Three ways in which software could be killing your firm’s profitability - and how you can save it
The legal world is amid a second major wave of digitisation. Many firms are moving systems to the cloud, and while doing so, are considering a variety of new and specialised solutions to the challenges across their businesses.?
But instead of improving productivity, this rapid investment is having the opposite effect.
Often, the people selecting the technology to be used aren’t the people who will be using it. And as more and more platforms are added to a firm’s technology stack, lawyers end up having to switch between 7 to 10 different systems just to perform a single piece of work for a client.?
A legal professional should be able to do their work in one unified workplace. It may seem that installing a collection of specialised systems will guarantee a best-in-class technology stack; but instead, the opposite occurs.
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A surplus of systems introduces:
1.?Inaccurate or no visibility over processes and performance
Disparate systems produce disparate information. If jumping from one system to another is required to complete a task, valuable pieces of information are scattered across platforms. Not only is this frustrating for users, but it also becomes difficult to consolidate data across systems to get a full view of workloads and service levels.
Effect on profitability: bottlenecks and opportunities to improve competitiveness go unnoticed.
2.?Inefficient operations
One task – drafting a contract – can require 7 to 10 different systems. This illustration may be a worst-case scenario, but any additional system that your fee earners need to interact with will sap time and attention. Worse still, systems that are not core to getting the job done are left out of the process completely.
Effect on profitability: You can’t charge the time spent on moving between systems,or waiting for a system to load. Let’s assume that just 10 minutes per day is spent on logging into, switching between, or waiting for systems to load. Across a 100-person firm, this is 4,300 hours of unbillable time over the year.
?3.?Data security risk
Laptop hard drives are often treated as intermediaries for files as they are uploaded onto different systems. Even though your staff have done data protection training and understand the risks this poses to information security – if it’s the quickest and easiest way to move documents around, it will continue to be done. Furthermore, system security is often not well connected. Security protocols on the DMS may not be the same as on MS Teams – and associates seldom know or check that.
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Effect on profitability: Regulatory fines and impact on reputation.
Of course, there are ways to avoid this. The solution starts with having and following a strategic technology roadmap that is closely aligned with your business processes and capabilities. Your roadmap should prioritise creating a well-integrated foundation of core systems. These would include a Practice Management, Document Management, and Matter Management Eco-System which allows for seamless movement of data and rich business intelligence.
Here are some guidelines to ensure that technology investments succeed in improving, rather than eroding, your profitability:
Take stock of your company goals and operations to ensure that your technology investment directly contributes to achieving business strategy. This will maximise the return on each dollar spent, and prevent the purchase of enticing, avant-garde (but not critical) systems. A technology partner is invaluable in this process.
The best-case scenario is having one or two seamlessly integrated systems from which fee-earners can do 90% of their work. Being able to manage matters, access documents, and record time in the same place will allow your people to focus entirely on the work at hand – rather than the work spread over five different windows.
People must clearly see how the benefits of a new system will outweigh the pain of change. Otherwise, resistance will be inevitable. Invest in communicating these benefits before and after the launch period of the new system to ensure that your people are using it to its full potential.
Parting Thoughts
Legal technology is designed to streamline business processes, improve profitability, and keep the team engaged. Don’t allow the opposite to happen to your business. Aim to create a unified workspace in which systems are implemented according to a strategic roadmap, integrate well with each other, and are a clear benefit to your teams.
Reach out if you have any questions on how a comprehensive, well-integrated system will benefit your business.