The third edition of the British Conveyancing Awards is just around the corner. Alongside a new, larger venue and a new headline sponsor in Groundsure, #BCAwards2023 is all about recognising and rewarding the herculean efforts of conveyancing superheroes who, despite hurdles aplenty, continue to go above and beyond to help clients move into their dream home.
Ahead of the splendour and celebration on the 21st March, Today’s Conveyancer will recognise those who help make the event possible through a series of “Sponsor Spotlight” pieces. Here, we speak to Today’s Conveyancer Industry Champion sponsor Minerva.
First of all, tell us who you are and what you do
Minerva’s intelligent client onboarding connects law firms with clients by way of an intuitive, user-friendly, and business-efficient solution which revolutionises the experience for all parties. The fully integrated digital onboarding tool has been developed alongside large leading law firms across the country, meaning the system is quick and easy, offering an end-to-end solution which provides a brilliant client experience.
LFS – Minerva won “Legal Supplier of the Year” at #BCAwards2022 – an esteemed prize. How have you continued to develop your offering over the past year to maintain this high level?
We are proud to have had another year of significant growth with more strategic partnerships built meaning we continue to be able to offer our users the very best in support and experience. This is clearly demonstrated through a number of highlights throughout the year, some notable ones being:
January – Through the partnership with Armalytix, Minerva’s clients now have access to Armalytix’s Source of Funds analysis and reports, which have been fully integrated into the platform and provide an easy, visual way for lawyers to gather the correct source of funds information from their clients to manage compliance and money laundering risks.
Armalytix is an important piece of the puzzle for our platform, ensuring we can deliver a complete and efficient onboarding process and support law firms in embracing the intelligent future now.
March – Pay 360
Committed to delivering an intuitive operational experience for its clients, LFS has formed several strategic relationships with key technology partners and integration specialists to ensure Minerva works brilliantly with other essential legal software.
The collaboration with Pay360 means that law firms have a fully integrated payment and identity function in Minerva enabling them to manage quotes and payments all in one place.
July – Partnership with Index
The collaboration of Minerva’s smart comprehensive digital client onboarding and Index’s unique understanding of the conveyancing and property sector, provides an efficient, intelligent, and easy end-to-end solution for any law firm and its conveyancing department. The partnership helps to simplify complex business challenges and deliver immediate value to law firms, legal practitioners, and their clients.
November – Xperate
In a rapidly evolving competitive legal market, some law firms may get left behind due to not keeping pace with new technologies and will continually battle to compete with other providers who deliver legal services much quicker and cost-effectively. Xperate have 30 years in providing technology to lawyers and have a deep experience of several key case management providers such as SoS Connect. This helps them to bring solutions like Minerva to law firms who are looking for technology that can integrate with their current case management software.
How can Minerva equip firms to manage transactions and look after clients’ interests despite the current difficulties facing the market?
Minerva’s solution takes the typical time spent on an onboarding process for conveyancing firms from two-to-three weeks down to 48 hours, making the entire onboarding process more efficient for clients, speeding up transaction time.
With increased functionality, Minerva is now an incredibly powerful tool to support fee earners, clients, and the overall management of matter files for a firm.
What do you see as the key hurdles the sector must overcome in 2023?
Whilst great strides have been made – most certainly ameliorated by the past two years and the pandemic – there is still much to do to get the sector working productively and efficiently.
There are clearly challenging economic conditions which may affect transaction levels in 2023 but this may be no bad thing, enabling busy conveyancing teams a breather.
The key hurdle is having the time to embrace change. There is recognition across the industry that things can be done better, but making the changes to implement a better way of working for clients and law firms takes some doing. There are solutions like Minerva which can help with this, but law firms need capacity and the mindset to make that step forward!
Contrarily, what do you see as something conveyancers should look to with excitement as we move into 2023?
There is so much to gain from investing in the right tech, training, and marketing your firms and businesses that we can all ride into 2023 together. If there is something we have undoubtedly learnt from the past year, it is that working with strong strategic partners all with the same aim can really help drive things forward.
Collaborations in the conveyancing industry have never been stronger – together we can make a difference!
