Start your business out on the right foot
Do you wonder how to get the most out of your RB8 system? It’s a comprehensive, flexible system that can help you market and manage your business better. Implemented correctly, you should see an increase in your company’s efficiency and profitability whether you are new to ReporterBase or upgrading from an earlier version of RB.
Whether you have been using RB8 for a while or haven’t rolled out your system yet, you should know that the first two steps to success are set-up and training. Proper set-up will give you the tools for success, and effective training will give you and your staff the ability to use those tools correctly.
Step 1: Proper set-up
To set up and maintain your RB8 system, download and read the RB8 Getting Started Guide (available in the Team RB > Downloads section of www.omti.com/rb). Aimed at firm owners, managers and IT staff, it includes an optimal set-up workflow to follow with detailed step-by-step instructions for each phase. It also includes tips and best practices recommendations for your RB8 set-up and management.
You can have your staff work with the system as is: it comes with a complete default set of common practices, service items and vocabulary for litigation support businesses. However, no two businesses are the same, so RB8 is adaptable to fit the unique needs of your business. Speed your business’s path to success with RB8 by customizing it to your company’s unique needs and services. The RB8 Getting Started Guide can help you do this.
Step 2: Effective training
With RB8 properly set up and customized to your business, you are off to a good start. Don’t stop there. No matter how good your system is, it won’t pay off if the human element is short-changed. Training is the key.
Training is a big undertaking. For the time and expense of training to be worthwhile, what’s learned has to be retained and applied by the trainees. How can you ensure that after the initial excitement, the training sticks with your staff? Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your RB8 training.
#1. Plan your training.
Training is most useful if it is relevant to what the person does in their job, and if the content is reinforced by management. Use the RB8 Essential Training Guide included with the training CD-ROMs (or find it in the Team RB > RBU section of our website) to determine who should complete which lessons.
The Recommended Lesson Plans chart on page 1 lists which modules each department should cover, the order to take them in, and the overall playing time of each module. “How to use modules” (pages 2-4) includes instructions for playing the training movies, as well as overviews of each module’s contents to help you decide who should view which modules.
“Disc contents” (pages 5-7) lists the individual lesson movies in each module and their length. With this list, you can break down modules into single lessons or logical groupings depending on an individual’s specific work tasks. It’s also handy for locating lessons for refresher courses.
#2. Keep it focused.
RB8 is a comprehensive business management system. Although it is possible to go through the entire training course in a few days, we do not recommend it because there is so much to learn. It would be better to have trainees concentrate on a few tasks at a time, rather than hurrying through an overload of information which they won’t be able to retain.
Help your staff be successful with RB8 training by limiting their training sessions to only topics that pertain to their jobs (at least at first). If you have a dedicated calendar staff, have them view lessons pertaining to scheduling only before turning them loose on RB8. You can cross-train them later or provide opportunities for advancement after they are successful using RB8 for familiar tasks.
RB8 training movies are demonstrations of the optimal ways to use RB8. To truly implement these best practices and efficient workflows will probably require your staff to learn new ways to do their jobs. Simply viewing the lesson movies will not be enough.
Reinforce the training by having learners do the tasks they recently viewed. If they quickly apply their training to typical calendar settings or billing situations, it will be easier for staffers to incorporate their new training and be successful. These initial sessions are best done with supervisory oversight.
#3. Evaluate.
As your staff implements their RB8 training into their workflow, audit their progress. Give feedback: Praise/reward staffers who are practicing new behaviors, and help them correct errors quickly.
If you find you need additional or more in-depth training, you can either contract with RB Support for customized training or create your own. To create your own training, check the RB8 User Guide for step-by-step instructions for tasks not covered in the standard training. And research the online KnowledgeBase in the customer portal of our website for information on situations not covered in the training modules or user guide.
#4. Repeat.
Encourage trainees to view movies more than once. Repetition will help with retention.
The next steps
With your system ready to go and your staff trained, you’re ready to roll out your new RB8 system. You can schedule your go-live date with OMTI when it makes sense for your company.
If you’ve already been working with your system for a while, but now think there are ways you could have done things better, don’t worry. You can continue to add, delete and change many aspects of your system as you go. Refer to the Getting Started Guide for details on how to revise specific parts of your system.
And training will be on-going too. As new hires come on board, give them a customized list of lessons to complete. Do the same for employees you want to cross-train or advance into new job responsibilities.
With your system and people well prepared, what’s next? We’ll leave the day-to-day operations of your business to you; but if you’d like to look beyond RB8, may we suggest RB Web with online case repositories, RB Web Mobile Apps, and records retrieval?