LPM LITL 2021 partner comment: An aye to the future, by Accesspoint Group Holdings
In LPM LITL 2020 report, when asked ‘what percentage of people in your firm regularly work from home’, the average response was only 16% – what a difference a year makes! We’ve all been proved wrong. This year, when asked what the new normal working arrangements would look like for their firm, firms responded that, on average, over half of all staff will be working from home for two or more days a week. Our mindsets have been shifting and, overall, there has been an increase desire for a more agile and modern work model – homeworking could be here for the long-term. So, this brings us to an important question: Are firms prepared for permanent and sustainable homeworking?
Interestingly, when asked, ‘how has moving people to remote working affected your firm’s cybersecurity risk’, 40% answered that there’s more or much more risk involved for their staff. Yet IT expenditure is once again low across the board this year as per the previous year, with SME firms spending 5-6% of their revenue in this area (let alone on cybersecurity) and perhaps serious food for thought in the next financial year. Now more than ever is the time to explore new security measures that can keep your firm safe as well as provide a joined-up approach to handling and storing confidential data. Many solutions are available; some lie in automation processes, moving your work to the cloud or, even better, exploring secure client portals. Portals act as legal platforms, allowing your firm to have a collection of bespoke innovative products under one very secure and readily accessible roof, where the firm can pick and mix which products it needs to best serve its clients and staff.
The implications and associated costs of finding both new and effective automation shouldn’t be a barrier to entry. Partnering with a legal IT software specialist will guarantee your investments go further and ensure your team is given the best start when getting to grips with these new challenges. As 33.3% of SME legal leaders see ‘bigger firms than mine’ as their top threat, delaying any investment into new automation processes will continue to put these firms behind many of their larger competitors. Automation brings a wide range of benefits to SME firms, which they simply can’t afford to miss out on – it reduces errors and enables more accurate data capture, frees up fee earners’ time to focus on more important work, and drastically reduces costs, thus improving efficiencies and gaining that all-important competitive advantage. The next year could prove to be the most challenging IT one yet – we shall see!
This sponsor comment was taken from LPM Frontiers: Legal IT landscapes 2021. To read the full report, click here.
