Legal IT Show, clouds, tweets and virtual reality!

15
Feb
2010

Joanna Goodman

I attended the first day of London’s Legal IT Show last Wednesday. Although it is sometimes considered the poor relation of the more glamorous New York event, following last year’s diary clash, this year the events were a week apart, enabling the keenest legal IT followers to attend, present or exhibit at both – with time in between to travel/recover!

The weather was better too. Although there were a few flurries of snow in London, we had nothing like the white out which hit attendance rather hard in 2009. This year, although the event occupied a noticeably smaller area of London’s Business Design Centre and there were clearly fewer stands, attendance seemed to have improved on last year, with all seats taken at Speakers’ Corner for many of the sessions on the first day.

TheKnowListAwards
2010 has started well in terms of technology events. TheKnowList Awards on 21st January was a great success. All the tables were full and many of movers and shakers in legal IT attended. The venue – the Chancery Court Hotel – was excellent and the event organisers Pink Buddha made sure that the awards presentations went very smoothly.

A welcome innovation was that there were no long after-dinner speeches. But the winners still got a word in as their acceptance speeches were videoed while the guests continued networking at the bar. A short – and entertaining – movie can be accessed at www.theknowlist.com

The Legal IT Show – key themes
Whereas awards – necessarily – look back over the successes of the past year, many of which were remarkable given the impact of the recession on the legal sector, the atmosphere at Islington’s business design centre indicated that people are looking forward to the year ahead with quiet optimism. The familiar law firm stalwarts – LexisNexis, the rebranded TikitTFB, IRIS, Aderant and BigHand were all there in strength as were numerous suppliers serving the mid-markets. Along with SOS Connect, whose stand looked especially busy, there were a number of new exhibitors offering practice management, document management, digital dictation and other managed services.

Noticeable trends were managed services, cloud computing and video conferencing, a win-win IT investment which reduces firms’ travel costs and carbon footprint. Exhibitors included Legal Video Network, which is specifically focused on the legal sector.

There was a dual track in terms of key themes. The first, no doubt borne out of economic circumstances – generally and in the legal sector – focused on business performance, indicating that in 2010 law firms need to become (even) more commercial. IT can support this with projects, products and resources that boost performance and save time and money, with a particular focus on leveraging resources, controlling budgets and maximising return on investment (ROI). 

There was a clear recognition – notably in the case management presentation by Fran Evans at Berrymans Lace Mawer and Laurence Lewis of Consulting Stream – that the success of any IT project in the legal sector and elsewhere depends on effective project management, change management, communication and engaging senior figures and users. The keynote panel moderated by top consultant Melanie Farquharson discussed client service and competitive advantage – core considerations for any business. Charles Christian’s interview with Neil Renfrew again focused on efficiency, user engagement, communication and careful budgeting.

Although the sessions were professional, insightful and well presented, I heard nothing new. Frankly, they reminded me of the operations management and information management sessions I attended when I was doing my MBA – in 2001! This reflects the sector’s realisation that grasping the opportunities offered by the Legal Services Act will require a more commercial approach and closer alignment between law firms and other professional services.

Social media and online resources
The second key theme was innovation with particular emphasis on social media. Dr. Karen Stephenson President of Netform International discussed knowledge networks and other sessions covered the potential benefits of leveraging social networking.

This was the first year that the Legal IT Show was supported by a strong social media contingent, including a LinkedIn group and a Twitter presence using the hashtag #LITS. I encountered Linda Cheung of Connectegrity, one of the few people who tweeted regularly throughout the first day, in the café and I enjoyed reading her insightful commentary.

Although only a few people tweeted from the show, this trend is likely to increase. There was also a ‘tweet up’ or face-to-face meeting of people tweeting from the show. These examples illustrate how social media can help individuals and businesses leverage networking and business opportunities created by this type of event.

I will certainly be checking out another innovation – The Virtual Legal IT Show – on 16th and 17th February which combines information with interactive business and networking resources. Virtual networking cannot replace face-to-face contact and the chance to see applications in action. However, the ability to access supplier information online has to be an improvement on a collection of carrier bags full of brochure and desk toys! It would be interesting to know how many people followed up the event online, or attended the virtual event if they were unable to make it to London…you can find the online event at www.virtuallegalitshow.com

Cloud computing
Other hot topics included the ubiquitous cloud computing, which Gartner predicted as the top strategic IT spend in 2010.  The legal IT sector seems to share that view as walking around the Legal IT Show I noted a significant increase in suppliers offering a variety of cloud-based services. You can get cloud based email, practice management, document management, even digital dictation, so you need to identify your specific requirements before looking for a supplier. This another potential context for the project management approach outlined by Fran Evans and Lawrence Lewis in their case study.

In tune with the focus on flexibility, cloud services save money and enable a firm’s IT resources to adapt to the internal and external business environment. Even Neil Renfrew, who was clearly not convinced of the value of social media, enthused about Thomas Eggar’s investment in Mimecast’s cloud-based email. He reflected the general opinion that for law firms contemplating a move to the cloud, the first decision is a strategic one – what to outsource to a cloud provider and what to retain in-house.

Pick-and-mix outsourcing
A related trend that looks set to continue in 2010 is disaggregated outsourcing. Rather than outsourcing many services to one supplier, firms are increasingly adopting a pick-and-mix approach to find the best fit products and services. For example, K-Cloud, a relatively new venture from the former Eversheds team Malcolm Simms and David Fazakerley, offers a flexible menu of cloud-based services. Clients can start with just one service and add more, select only the services that particularly benefit their business or switch between different services to reflect the changing needs of their business.

Cloud computing is the buzzword of the day and the possible options for all businesses are increasing rapidly and exponentially. As strategic consultant Chris White, former CIO at Ashurst, pointed out to me yesterday, for most law firms, it is a matter of deciding whether and where cloud services fit into their strategy, and whether the market has developed sufficiently to offer them the right solution for their business.

The next issue of TheKnowList will be published in April 2010 and will focus on cloud computing. The idea is to produce a guidebook to the cloud as a quick reference for legal IT decision makers, identifying the key issues for the legal sector and how current and planned services address them. As always, I welcome your comments and ideas.