Actionstep: Implementing effective infrastructure for the new age of practice management
It can be said with certainty that this past year has not panned out the way anyone could have anticipated. Whilst a challenging landscape for almost all sectors was forecast; the coronavirus pandemic was nowhere to be seen among our foremost concerns. One certainty that has stayed with us throughout it all; however, is that planning for contingencies in the event of unforeseen circumstances is paramount to the survival of any organisation.
With budgeting and financial planning for the year ahead most definitely underway, it should come as no surprise that law firms this year should stringently review both their tech strategies and infrastructure, aligning their processes with their business goals, especially given our recent departure from the European Union. Fortuitously, whilst many things have changed in the wider world, many of the practices legal professionals should be adopting regarding the safeguarding and effective use of their technology have not.
The budgeting and strategising for the forthcoming year should focus on cybersecurity & remote accessibility, keeping a keen eye on the growing opportunities moving to the cloud can offer your firm, business continuity and disaster mitigation protocol.
Migrating to the Cloud
As an increasing number of legal professionals are making the move to cloud-based applications and practice management solutions, the necessity of on-premises processing power and its associated expenses can also be eased or erased with a move to the cloud.
Currently with over 12,000 active users globally, Actionstep are a 100% cloud-based legal practice and case management software provider, with a rapidly growing clientele base here in the UK.
Actionstep’s practice management solutions are currently helping legal professions and firms alike to utilise powerful workflow engines to eliminate law firm administrivia and simplify the way they are working, both improving productivity and helping them to deliver a better level of service to their clients.
Ongoing Business Development and Disaster Recovery
We have all watched businesses teeter on the precipice of insolvency throughout this past year due to unforeseen circumstances that have almost decimated entire sectors. Ensuring your organisation can continue to aid its clientele with the level of service they have come to expect even during times of extreme uncertainty is key when planning and budgeting. Actionstep’s clients who invested in making the move to a cloud-based practice management system prior to pandemic arriving on UK & US shores were far better prepared to continue operations than those who had put off migrating for the foreseeable.
Invest in Your People
If this past year has laid bare one thing; it is the irreplaceable value and ingenuity of the people – from the frontline workers to lawyers and the remote IT engineers that have kept us all afloat whilst faced with an unprecedented financial market and circumstances.
Investing in your practice and your people by enabling them to be at their best wherever they are is paramount as we move towards new horizons. A system that offers 24/7 global support, an extensive array of plugins and integrations to cohabit with existing infrastructure and a centralised workspace to bring cohesion to undertakings can help tremendously in aiding your people to focus on the things that really require their attention.
No one can be certain when the next crisis to bring business as usual to a screeching halt will be, but there are certainties around the fact that we are all shifting towards a less traditional 9-5 office setup over the coming years. The present is the logical time to start thinking about where you are heading in terms of your IT requirements and the way you are managing your practice. Given recent events it seems wise to consider the unexpected. If you need assistance, get in touch with our team at Actionstep to discuss how we can help take some of the weight out of your administrivia and streamline your workflows. Plan now to avoid rougher and likely far more expensive consequences later.
Secure Hosting: Defense-in-Depth
Cloud Based Legal Software with Bank Grade Security
Continually changing cyber defence systems have necessitated criminals in the digital space to continually change their tactics as innovation in defences reduce the effectiveness of their active exploits. Phishing, malware and ransomware attacks have increased in frequency, sophistication and ramifications – both physical and reputational. Law firms, as members of a community built on trust and confidence, must consider the move to the leading edge of securing their clients’ information.
Actionstep utilises industry-leading Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide you with a secure, fast, reliable, and infinitely expandable cloud platform. Trusted by over a million customers worldwide, AWS employs state-of-the-art physical and digital security procedures. Our in-house system administrators also maintain the security of our systems and monitor them in real time for any unusual behaviour, and we are regularly audited by independent security specialists.
Any time your data is transmitted over the Internet, it is encrypted with HTTPS technology, making it as secure as Internet banking and ensuring that it cannot be viewed or altered.
Data Sovereignty
You can choose to store your law firm’s data in any one of our four AWS data centre’s; Australia, Europe, Singapore, or the United States.
Law firms should be enforcing a weekly backup at a minimum. Information security defences should also be layered so that the bypassing or failure of one will not lead to critical downtime. With Actionstep, there is no need to worry about backing up your data – it is done automatically.
Your Data Belongs to You
You always retain ownership of your data and can request a full export of your database and files at any time – no questions asked.
To learn more about Actionstep’s all-in-one practice management system, contact Lloyd at lloyd.porter@actionstep.com