The roadmap to successful information governance
Editor
Engaging stakeholders with effective tactics – Part 1
Headlines today are frequently dominated by d(...)
AI in 2024: Should We Still Be “Moving Fast and Breaking Things”?
Editor
Where are things headed with AI in the coming year? What trends should legal IT professionals be awa(...)
Tips on selecting the best application
Today’s lawyers are constantly on the go, working from home and the office and everywhere in between. This flexibility means greater productivity and better levels of client service but it also poses a challenge in capturing all possible billable time. In fact, it’s estimated that three to four billable hours per timekeeper go unrecorded and unbilled every month. This adds up to billions of dollars industry wide every year.
So Microsoft have pulled out of the Legal vertical. It has caused quite a buzz on twitter amongst us Legal IT folk. The question is why. I think the comment on the knowlist article sums up the two opposite conclusions:
The glass half full position is that this is a temporary, cost cutting reorganisation exercise. The glass half empty position: Legal – too fussy, too complicated, too small, not enough dollar.
There’s probably truth in both. Why are Microsoft in business? To sell products! Their professional services team are effectively there to help them do that.
But what is there to sell to Legal? We all use Microsoft Office in a big way and aren’t going to shift anytime soon. We’re tied into Windows as most Legal IT vendors only provide their software for that platform.
Joanna Goodman interviews Tikit's CEO David Lumsden
Tikit ClientConnect is the very latest CRM offering to hit the legal technology market, launched on 20th July. Its press release describes it as a game changer. Joanna Goodman spoke to Tikit’s Chief Executive David Lumsden to find out more.
What was your motivation in deciding to create a new, legal-specific CRM system? What were the business drivers?
We looked at what was out there and saw that a large number of products focused on the high-end of the market. We decided there was room for a new product that would bring large-firm CRM capability to SME firms.
Part 2 of our Workshare Point review: WSP in Word
OK so let’s take a look at Word. Clicking on File Open brings up a WSP dialogue box replacing the native Word open dialogue.
This type of dialogue replacement will be familiar to a user of any DMS and you get obvious views (My Matters, Favourites, Recent). There’s a checkbox allowing me to keep the document checked out (allowing me to stop others amending the document whilst I’m working on it) which is set by default.
“SharePoint, SharePoint, SharePoint, SharePoint, SharePoint, SharePoint, SharePoint, SharePoint!”. There you go, I’ve written Steve Ballmer’s keynote if he ever gets invited to ILTA to talk to a Legal IT audience (My inspiration? See Steve in this video for a developer conference.
Yes, it’s that hot topic in legal IT, SharePoint as a Document Management System (DMS). In particular, Workshare’s latest offering WorksharePoint. This isn’t “Workshare’s DMS” but a product that utilises SharePoint as the DMS and enhances it through its tight integration.
Eleven reasons why Managed Services are a smart choice for today’s business
Due to the exponential growth in electronic business documents, partnering with a dedicated and competent litigation support services firm for Managed Services is:
(Hope All is Well with You…)
Whether you love to hate emails, or you hate to love emails, the fact remains – if you’re a legal IT professional, you’re an emailing machine whether you like it or not.
You would think with all this feverish emailing day and night from laptops, tablets, mobile devices and smartphones, we would all be experts at sending clear, concise, non-annoying email messages. However, in this particular case, practice does NOT make perfect!
Social media is becoming the main stream for networking, connecting with like-minded colleagues, strategic planning and business development.
Many law firms are now starting to put social media on the radar and are including it in succession planning for firm growth. One of the social media that is on the top of attorney and law firm lists for immediate inclusion and presence is LinkedIn. According to LinkedIn, it’s the number one professional social networking site with over 100 million members and almost 1.5 million lawyers.
Last week I attended one of the Bighand regional roadshows, held again at Gordons LLP in Leeds (I so wish other Legal IT vendors would do these local visits, why should the customer travel down to London all the time?).
I came away thinking there wasn’t much new in the latest releases. But then I guess that’s what a good piece of software should do, tweak a little but don’t add so many features that you ruin the core thing your software does well.
But there were a few new “tweaks”, some of which I’ve highlighted below.
I have an issue with the term “legal project management.” The more it gets used the more irritated I seem to get. Don’t get me wrong, I love project management. I use project management. I have spent considerable time and effort over the years to convince my bosses of the value of project management. I’ve tried to impart project management skills to all my staffs to benefit them and the firm in smaller projects too. I have had projects successful, in large part, because of the efforts of a dedicated project manager. I also know that law firms can benefit from professional project management in many areas.
One of the more understated positions within a law firm tends to be the “Good Ole” IT Trainer. They do their respective jobs day in and day out, yet do not get much press for the importance they have at the firm. A decent number of users with whom the trainers work on a weekly basis do not realize what comprises a day in the life of a trainer. In between teaching classes, whether via WebEx, Classroom, or a one-on-one setting, trainers have major responsibilities that make up a far greater percentage of their workday than one would think.
Copyright © 2023 Legal IT Professionals. All Rights Reserved.
We offer organizers of legal IT seminars, events and conferences a unique marketing and promotion opportunity. Legal IT Professionals has been selected official media partner for many events.
