The current economic climate is forcing many organizations and businesses to face an all-too-common challenge -- doing more with less. But how does a firm actually accomplish it?

Management experts offer a wide range of advice, but most agree that one of the best remedies is to become flexible, agile, and able to react quickly to change. This advice, of course, can and should be applied to all aspects of an organization's operations and functions. However, there is one critical area that should be considered a top priority, and that is the planning and reporting process. Planning and reporting are critical to a firm's decision making, not only within the financial function itself, but all the way up to top management, which has as a constant appetite for vital information.

Planning and reporting involve budgeting, forecasting and reporting, which continue to be resource-intensive within most law firms. Unfortunately, less than state-of-the art systems and processes are frequently an impediment to the agility and reaction time that firms need today. Yet, the current economy is demanding such agility more than ever before, increasing the importance of current and relevant data and information, and thus giving rise to the need for continual review, analysis and reforecasting.