Humble Beginnings in Des Moines 

While Money magazine recently voted Des Moines, Iowa One of the Best Places to Live, it has  been home to ProVantage customer Brown, Winick, Graves, Gross, Baskerville & Schoenebaum, PLC for more than 50 years. Flanked by the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers, the practice started out as a three-attorney tax law specialty firm. Over the years, Brown Winick's areas of expertise has expanded to serve its clients' varied needs in a regulatory and business environment across many different industries. The practice successfully handles areas ranging from litigation/trial to estate planning, corporation/business law to wills and probate law. And today, Brown Winick has grown to 44 attorneys, offering their broad range of legal services on an ever-increasing national scale.

Brown Winick's mission is to provide its clients with the highest quality legal service on a timely basis and at an appropriate cost. Their paramount priority is total client satisfaction.

Growing Firm Recognizes Need for Updated Solutions

While Brown Winick found itself in steady growth mode, the time & billing software they were using proved cumbersome and dated. Tim Severson, COO of Brown Winick, explains, "With the continued growth of the firm, our old time and billing software was not able to give us the ability to properly analyze financial information on a timely basis and assist in managing the growth of the firm. The database that the software used was very rigid, and integration with other applications was very difficult, if not impossible." Mr. Severson found it important that the new software was modular enough to grow with Brown Winick and had the ability to manage the increasing business as well. Consideration of new solutions focused on products that offered extended features already inherent in the basic package or could be easily added as they were needed.

After investigating a number of time and billing software packages, Brown Winick decided that they would receive the most value from ProVantage. "One of the areas that was very important in our decision was the quality of support that is received after the purchase," Mr. Severson noted. "ProVantage Software received great recommendations from its clients. The software fulfilled our requirements at an attractive price."

Enjoying Flexibility and Time Savings

The conversion of the data from the previous system to ProVantage was completed in July 2000. How has Brown Winick benefited from the switch to ProVantage? Flexibility and time savings are the key areas, according to Mr. Severson. "The flexibility in reporting is much better than before. For example, previously I had to export data into canned reports which weren't always the most useful for me. Within ProVantage, there are many standard reports from which to choose, and SQL allows easy and flexible data extraction."

"And ProVantage is a real time saver. I get the reports I need with a push of a button, rather than having to run numerous reports, exporting them into spreadsheets and manipulating them in order to get the end result. I save hours in this process alone."

Other firm members are taking advantage of ProVantage's features. The intuitive, user-friendly fee entry screen has enticed attorneys to enter their own time. "Again, Brown Winick saves time preparing these statements every month," reports a satisfied Mr. Severson.

He concludes, "Overall I am pleased. The ProVantage support team is very accessible and responsive to our needs, which was extremely important in the successful conversion from our old system. And since ProVantage is SQL-based, there are many opportunities to utilize it in many different ways not available to us before. It will easily integrate with third party applications such as docket management software, Microsoft Office and Outlook. And integration such as this means a more efficient and productive firm, which builds a pathway to our goal of total client satisfaction."

To that end, ProVantage is pleased and proud to be a part of Brown Winick's mission to attract and retain satisfied customers.

ProVantage Software, Inc.

ProVantage Software (formerly CSS, Inc.), founded in 1983, develops, and markets information systems that enable law and other professional service firms to better manage their most valuable assets - their clients. Our technology promotes better business decisions based on client billing, practice development, and financial management. With a client base of more than 150, that includes many of the world's most prominent law firms, accounting firms, and government agencies, ProVantage Software solutions have consistently generated success stories. ProVantage solutions are available direct from the company and through its network of ProVantage Value Added Resellers.   For more information on how you can use the ProVantage System and the Total Client Asset Management strategy to improve your client service and maximize your profitability, call ProVantage Software at 800-843-2188. You can also send e-mail to sales@provantagesoftware.com