Technology has brought a number of opportunities to operate more efficiently, maximize benefits and better serve customers. It’s affected all aspects of our culture, including consumer expectations, forcing organizations to keep up with these developments. Today, legal consumers anticipate the same type of accessibility and capabilities from their attorneys as they do from other service providers. Law firms must ensure that they have the infrastructure in place to meet the needs of their modern clients.
Following Through With Changes For Efficiency
Organization leaders are increasingly recognizing the potential that technology can bring to their operations, with the cloud in particular being a major disrupter. The benefits these platforms bring can significantly increase efficiencies in the delivery of legal services, but law firms must be ready to follow through to achieve these goals. A study by Altman Weil found that while 94 percent of respondents were focusing on improving efficiency, only 49 percent have changed the way they approach legal service delivery. Above The Law contributor Nicole Black posited that this trend could indicate the difficulties of changing long-held processes despite the overwhelming evidence that these shifts are necessary.
While adjustments are certainly challenging, using the cloud can boost your business to the next level. Migrating your network to the cloud is a significant way to innovate legal service delivery and improve your efficiency. Following through with your commitment to change by implementing training for your users will bring new ways of serving client needs and performing up to emerging expectations.
“Digitization will help the legal sector work better and more flexibly for everyone.”
Improving Sharing And Collaboration Opportunities
Law firm clients don’t communicate in the same ways they did a decade ago. They’re mobile and look to have easy accessibility for advice and services. Confidence in the cloud is steadily increasing across the consumer and enterprise sectors, making it a critical asset for bridging the gap between both parties. CBR Online contributor Doug Hargrove noted that legal practices can significantly reduce the amount of paperwork in the office and courtroom simply by moving assets to the cloud. This in turn drives workforce flexibility and collaboration by providing a single portal to access business information and find necessary documents.
Modern clients expect their lawyers to have the appropriate case files on hand at all times and to address their particular problems. The cloud ensures that attorneys have an easily searchable database to deal with issues quickly and deliver effective solutions. Digitization of the legal sector will help it work better and more flexibly for everyone. Law firms can also use the cloud to collaborate on a case or reach out to a specialist to get the best answers faster.
Ensuring Compliance And Confidentiality
Cloud platforms are now becoming more secure than in-house options, making platforms like AWS a major value for supporting and protecting critical business information. A 2017 survey from KPMG found that legal and financial service firms no longer have compliance challenges that were once associated with cloud-based services, Legal Futures reported. Fears associated with security and privacy are steadily being abated by continual vendor protection improvements. If law firms hope to meet modern client needs, the cloud should be the first technology adopted to advance their capabilities.
“Security, connectivity, mobility and scalability will all be fundamental to ensure the required level of performance and resilience is in place to enable such modernization,” Legal Futures stated. “High maintenance, complex legacy systems will be a significant barrier, which is why moving to a cloud-based infrastructure is no longer a question of ‘if’, but ‘when’.”
Change can be difficult, but it’s necessary to meet evolving client needs and keep up with the competition. To learn more about how the cloud can help you meet modern law firm client expectations, contact Afinety today.
