Over the last number of months myself and the LawVu team have spent a lot of time looking at how firms and organisations operate in the legal world.
In my view the legal industry is where accountants sat five years ago; looking and fearing a new breed of companies and technology.
The accounting world has seen a major shift with the likes of Xero, MYOB andIntuit all helping to move the sector into the online world, by using their technologies and enabling accountants to offer a better and more transparent service to their customers.
Initially, there was a fear that these new cloud based systems and companies would erode an accountant’s business model, but as time has moved on this has proved not to be the case. In fact firms that embraced technological changes have gone on to prosper and grow.
I came across an interesting comment on a post today that stood out to me regarding the use of technology and SaaS based products in the legal world.
SaaS should never be looked at as simply a cost saving exercise, as it offers so many tangible / measurable business benefits / ROI that are not simply about cutting costs, but enabling new ways of working that result in happier employees, greater productivity and indeed better client service provision.
This is our exact thinking at LawVu. We are not looking to erode a lawyer’s ability to make money or to completely change how they operate, we are simply looking to make the business of law more transparent and more approachable.
James Solomons, head of accounting at Xero, also gave this insight during the latest Xerocon in Melbourne.
“When assessing technology for your firm, you need to understand your current workflows to be able to assess the pain points. In other words, where are your inefficiencies and your opportunities to grow, and where can technology help you do the “heavy lifting” to free up time to spend on advisory services.”
It’s time for legal firms to take stock and look at their current processes and systems. Now is the time for change, now is the time to use technology and SaaS solutions to enhance organisations. Those that wait or don’t believe that change is coming will be left behind.
Just as it has been with other industries before, it’s not a matter of will technology change anything, it’s a matter of when.
