Even in an industry as established and as traditional as the law, change happens. The universal shift towards digital is gathering pace and law firms need to move with the times to keep up. Fortunately, there are reliable partners and solutions within the market that can support such a move.
There are three main drivers for law firms to consider moving to the cloud.
Consumer demand for fast and easy access to their lawyers and their paperwork is driving a dramatic shift to digital.
The government’s justice system modernisation programme will bring courts online and seek to speed up and simplify access to justice. The South London Legal Partnership has proven that digital court hearings are a viable way forward
The lowering of Legal Aid fees is encouraging law firms to look at new ways of working to lower costs and improve responsiveness.
Cloud computing offers some serious advantages to law firms looking to address those drivers. It offers agility, flexibility and cost-effectiveness among many others, but let us tackle those first. If a cloud solution can achieve efficiencies while also being secure and complying with ICO and Law Society guidelines, all the better!
Agility
Cloud computing offers a range of benefits to law firms looking to become more responsive. It can include everything from case handling platforms, unified communications, high definition video conferencing, online accounting, document management and messaging.
Lawyers can now work remotely, be contactable anywhere at any time and have instant access to case files. All things clients now expect.
While offering a faster service to clients, these options can also lower costs for the firm itself. An office or chambers can effectively manage more lawyers with fewer back office staff and can automate many tasks. Lost documents, couriers and unanswered calls can all be a thing of the past too!
Flexibility
The opportunity for home offices, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), flexible working and reactive scheduling are all made possible with cloud solutions. While extra agility may benefit the client and the firm itself, a flexible workplace can help the lawyers themselves balance a hectic schedule with a much more balanced work life.
Need an emergency conference or last minute documents for a brief? Unified communications can help. Set up conferences on your phone and download documents securely to your device in seconds. It’s all possible when you work with the right partner.
Cost-effectiveness
Any developments within an industry have to offer a return to be worthwhile. So far we have seen that the cloud can lower costs by reducing the number of back office staff and couriers while raising the number of lawyers that can be managed. The shift to the cloud can also help reduce running costs within the practice too.
There would be no need for an IT support service or onsite servers and you could significantly lower call and fax costs with unified communications and digital fax servers. Just two ways to reduce costs. Add the flexibility of fixed, per seat licensing with no upfront fees or hidden extras and there is every reason to explore cloud computing.
Now all you need do is find a partner who can work with you to achieve all these things. A partner who can deliver the security demanded by your industry and your integrity while delivering the savings needed to remain competitive. That partner is Excalibur.
Contact our cloud computing experts today 0n 01793 438881 to learn how we can help you gain competitive advantage!
