Is outdated technology holding back your law firm while rocking up an expensive bill?
Law firms, like any other businesses, have financial demands, with senior partners looking to cut costs and increase or preserve revenue. This can often mean putting off important investments as they are seen more as expenses, such as IT upgrades or new practice management software. Instead, they are holding on to old and often ill functioning outdated technology. Many solicitors do not realise that holding onto their aging technology can lead to increased costs in the long run. They might think saving money now is a good plan, but will it be a cost saving in the long run?
Here are 5 examples of why holding on to outdated tech is holding your firm back while quietly rocking up a costly bill.
- IT costs: Outdated software often has no support from the provider. For example, Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7 in January 2020. These events increase pressure on IT resources to resolve issues with temporary fixes, leading to increased IT support costs.
- Hardware maintenance costs: Servers get old and space runs out. These are just the facts of life with hardware. Replacing servers and paying for more storage can often be expensive. Unlike with Keyhouse365 Cloud solution where you no longer need to worry about the end date on your server or running out of space.
- Scalability costs: Older systems can often lack the functionality and power to support a growing law firm. Your system should not make onboarding new staff a hindrance that slows the system down for everybody else and impacts the team’s performance.
- Inefficiency costs: Older, unsupported, and outdated technology won’t have the automation and integration capabilities of modern tech. Manual operations disrupt workflow and result in solicitors wasting billable time on repetitive, manual processes that their practice management system should be able to automate.
- Security costs: If the technology is no longer supported, or not properly supported by the developer, firms may no longer receive critical security updates leaving the firm vulnerable to attacks by cyber criminals. Data back-up, disaster recovery and business continuity also become a huge concern.
What are the reasons for resistance to new technology?
According to the 2020 Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer Survey, this resistance is largely down to organisational issues, lack of tech knowledge, understanding and skills, along with financial issues.
The paper discussed some important reasons for Law firms to invest in technology; “Firms that are not investing in legal technology will need to re-examine their investments to both catch up to meet the expectations of their clients as well as defend against potential competition from alternative legal service providers.”
We also know from our interactive webinar series that many law firms and solicitors are aware that they are not the most open to change and that they lack a plan for future technology.
However, most firms will say that expense is the reason they are unwilling to change their technology. In reality, firms who are holding onto their aging technology are in fact incurring costs overtime. Not to mention retaining outdated technology that could have massive implications down the road. For example, your server might “fall over”, falling victim to cyber-attacks, or having to upgrade multiple items at once because they may all fail at the same time. These are all events that would bring your firm to a halt. Not to mention, your counterparts in the industry are now adapting to new ways of working and are gaining clients from outside their local area by utilising technology.
It’s time to look at the bigger picture. As the old saying goes; “A stitch in time saves nine” and this exactly what you do when you keep your technology, both hardware and software, up to date.
If you want to learn more about how to take the next step with your Case Management System, call us now on 01 290 2222.
