ILTA and InsideLegal.com Release 2009 ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey

Global News

25
Aug
2009

Law firms with 50+ attorneys discuss IT budgets and spending, technology purchases, and vendor strategies for helping firms ‘do more with less’

The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA), and InsideLegal.com, an online legal community providing an insider’s guide to doing business in legal technology, today released the findings of the 9th annual ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey (Survey). The 2009 Survey, focused on feedback from 115 ILTA member law firms with 50 or more attorneys, covers IT budgeting, technology purchasing patterns, selection criteria and influencers, technology trends & IT challenges, and state-of-the-economy questions. Survey findings and analysis will be presented as part of InsideLegal.com’s ILTA Vendor Education & Media Program in conjunction with ILTA’s Annual Conference August 23-27.(Click on 'read more' for a complimentary download of the findings and analysis.)

2009 Survey highlights include:

• Budget cuts in 2009 are severe: Only 15% of survey participants spend more than 4% of total firm revenue on technology vs. 28% in 2008. However, economic recovery is closer than many might believe with 14% of respondents claiming their firms are already on the way to recovery and 47% stating firm financials will be on the upswing within the next 12 months.
• 2008 saw major hardware projects rolled out with at least a 40% implementation rate (based on all survey responses) for server upgrades, desktop hardware, virtualization, laptops and printers/multi-function devices (MFDs).
• 75% of all 2009/10 planned purchases are for technologies that were put on hold or deferred from last year.
• ILTA’s Peer to Peer magazine is 2009’s publication favorite with a 95% read rate among respondents.
• Technology blog readership is still below 50% but LinkedIn, as a social media tool for firms, is well entrenched.
• According to ILTA respondents, virtualization, cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) are among the ‘hottest’ future technologies.
• Email management continues to be IT’s #1 challenge, this year followed by staffing concerns and managing firm growth.
• Majority of IT decision-makers say getting discounts/price cuts is the best way their vendors can work with them in the downturn. 62% indicated they have received specific vendor ‘economic stimulus’.

“ILTA and InsideLegal have long collaborated on legal technology vendor education and enhancing our vendor partners’ value at the Annual ILTA Conference,” stated Peggy Wechsler, Program Director, ILTA. “Again this year, the ILTA Member Legal Technology Purchasing Survey contains invaluable information for the entire legal community – technology purchasing trends and IT spending data beneficial to legal vendors and budget comparisons and peer feedback on department challenges and economic realities for ILTA law firm members.”

“We thoroughly enjoy working with ILTA and this survey is in line with InsideLegal’s commitment to provide value-added content to the legal technology community,” concluded JoAnna Forshee, CEO of InsideLegal.com. “The IT purchasing and budget information provided by ILTA members just keeps getting better every year, and we always look forward to sharing these findings and getting this invaluable analysis to as many legal technology vendors, law firms, media and legal thought leaders as possible.”

To download a copy of the 2009 survey analysis, click here.