46

FEATURE | IT >>

Australasian Legal Business ISSUE 9.05

for optimising IT strategy

It’s time for law firms to get savvy about optimising value for their IT spend, writes legal technology specialist Damian Huon. Here he lists his top ten tips.

Gone are the days in IT when partners can hire a techie, sign a few cheques, close their eyes and hope for the best.

Many lawyers report that front-end work is on the rise, although this view is not necessarily unanimous (see box-out).

In fact ‘hoping’ simply isn’t an option anymore; a smart leader will ensure that is a guarantee. No longer is IT a necessary evil, hidden in the back room. It is a lifeline throughout your firm - on every desk, in every pocket - connecting, enabling and empowering staff to deliver service to your clients every chargeable minute of every day, and night.

Beyond simply avoiding downtime, an optimal IT strategy can also become a means to rejuvenate your firm - infiltrating every element of your business to improve efficiencies, ensure best practice, and reduce costs.

Your firm’s IT strategy cannot be left to the gadget fanatics; it is a business tool much too vital for managers to ignore. So roll up your sleeves and start talking to your team - here are ten tips to get you started:

Damian Huon Huon IT

Deficiencies in the utilisation of Practice Management Software

features is a global challenge. Not only could your upfront capital investment be higher than required, you may also pay ongoing licensing, maintenance and support renewals for features you may not even be using. In fact according to LicenseMetrics, many firms spend up to 25% more than they need to due to under utilisation.

One way to combat this issue is to engage your PMS vendor to conduct an annual audit on your use of their software. While this may incur a fee, the efficiencies gained and potential cost savings will far outweigh the cost. Whether you decide to incorporate a new feature into your firm, or cut it from your package, is entirely up to you – just make sure that you have the right information to make an informed decision.

GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR PMS

10 TIPS

47www.legalbusinessonline.com

FEATURE | IT >>

www.legalbusinessonline.com

TAKE DIGITAL DICTATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Whilst digital dictation has been around for some time, recent innovations have

shifted the technology into top gear. Not only can dictations be performed from anywhere on mobile devices such as BlackBerry and iPhones, the advancements in workflows and speech recognition will revolutionise the way your firm works.

Sophisticated business process improvements deliver workflows to conquer idle typists. Automated workload monitors leverage all transcription pools and will allocate dictations directly to available typists, whether it be within your own team, or to co-location offices interstate or even overseas. For urgent, overnight or overflow dictation requirements,

there are also outsourcing providers who can assist on an ad hoc basis to provide maximum flexibility.

Furthermore, with voice recognition accuracy rates increasing, the technology provides firms with automation opportunities beyond belief. This can include integration with server workflows where specific document types are automatically transcribed and sent to typists simply for quick review, or client-side where keen lawyers can watch their dictation be automatically transcribed in real time on their screen. A proof of concept trial is highly recommended to see this technology in action.

VIRTUALISE EVERYTHING – INCLUDING STORAGE

V irtualisation is here to stay, and the benefits are real. According to IDC, as of

2010 virtualisation reached 50% of production environments, and is set to further accelerate this year. And the reason firms are jumping all over the trend? Freeing your systems and workloads of physical infrastructure means that you are no longer dependent on any vulnerable, single piece of hardware. The detachment increases agility and scalability, and provides measureable return on investment through reduced capital and ongoing operational expenditure.

Most mid tier practices are exploring this

innovation through servers or desktops, yet seem to forget about storage. It is undeniable that virtualisation puts a strain on your storage requirements, so with smart innovation you can significantly increase your system’s capacity; top vendors can guarantee deduplication ratios of 50 to 70% in virtual environments, and up to 35% on standard file storage. Rapid provisioning will not only accelerate your business potential to bring services to market faster, but also significantly improve your overall IT efficiency.

DON’T LEAVE DISASTER RECOVERY PLANNING FOR A RAINY DAY

Research conducted by AM Best revealed that only 6% of companies who

encounter catastrophic data loss will survive; 43% will not re-open and 51% will fail within 2 years. These results are staggering, and unfortunately due to the ravaging floods, earthquakes and fires striking around the world, Australian firms are not exempt from this danger.

There are, however, simple guidelines you can follow to ensure your firm’s survival should the worst occur. Firstly, have your IT team conduct regular backup audits and report back to you. Focus simply on four core issues; data selection to confirm all critical sources are captured, retention periods stating how

many hours, days, weeks and months you can go back, the suitability and security of your offsite storage, and finally test restores conducted quarterly at the very minimum.

