Unexpected number of law firms and vendors per user of leading e-billing systems

Eight prominent e-billing providers — Allegiant, Bottomline, Bridgeway, CTTymetrix, DataCert, doeLegal, LawTrac, and Serengeti – responded to a survey I sent to a total of 10 providers. The survey asked them to provide metrics for three questions (See my post of July 15, 2009: number of invoices processed; and July 16, 2009: invoices processed per user.).

One question asked for the “Number of active law department users during the past six months, meaning only those who have logged into your system during that period” and a second asked for the “Number of law firms and other vendors during the past six months that have successfully submitted at least one bill to a law department through your system.”

I divided the number of users by the number of invoicers. For the six companies that provided both metrics, the average was 1.9 law firms and other vendors per user; the median was 1.4. Four clustered around that metric; one was much higher at 5 and one much lower at one-half.

This data suggests that convergence of law firms may have happened, but not of vendors. Of this large group of legal departments, there were nearly two vendors (law firms or service providers) who submitted at least one invoice for every user of the e-billing system.