Elite Apex - Dec/Jan '03

Elite Apex

The Apex System is the new client relationship management (CRM) component of the Elite Enterprise Suite, designed to help law firms manage and develop their business contacts and marketing communications. It’s available as a standalone product or as part of the Elite Financial and Practice Management System.

Apex has two primary user groups, a firm’s marketing department and attorneys. The way each group uses the program differs somewhat, but Apex offers a comprehensive integrated solution for effective relationship management. Implemented properly and used consistently, Apex can help a firm gain new business, as well as maintain and satisfy existing clients.

In a broad sense, Apex is a relational database of “entities,” which are companies and existing or prospective clients. You can record basic contact information for each entity, including address, phone, fax, e-mail and Web address. Individuals, job descriptions, job titles and preferred salutations also are included. A host of data can be developed to help the firm personalize its contacts, such as family information, hobbies and similar information.

For each business entity, Apex can track the organization or entity type, its annual revenue, number of employees, industry sector and other pertinent information. Apex tracks the initial source of contact, and any links between the client or prospective client and the attorney, entity principals or employees and the law firm, facilitating a coordinated approach to marketing.

Apex also will track any links an individual or client matter has to certain companies, boards, civic associations and so forth, allowing an attorney to check if there are any existing firm relationships. To add basic entity information to Apex, the user goes to the “Contact” page, selects the type of entity, then with a simple-to-use wizard, fills in additional information. Once the databases are properly populated, it’s easy to use the “Find” feature to obtain contact information on individuals and businesses. Apex comes with pre-defined values for many of the categories of information that are tracked and permits custom user-defined values.

Apex also can schedule and track the status of development contacts and activities. Each type of client contact — from a simple phone call to dinner and tickets to a basketball game — can be tracked. Activity records include information such as the date of the activity, location, attendees and the activity status. This information is maintained historically and can be scheduled prospectively.

Coupled with the calendaring feature, the user can set up reminders to initiate contacts with prospects and existing clients. It can track the progress of client development efforts. The user can indicate whether the prospect is hot or cold, actual or prospective, whether the pursuit is worthwhile or if the prospect is ready to be approached for additional legal work.

Apex can be used by a group of attorneys to build and schedule a master development plan by creating a timeline of contacts and coordinated activities that multiple people can participate in over an extended period of time. This is an ideal way for senior rainmakers to expose the client to the firm as broadly as possible by planning specific client-directed activities that involve different segments of the firm.

Used in conjunction with Elite’s general ledger and billing modules, there is further integration that strengthens Apex’s development potential. Entities can be identified based on firm billings, and this can be used to help screen who should or should not be pursued when deciding where to invest development dollars.

Apex is a full-featured tool for the marketing department. It has mail merge and document assembly features that can manage a variety of contact lists, generate mass mailings of firm marketing materials, or e-mail newsletters and announcements.

Users can manage firm seminars, as Apex generates invitations and custom name tags, tracks registrations and attendance, and schedules appropriate follow-up meetings. Statistical reports also can be generated to analyze the relationship between invitations to attendees, and attendees to actual client work and other marketing information. In short, Elite Apex can serve as the core application for all marketing department efforts.

Elite Information Systems Inc.
(323) 642-5200
www.eliteis.com

Price: $200 per seat (sold in 25-seat package) Windows NT/2000/XP

Reviewed by Bruce A. Olson, a trial lawyer and shareholder in the Wisconsin-based law firm of Davis & Kuelthau.

Dec/Jan '03 Issue

PROS
Easy and intuitive. The ability to create and schedule targeted development plans involving multiple people within the firm is one of the greatest benefits of Apex.

CONS
For maximum utility, the Apex System should be part of a suite of Elite Information System programs, which means it’s primarily intended for large firm settings.

VERDICT
The Apex System is a full-featured, easy-to-use CRM product that helps both attorneys and law firm marketing departments maximize their client development efforts.