Planning for “Happy Ever After” Like any good affair, a successful technology deployment requires extensive planning. There are a number of important considerations, but based on experience gained from working together with hundreds of firms on successful marketing and business…
Download the PDF But Is Outsourcing Right for Your Firm? Smart leaders are always looking for ways to make their firms more efficient and profitable. Outsourcing some administrative functions, especially in areas involving some of technologies that support marketing and…
These days, we keep hearing a lot of buzz about big data, but what we really need isn't more data – it’s better data. Research shows that up to 30% of our key CRM and other data degrades each year…
The Importance of Data Quality in #TheNewNormal While technology tools are incredibly valuable, they are only as good as the data they contain. Without good data quality you face a number of challenges including: Communication is challenging: If you can’t…
As the COVID-19 situation is rapidly unfolding, it has never been more important to be able to effectively communicate and maintain relationships with your core constituencies – but this can be challenging. We are hearing from firms across the country…
Bad data has many negative and costly effects, but one of the most serious is being blacklisted. Email blacklisting can cause an organization’s communications to be blocked and made undeliverable, essentially branding the organization as a spammer and shutting down…
When Does CCPA Start? The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is effective January 1, 2020. It also includes a 12-month “look-back” period to January 1, 2019. It is also important to note that several amendments to the Act are still…
Here are a few more top tips to help you gain the upper hand with dirty data and prevent future contact collapses. To see the rest of the list, read The Dirty Data Domino Effect: Mastering the Game – Part…
We could talk all day about the giant puzzle created by dirty data. But to master the data quality domino game, it’s more important to focus on stopping the data dominoes from falling and blocking future issues so you don't…
Bad data in professional services firms often transcends the CRM. Time and billing data can often be the worst. In many firms, the information in the financial systems is often entered haphazardly by assistants whose primary objective is to get…
The Data Quality Dilemma Marketing and business development professionals spend a great deal of time carefully lining up plans to effectively communicate with key contacts. Like dominoes, we align our messages and target our audiences to achieve critical objectives; each…
Outsourcing some marketing functions, especially in areas that involve technologies to support marketing and business development, can solve a number of problems and provide important benefits for your firm and team. In our last post, Top Benefits of Outsourcing Marketing…
Firm leaders are always looking for ways to make their organizations more efficient, reduce costs improve business development effectiveness and enhance profitability. To help firms achieve all of these important goals, outsourcing marketing functions can be an excellent option –…
Firm leaders are always looking for ways to make their organizations more efficient, reduce costs improve business development effectiveness and enhance profitability. To help firms achieve all of these important goals, outsourcing marketing functions can be an excellent option –…
Since it was first coined in the world of computer science in the 1950s, the phrase “garbage in, garbage out” has been a popular metaphor for flawed, or nonsense data input that produces flawed or nonsense output, aka "garbage." For…
Since it was first coined in the world of computer science in the 1950s, the phrase “garbage in, garbage out” has been a popular metaphor for flawed, or nonsense data input that produces flawed or nonsense output, aka "garbage." For…
At the risk of sounding like a bunch of Scrooges, we’re going to bring up the annual project that almost all law firm marketers have to deal with – and pretty much any of them dread: The Annual Holiday Mailing…
ABOUT ORBA Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. (ORBA) is a full-service accounting, tax and consulting firm dedicated to helping clients reach their goals and achieve success. Based in Chicago, ORBA was founded in 1977 and has grown to more…
ABOUT BRADLEY Bradley has more than 500 attorneys and nine U.S. offices in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and the District of Columbia, providing an extensive geographic base from which to represent regional, national and international clients. The…
For professional services firms, compliance with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) can feel like a thankless burden. Without a doubt, data privacy regulations are forcing most organizations to…
Nothing can be more frustrating than dealing with data quality. But when it comes to CRM success, there are few things that are more important. While data quality tasks can be a monotonous and mundane job, left ‘untreated’, a CRM…
The quality of the data in your CRM is essential to maintaining a strong CRM system. Just like the foundation of a building, when building out your CRM system, a solid data structure is essential. Additionally, once your system structure is…
As the new school year gets underway and students get back to class, it seems like a good time to share a few lessons on contact and relationship management. One group of ‘pupils’ for whom this information can be particularly…
To help communicate the importance of centralized contact management, we have compiled 10 top tips: Think of contact management as an investment. Contacts are valuable commodities and investing just a little time up front can pay dividends in the future.…
