| McKean & Park Firm Growth with Technology | | Charles Perry and Geoff Park | | McKean & Park was established in 1863 and has nineteen fee earners, which includes six partners. The firm is known for its property law work, which includes sale and purchase, banking and finance, commercial property and recovery of securities. Work at the Melbourne City firm involves managing a number of investors for the one mortgage. This means making sure the interest is paid on time for each mortgage and that the interest is split amongst all the investors. A management fee for the mortgage is deducted, followed by a cheque and receipt sent out in acknowledgment. Partner of the Melbourne firm, Geoff Park, described how Locus Mortgage Investment assists the firm in carrying out those activities. “The system helps us with the above functions very efficiently.” “Locus makes our investors very pleased because they get their interest calculated accurately and paid on time.” “There is also a report functionality we use to produce a regular overview. It makes sure people are up-to-date with their interest and when their mortgage is due for repayment. At the end of each financial year, the firm is then able to print out individual reports directed to each investor to show how much interest they’ve earned while making sure the management fee has been deducted.” McKean & Park did not have Locus as its first technology solution. In mid-1996, the firm switched to Locus from a competitor’s software because the system could no longer support the growing firm. Practice Manager, Charles Perry explained why the firm switched to Locus: “Firstly, because only a small number of users were in the market using the competitor software which made it difficult to get staff already proficient with it. Secondly, we felt we needed support from a larger software company with its own Helpline facility.” When McKean & Park was with the competitor, they felt vulnerable: “The software came with a lot of deficiencies; it had not enough support, it did not grow with the firm. Hiring staff with knowledge of the software was scarce. If the sole developer-manager got into a car accident, what will happen to us?” “In addition, a lot of firms were moving away from the software. Locus, by comparison, was user-friendly with more firms our size using it. Others surveyed were designed for the large firm but adapted for the smaller firm. Locus, instead was designed for the smaller firm.” McKean & Park decided it needed a robust management system to manage the practice business plus, have a mortgage investment functionality. “Locus was the best available all-round package which included mortgage investment functionality and that is why we chose Locus.” Part of the package for McKean & Park was an efficient debt collection system. They have used Locus Collection Management for the past three years and debt collection at the firm is described as ‘seamless’. “The system fully integrates with the debtor’s ledgers and it produces effective and timely letters. They are simple and look professional. It has made the cashflow much easier and it has highlighted the problem sooner” said Mr Perry. Locus Automated Billing has also made a huge incremental gain in the firm’s efficiency. “It has stopped that mad rush of billing at the end of the month. Secretaries are no longer typing bills and fee earners are no longer scratching their heads, trying to remember what they did! Once the timesheets are done and the appropriate bill template selected, the bill is produced. So out it goes, the client is happy, and the money comes in.” "I don’t think we could’ve handled the growth of the firm without Locus Automated Billing.” So the quicker you send out the bill, the quicker you get paid? "Yes, it’s called the satisfaction curve. It works extremely well and it has given us a real benefit.” Please click here to visit our website: www.mckeanpark.com.au  Review our range of legal software
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