How data analysis helps to identify unexploited potential

This quarter marked some exciting events for Ecovis Wingrave Yeats’ data analytics team. On Monday, 24th September, 2018, we participated in the Alternative Legal Management Summit, of which we were also a partner sponsor. This summit brings together law firm leaders with the vision to innovate, collaborate, and transform their businesses.

At the summit, we hosted a roundtable discussion entitled ‘A Practical Discussion of Data Analytics Case Studies, Delivering a Competitive Advantage to Law Firms’ in collaboration with Stephens Scown, one of our clients. This session offered two perspectives for implementing data analytics projects in practice, one being that of the firm, demonstrating the impact that these projects have had on the business, and one that of the practitioner, showing how outcomes can be achieved, the skill sets necessary, and the challenges to be overcome.

Case study: client performance analysis

Background
Our client was keen to understand the profitability of its clients and eradicate working practices that resulted in low value work.

How did we help?
We determined the firm’s reliance on its top clients and identified a significant number of unprofitable clients. We analysed the firm’s billing records to segment their clients into meaningful groups based on fees and profitability. By comparing these groups, we quickly identified important clients and targeted actions across groups, such as cross-selling opportunities and team structure improvement practices throughout the business, and helped recognise opportunities for behavioural improvements and significant potential for increased profitability.

The result
With our approach, the firm was better equipped to

• identify its reliance on its key clients 
• identify problem clients at every level of value
• target problem clients with focused actions, providing a better service at a profitable level
• improve recovery rates to make a direct impact on the bottom line
• eradicate low-return work
• identify bad billing practices in the firm
• have a clear overview and understanding of its customer base

Robert Camp, Managing Partner, Stephens Scown, commented on the results of their collaboration with Ecovis: “The analysis performed by the Ecovis data analytics team delivered some results that were surprising and worrying to us. Along with shining a new light on our most important clients, the client segmentation framework they presented uncovered a significant subset of unprofitable clients and quantified the striking overall effect of marginal gains to be realised from improved working practices. We were presented with a potential opportunity to improve net profit by up to 8%. Our management team has been set on a course of enhanced decision making, supported by the data analysis that Ecovis provides. Data analytics is now an intrinsic part of our strategy.”

Ecovis’ data analytics team was also named as a finalist for the British Accountancy Awards for Mid-Tier Innovation of the Year, a great achievement to celebrate their successes this year.

Author:
Reuben Barry, Director, Data Analytics, ECOVIS Wingrave Yeats, London, UK
Email: reuben.barry@ecovis.co.uk