Lawtech can provide cost-effective solutions to the ‘time poor’ problem that many in the legal profession suffer. It addresses challenges affecting quality, security and communications.
This will make a big difference especially as, post lockdown, law firm leaders are considering their growth plans in the context of their impact on staff wellbeing, increased scrutiny from regulators, costs – and hours in the day.
Here are four facts and fixes involving lawtech …
1. Being flexible doesn’t mean losing control
There are many reasons why your law firm needs flexibility: consider, firstly, that a business known for its flexible working conditions and agile technology is attractive when recruiting.
Providing flexibility doesn’t mean you lose control of your business. Working from home, for example, offers people time savings and other benefits. Using the right cloud products will address worries about standards of communication between staff and clients, productivity – and security issues.
If you are still using basic technology, it is likely to be slowing you down, causing errors and potentially creating a security risk. Cloud solutions can be compatible with your other systems and ensure that you have flexibility – as well as scalability – without sacrificing security. And routine tasks can be automated to enhance productivity.
2. If your systems and apps don’t talk to each other, you’ll have the same problems
Having systems and apps that aren’t connected together means you will have to keep stopping to switch. For example, when you’re working remotely you may even lose calls because of it.
If you are maintaining a legacy on-premise telephony system, back-up service etc, this may prove an obstacle to communicating and collaborating in a hybrid work environment. For instance, if your staff telephone numbers are their desk phones, they will have to manually forward their calls if they need to take them on their mobile phones – or dial into voicemail.
When reviewing your lawtech, to save time and ensure you provide high standards of professional service, consolidate messaging, audio conferencing, video calls, fax, phone etc into one platform.
For example, a cloud system such as that of Pro Drive’s partner RingCentral – a Cloud PBX – integrates into Microsoft Teams and enables you to use the same number for phone and fax wherever you’re working, alongside all the messaging and video features. Calls can still be logged on the case management system.
3. Just because you can meet face-to-face, you don’t always need to
The pandemic has necessitated using video conferencing to conduct professional online meetings and will continue to be used for its time-saving benefits. Have you considered, for example, that you can use video conferencing to witness signatures on legal documents requiring notarisation? You can use an eSignature app like DocuSign with a video platform, to enable you to gain permission to “see” the clients sign documents.
You will probably know about video conferencing being used for some court cases too, enabling people to give evidence from remote locations. It is helping some tribunals to get through the backlog of cases and the belief is that online and hybrid hearings will be a mainstream feature in the future.
Another tool which can save your firm shedloads of time is the client portal. If you haven’t set one up you are missing a trick. It will enable your clients to log into their own secure account for all kinds of purposes, such as to check details of their case, view progress and ask questions without having to step a foot in your door.
4. Cybersecurity is a dish best shared
The lawtech is available to ensure your firm is protected against cyber crime, including cyber awareness training products for your staff. 99% of the time it will be a work colleague who will unwittingly allow hackers to breach your security systems, rather than anything else. There are many things you can do to reduce the risks – but start by sharing knowledge about cybersecurity issues with your team and providing water-tight IT policies.
While your law case load will not magically disappear, if you take a small amount of time to let a tech expert help with the above fixes, you will find two results: 1) You will get through your case load faster because your systems and processes will work together to achieve your goals 2) You will get your life back!
Talk to us and we will show you how to put this into action. Contact us below.
