7 things law firms should look for when adding a legal technology to their law practice
The legal technology industry booming. As more and more law firms add automation technologies to their operations, they are becoming better and faster at what they do. If you want to stay competitive in your industry, you’ll need to be faster and more efficient with your time and resources.
First, identify a problem you want to solve. In my law firm, a big problem we had was taking data from documents we received and our staff doing manual actions based on the type of document, such as adding calendar entries, case notes, uploading documents, generating documents and task lists, etc.
After you have identified the problem you want to solve, it’s time to find a service provider who can solve that problem. Here are seven factors to consider when adopting a new legal technology for your law practice.
Security
How secure is their technology? How do they move data from Point A to Point B? A data breach on their system could expose the data and documents you’re inputting into their system.
Ideally, the system you buy into doesn’t store long term data on their server, or they store it in super secure locations such as box.com.
Check with the service provider on what security measures they are taking.
Quality & Consistency
What is the quality of their software and how consistent is it? For example, my firm used to have Zapier; however, every month or two the zaps would break. It would completely interrupt our flow of operations and someone from our team would have to go and attempt to debug the issue. If it wasn’t an obvious one, we had to email their customer service team back and forth, which could take days or even weeks! Zapier didn’t provide us a consistent solution, so we stopped using them.
Customer Support
As with any software, there are bound to be issues and bugs that arise. How responsive is their customer support team. Do they get back to you right away? Within a day? A week? You want a responsive customer support team that alerts the developers when there is a bug.
Also, having a team member who can show you how to implement or work specific functionality is highly beneficial.
Length of Onboarding Process
How long is the onboarding process? Some companies have such complicated and involved systems, it can take months to even start onboarding with them. Also, is there an onboarding guide? Some companies throw you into a dashboard and say “go figure it out!” Does the company you’re working with either have a customer service representative that walks you through or a clear and concise onboarding walkthrough automated guide.?
Customization to Your Law Firm’s Needs
How customizable is the software service to your current needs? Do they only work with certain types of law? Will they plug into your current case management system? The less areas you have where you’re doing work, the better. Also, how customizable can you make it to your own needs and solutions. A software solution that plugs into your current system and is somewhat configurable is better.
Ease of Use
How easy is the software to use? Is it intuitive and easy to follow? If not, it’s going to take more “brain drain” to figure out. If it’s intuitive and easy to use, especially after a clear onboarding guide, then it’ll be easier to get your team using it.
Cost & Value
Last, but certainly not least is the cost. When evaluating cost, don’t just look at price. Look at value. $1,000 a month may seem expensive, but if I pay $1,000/month for this software, can I save $2,000/month in staff time?
Also, if the software will help reduce error and mistakes and the time it takes to fix those, those savings in time, money, and client good will can be priceless.
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