You’ve bought the tech – are they using it? LTC4 ensures user adoption and efficiency
How do you measure your return on what is probably the largest investment your firm makes each year? Whether it is a major capital investment in a new document management system or the ongoing maintenance of software, hardware and systems, many millions of £s/$s are spent every year by law firms and legal departments.
User adoption of these systems is critical. Implementation of new technology projects will not meet expectation, or could even fail entirely, if the teams tasked with driving adoption don’t prioritise helping users through technology and process changes.
How about asking fee earners some questions? Of the technologies we use do which do you find most useful? Which do you like and find easy to use and what don’t you like? Is there any technology that you struggle with? Do you find technology aids efficiency or the opposite?
The effect on productivity and, in turn, on profitability of investing in technologies which are underused, not understood or not fully adopted is clearly an important issue.
At a time when clients are looking more closely at their legal bills, and corporates are also assessing the efficiency of their legal teams, it is essential that these huge investments are cost effective. Time management is a huge topic in legal, whether it is recorded or calculated for fixed fee arrangements, any inefficiencies in the use of expensive technologies cost money.
There are also less obvious barriers to efficient working – frustration, burn-out, extended working hours leading to lack of work/life balance. Technology should be an enabler not a barrier to success. Trainers are well aware that time spent in training has to be kept short, focused on immediate need and easy to access. However, the rewards in terms of improved efficiency greatly outweigh any time spent learning the best ways to adopt the technologies that have been introduced.
Engaging with LTC4 provides a structure for training delivery which has been proven to improve skills – the 10 Learning Plans are workflow focused for training which is the easiest to translate into your daily workflow. Find out more at www.ltc4.org.
