Global Excel chooses Legal Files for its seamless integration with Microsoft Office, including Outlook
Background
A cost containment, claims management and medical assistance company, Global Excel Management Inc. offers a complete range of services to international, Canadian and U.S. domestic clients. With more than 360 corporate clients in more than 90 countries around the world, Global Excel manages approximately 360,000 inpatient, outpatient and non-medical cases and files each year and processes healthcare claims in excess of $1.9 billion annually.
The Challenge
As the company grew and changed, the company’s legal department experienced an increasing number of legal matters, as well a corresponding increase in the number of documents and emails related to those matters.
“Growth of our organization lead to increasing number of legal matters,” General Counsel Paul Reed recalled. “We also had a need to have a centralized system for keeping records, managing workload and sharing knowledge.” With assistance from the company’s Information Systems team, Paul and his team researched and compared various matter management solutions, adding “a few months later we were using Legal Files.”
Then and Now
Implementation started immediately after the company became a Legal Files customer in 2007. Although an off-the-shelf product, Legal Files is highly customizable with built-in, non-technical configuration tools. Consequently, each implementation is unique, resulting in a Legal Files system that is also unique to each customer. It was a joint effort, Paul said. “A Legal Files employee visited us and in collaboration with a member of our legal team and a member of our IS team, we performed the initial customization and configuration based on our workflows and intended usage.”
Today with Legal Files, the legal team has gained multiple benefits, according to Paul, including, “management of our legal matters and records; knowledge sharing within the legal team; ease of filing and access to files.”
In addition to using Legal Files to track all legal matters, the team members are also heavy users of Legal Files’ documents functionality and its Outlook integration.
Seamless Outlook Integration
“Since we use Legal Files as a filing system for all legal matters,” Paul said, “the seamless integration between Legal Files and Outlook is crucial.” Emails and documents can be saved to the appropriate matter within Legal Files directly from the Outlook and Office interface. Emails and documents can then be quickly and easily retrieved at any time. “The Outlook and Office integration is huge,” he said.
Introduced in the late 1990’s, the integration with Microsoft Office is one of Legal Files’ most notable features. Its evolution during the last 20+ years is extensive. Documents, email, contacts, appointments, spreadsheets and presentations can be saved to Legal Files directly from Microsoft Office applications, including Outlook.
Advanced Search Function
Another key function the team relies upon is the Advanced Search. Allowing you to filter your list views (of matters, name cards/contact records, documents, to-do’s/tasks, etc.) according to your specified search criteria, Legal Files’ built-in Advanced Search windows are “very useful” in day-to-day operations, Paul said. “It makes finding emails and documents very easy,” he added, “even when the user doesn’t remember where they were filed.”
Supporting Our Mission
It’s all about supporting the overall mission of the company, Paul explained. “Global Excel’s mission is to transform and simplify access to quality healthcare for People, Payers and Providers, worldwide,” he said. “Legal Files helps support this mission and our growth by providing a reliable and user-friendly matter management system that is flexible enough to adapt to the needs of a growing organization. “
Customer Service
Benefits haven’t just come from the software itself. Legal Department Software, Inc. also provided initial implementation services to Global Excel which included onsite system administration training and onsite end user training. The company also participates Legal Files annual maintenance and support plan. “The Legal Files staff has always been friendly, knowledgeable and responsive to our needs,” Paul said. “They are a pleasure to work with.”
Bottom Line
“The system does everything we need and more,” Paul said. “If you need a matter management system, make sure to consider Legal Files.”