While the jury is still out on Cloud computing, there are various ‘DR as a Service’ options you can utilise. This technology allows you to replicate your entire system via a secure link to a data centre of choice, protecting your system against natural disasters, server failures, power outages, and more. Rather than investing in, and maintaining, a co-location site, duplicate infrastructure and extra IT staff, you simply rent the service for an affordable set fee per month.

48

FEATURE | IT >>

Australasian Legal Business ISSUE 9.05

While most firms ensure they have backup servers, storage, and workstations

that they can use in the event of failure, many simply forget about backup internet. A secondary physical connection, even with a separate provider, is not simply enough – if construction workers cut through the lines in your street, all services could be disconnected. True IT best practice calls for a wireless connection.

Fast Business Grade Wireless Links now exist which form the perfect solution for redundant internet connectivity. You can establish a connection on a slow speed link (paying only the lowest recurring costs), and speed up the connection on demand to cater for short term outages of your primary line. This upgrade only requires a phone call, and can be downgraded again after the problem is resolved.

HAVE A ‘PLAN B’ FOR YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION

It’s all too easy for firms to renew contracts with their ISPs each year; if

the service has been relatively reliable, you’ve already budgeted for it, and they’ve sent you a renewal form, it simply requires a signature. But what about the cost savings and important features you’re missing out on?

A comparison to market may soon uncover an array of opportunities for your firm. If available, you should leverage from new affordable internet bandwidth to improve speed and remote access, establish site replication to a cloud provider, VoIP integration, and – perhaps most importantly – a redundant wireless connection.

SHOP AROUND – COMPARE YOUR INTERNET PLAN ANNUALLY

Providing staff with BlackBerry’s, iPhones, iPads and other web enabled devices may

empower a more agile, mobile workforce, however their use does pose a danger – are all emails being filed correctly?

The solution may lie in a smart Document Management System (DMS) with email management functionality, which is an intelligent filing system that can make certain assumptions based on content about how to automatically classify emails. Alternatively users can easily file emails into folders on their mobile phone, which will then synchronise with your firm’s DMS.

Don’t risk losing important data and jeopardising your firm’s compliance by letting mobile emails fall through the cracks – speak to your team today about what features are available to fill these crucial gaps.

SMART PHONES NEED SMART FILING

Tablet devices, such as iPads, are no longer breaking news – a few of your

staff may already have one. But are they using them effectively and how can your firm’s work practices benefit?

The iPad’s strengths lay in the consumption, rather than creation, of information. Typically used for reading emails, websites and documents, it is a handy tool for meetings, while travelling or even in between court hearings. Dynamic use of this device however, can yield a much higher return on investment. Using strategic mark-up applications such as “GoodReader” – the Number One best selling non-Apple app in the US in 2010 – allows your employees to mark-up, tag, highlight, strikeout, add sticky-notes and more to documents, then share them with colleagues via email.

This simple tool, worth just $5.99USD, transforms the iPad from a simple reading device, into an empowering review tool. What was typically downtime is now an opportunity for chargeable, effective work.

EMPOWER A MOBILE WORKFORCE

49www.legalbusinessonline.com

FEATURE | IT >>

Gartner predicts that IT Resources will reduce by up to 25% by 2013. How?

Through the adoption of innovative IT automation tools.

Practice Managers and CIOs should be constantly driving IT team efficiencies, and searching for means to redeploy skills away from administration and toward business improvement. Through upfront investments in projects such as virtualisation and consolidation, you can ensure time consuming tasks are streamlined, thus transforming duties that typically took days into mere minutes. While there is no textbook formula for how many IT staff firms should employ per employee count, there are many simple automation tools that can help reduce your support waiting times, wages and overheads.

CUT YOUR IT RESOURCES BY 25% IN THE NEXT TWO YEARS

There is a constant struggle between IT teams battling for new infrastructure,

and management pressures to minimise expenditure. In depth analysis and smart planning, however, can help find a middle ground which truly satisfies your firm’s requirements through an IT Health Check conducted by an independent IT consulting firm.

This unbiased, third set of eyes across your system will assess your infrastructure, risk management, hardware adequacy, server performance, network design, backup strategy, security and more. From this assessment, remedial recommendations are provided to assist you form a strategic roadmap for your firm’s future.

CHECK THE PULSE OF YOUR SYSTEM BEFORE FINANCIAL YEAR PLANNING

About the Author:

Damian Huon is a Law Firm Technology Strategy Specialist, with over 20 years experience working with Australia’s leading practices. Damian is Managing Director of Huon IT, a professional services technology consultancy.