The reasons why attorneys manage their contacts in different ways isn’t important, but the challenge this presents for law firms is. A centralized collection of clean, correct and complete contacts is critical to effective marketing and business development. Additionally, having…
While formal contact management may be foreign to younger lawyers, this isn't necessarily a generational issue. In fact, we now frequently find that even some of the most experienced lawyers are managing their contacts in different ways. The issue also…
Along the CRM implementation route, data quality issues are a common hurdle for every organization. Here’s why: during a law firm CRM rollout, thousands of shared contacts quickly flow into the system from users. Some of these records contain incomplete…
Few people will disagree that good CRM data is essential for effective marketing. Despite that fact, bad data has become endemic in marketing databases everywhere. Not only does this result in frustration for many marketers (and overtime work for many…
The holidays are long over and the scramble to send out holiday mailings seems like ancient history. But don’t close the book yet! How successful was your mailing? One measure of success – or failure – is your bounce rate. If…
In today’s highly mobile market, up to 30% of a firm’s CRM contact data quality can degrade each year. People get hired, fired, promoted and change jobs; they move and change addresses; they get married and divorced; some retire and…
Is it time for a CRM renovation or a tear-down? Many of the firms we work with have had their CRM systems for years or even a decade or more. They can likely still remember their CRM building process and…
Herding your CRM users or "cats" toward full participation is a challenge. The beauty of a CRM system is that by gathering and maintaining the collective information of all CRM users, contacts can be kept updated across the organization. If an attorney receives updated…
CRM orphan contacts require care. There is nothing sadder than a poor, lonely little orphan – especially in your CRM system. When an "orphan" record is left in your CRM system and all the attorneys who once knew the contact are gone,…
Seeing dead people in your CRM system? Many of us may remember that chilling quote from the movie The Sixth Sense. Seeing dead people in your CRM system can be almost as disturbing. Nothing is more likely to cause your CRM…
To ensure data quality, focus on these key areas: manage changes in the status of contacts, adopt "orphans" left behind by attorneys, input missing data, and gain full participation and adoption. Part 1: Degrading Data Quality In today’s highly mobile…
Are your people onboard with business development pipeline success? To ensure a successful outcome. the business development pipeline technology must first be supported at the highest leadership levels in the law firm. Next, there must be knowledgeable, well-trained people dedicated to inputting…
Too often, firms are willing to spend money on a system but don't budget for other essential resources. More important than the investment in the technology can be the time and human resources required for success. Dedicated CRM staffing is…
While a CRM checkup may be the best preventative medicine, sometimes we just don’t want to get diagnosed. We put it off because we get busy or because we figure if we ignore the problem long enough, maybe it will…
Nothing can be more frustrating than dealing with CRM data quality. But when it comes to CRM success, there are few things that are more important. While data quality tasks can seem monotonous and mundane, left ‘untreated’, a CRM…
On Valentine's Day, it's hard to resist a few candy references. So, as the rollout progresses, you may think you have this CRM project licked. In fact, you may even start to think that sweet success is so close you…
In the past, you may have heard stories about CRM failures, disasters and unmet expectations. CRM has been branded as an over-hyped, overpriced technology with poor adoption and little or no ROI. It’s rotten to the core. In fact, some people…
It doesn’t matter how you end up getting into the CRM pool. Whether you step, walk, jump, dive or even belly-flop into the water, once you are there it’s sink or swim. Soon after you’ve taken the plunge, it suddenly becomes…
So what do you do if you feel like you are drowning in CRM data quality problems and you just can't seem to get help from within your firm – or if you don’t have months to spend manually cleaning…
So how big a problem is data quality depression really? In the past, some firms neglected CRM data quality as a minor issue – to their detriment. In fact, poor data quality can become a serious problem, especially during an initial…
Ultimately, at some point, you may realize that getting help for data quality depression is essential. Once a firm reaches a certain size, often around 100 users, a part-time data steward just can't keep up with the volume of data…
When it comes to data quality depression, it's important to know that you aren’t alone. There are literally hundreds of firms struggling with the same frustrations and issues. Often, the best thing you can do is to reach out for…
If your data quality depression doesn’t seem to be responding to conventional treatments, fortunately there are now some alternative treatments available. One treatment that has been particularly effective for some firms is outsourcing. If you aren’t able to hire full-time…
While the bad news is that data quality depression may seem to be an epidemic, the good news is that it is treatable – and it's rarely contagious. The treatments vary depending on the symptoms and the causes. As a…
