If you don’t have time to watch the video now, here are some highlights.
[00:35]
Sam: “How does Katchr fit into the work that you do?”
Sarah: “I use it every day to look at specific teams if I need to, especially if I know there are issues or if I need to help people understand their figures. That’s quite a big thing actually. For team leaders to understand what’s going on in their teams, I’ll take them through Katchr as our guide to what’s going on with the team. I also use it for any other reports I need for board reporting. So it’s a really integral tool for my day-to-day.”
[01:11]
Sam: “And getting people to use Katchr, do you find there are any challenges with that? Or do you find people are interested in being able to see all that data?”
Sarah: “We encourage everybody to use it because, as an individual, it tracks where you are in your own performance. As a team leader, it should be invaluable. There shouldn’t be any team leaders not using it, and I don’t think I’ve heard that actually. When I say to people it’s on Katchr, they say, ‘Yeah, thanks, I’ll go and find that.’”
[03:01]
Sam: “Do you find that they ask more questions on the data because they can look at it, understand it, and then come back with questions?”
Sarah: “Yes, for example, if we haven’t adjusted someone’s target and utilisation goes off the scale, that alerts us to change something in the background to make sure the metrics make sense. So yes, there are a lot of people who will say something doesn’t look right on the front screen. Often we then have to go into the background in the practice management system to adjust it and make sure everything is flowing through properly.”
[04:08]
Sam: “How has the availability of timely, relevant data helped them in their day-to-day?”
Sarah: “We introduced a new dashboard about two years ago, a capture-all-time dashboard, where we had a firm initiative to make sure people were effectively recording every hour of their day. At that point we could say, ‘Look, it’s in Katchr.’ You can easily see if you’ve forgotten to record something because the numbers are right there on the front screen. That really helped us drive that message about what we wanted people to do. You didn’t have to hunt around to see how many hours you’d recorded. It was straight there. If you’d forgotten something, you could just go and put it in. So that was instrumental in helping us drive that policy.”
[07:09]
Sam: “How has Katchr helped align individual performance with the broader profitability goals for Birketts?”
Sarah: “One of our really important measures is utilisation. That’s helped us in the last couple of years to drive recruitment decisions. Teams are asked to look at their utilisation and decide whether they actually need somebody else. Instead of just opening a vacancy, they assess the team first. When they submit that vacancy request, we know they’re really on top of what the team is doing, why it’s busy, and why they need somebody else. That’s helped us, especially in the last couple of years, to make sure we’re recruiting at the right point.”
[08:45]
Sam: “What does Katchr allow you to do that you couldn’t before?”
Sarah: “It’s the ability to help drive change. For example, if we’ve got a focus on lock-up, we created a new dashboard to show teams their lock-up and where we want the trend to go. We can put trend lines in or expectations so teams can see where they are against where they should be. That actually helped us kick off a project with our client finance administrators by giving specific people responsibility for lock-up within each team. They can instantly see where they are and the impact they’re having. So Katchr is really instrumental in helping us with any change we need to drive. There are also other things in the pipeline where people are asking for data to support new initiatives, and we’re building that for them so they can see their progress against the metrics we want to improve.”
[10:25]
Sam: “What would happen if Katchr disappeared tomorrow? What would you do?”
Sarah: “That’s a good question. I think it would be a problem, to be honest. You just couldn’t get to information quickly. We’d have to create everything manually, which isn’t easy. We’d be pulling lots of reports and relying heavily on IT to generate them from our practice management system to give the same sort of information. It would take a lot longer to do anything, and it wouldn’t be available every day. That would definitely be a problem.”
[11:52]
Sam: “Which bit of Katchr could you not live without?”
Sarah: “I use it a lot for reports. When I’m looking at fees delivered and similar metrics, it gives all the information you need and I can then pivot it or work with it however I want. Trying to get that information succinctly from the practice management system wouldn’t be easy. It’s easier than it was ten years ago, but it’s still not a one-click task. It’s much easier in Katchr. All the calculations like utilisation and realisation are there, and you can drill back and show people where they were last year compared to now. That’s a great way for them to see their progress. I also love the fact that in Katchr you can go back to any month-end and it’s just there. You don’t have to find an old report. That makes it much easier to have conversations with team leaders about what’s going on in their teams.”
[14:26]
Sam: “Are there any specifics you could point to that have significantly improved at the firm?”
Sarah: “One thing we’re encouraging team leaders to look at more is the client profitability section. We already look at each team’s profitability outside Katchr, but for team leaders or client relationship managers to review their individual clients is really helpful. For example, one client was very low a couple of years ago, and we had a conversation with them to say we couldn’t continue like that. They understood, and we were able to improve the return. It helps team leaders see what’s going on with their clients. When we talk about the numbers now, they understand what they need to reach for a client to be profitable. Seeing the differences between clients is really helpful because it leads into better pricing and resourcing decisions. It’s the start of improving the wider pipeline of work.”
[22:12]
Sam: “What would you say to someone considering buying Katchr but who isn’t quite sure?”
Sarah: “I’d say it’s been invaluable since we’ve had it. For us it was a no-brainer to go with Katchr because of the insight we get from it. Trying to replicate that internally would require a huge in-house team. The fact that it’s there and we can make changes relatively quickly is great. We go through quite a few team changes each year, but Katchr copes with that and still delivers the information we need. We use it every day. I genuinely couldn’t imagine doing my job without it. It’s so readily available and you can do so many things with it. Different teams use it for different perspectives depending on what they’re trying to achieve, and the fact that Katchr supports all those perspectives is hugely valuable.”
