, if law departments do not need this functionality, they can choose not to enable it.

With this new information, the law department can compare the cost of projects handled in-house with those handled by outside counsel at any time. Such information not only quantifies the savings generated by the law department, but also helps the law department make better decisions about which work to send to outside counsel. The system also provides an accurate assessment of where legal resources are being spent for specific business units or products. For the first time, law departments on Serengeti have a practical way to track their own legal spending as well as their spending on outside counsel.

Added Flexibility to Accommodate a Rapidly Growing User Community

With thousands of new users working on Serengeti Tracker each month, Serengeti is adding new features to accommodate the rapid growth and broadening range of user needs. For example, most law firms work with multiple clients on the system. This release gives law firm users the ability to quickly jump between projects with different clients on Serengeti without having to log out and log back in each time.

Tracker has also expanded its calendar/deadline export to accommodate users on Lotus Notes®, Microsoft Outlook®, Blackberry®, and other common calendaring systems used by the legal profession. And a new configurable invoice payment file helps companies efficiently integrate with their many different accounts’ payable systems. Law departments on Serengeti have complete flexibility in selecting the fields, order, and format of the approved invoice data that they send to their accounting systems for upload and payment.

Compliance and Reporting Enhancements

Serengeti continues to set the standard for efficient compliance with law department disclosure obligations. This release includes further enhancements to the FAS-5 and audit trail functionality, allowing law departments to track their internal and outside counsel exposure estimates. By entering a materiality threshold for disclosures, the law department avoids wasted time from completing and analyzing information for claims that are not material.

New reporting also enhances the hundreds of ad hoc reports and data exports that are currently available in Tracker. For example, with the new “Invoice Reduction Export,” users can quickly analyze cumulative or detailed reductions that they have made in legal bills (e.g., reductions by in-house approvers for excessive time, duplicate entries, and invoices that exceed the budget). As a result, law departments can determine if there are patterns of problems with certain legal bills or law firms, as well as assess the billing adjustments made by individual in-house reviewers.

About Serengeti Law

Serengeti Law provides Serengeti Tracker, a web-based electronic invoicing and matter management service for law departments to work more efficiently with their law firms. Serengeti Tracker includes electronic bill auditing, online document and contract management, automated budget management, and performance tracking. In-house counsel can also create customized management reports online to analyze trends in spending, track budgets and results, and create performance benchmarks. With only an Internet connection and an hour of training, more than 6,000 in-house counsel are able to work online with all of their law firms, including over 35,000 outside counsel more than 125 countries. More information is available at: www.serengetilaw.com.

Press Contact:
Rob Thomas
Vice-President, Strategic Development
Serengeti Law
(425) 748-5115
rob.thomas@serengetilaw.com