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Managing Better -
Why legal is now
entertaining the host...
Judging from the rising business levels
and enquiry numbers, the professional
services market, including legal, has
never been more receptive to the concept
of outsourcing.
That’s partly because many of the
original barriers to adoption have been
broken down – suppliers have shown
themselves to be financially as well as
technically resilient; communications
have got faster and cheaper; and
state-of-the-art data centres and ISO
quality security procedures have largely
put paid to concerns about housing data
off-site.
Outsourcers have also refined their
offering. It doesn’t always have to be
an all or nothing solution, although
100% managed service provision can
muster a compelling argument in its
favour. Those favouring the softly,
softly approach can now take advantage
of one or two discrete offerings,
unburdening themselves of some of their
more onerous responsibilities. Hosted
email is a good example, as is the
Software as a Service (SaaS) model: here
applications can be ‘consumed’ on a
fairer pricing subscription basis rather
than have to be integrated into internal
systems, with all the attendant
licensing, installation and maintenance
costs.
In addition, there are increasing
concerns as regards business continuity,
particularly given some of the
devastating physical disasters in recent
years. With their highly redundant
infrastructures and data hosting
capabilities, managed service providers
are perfectly positioned to provide the
necessary back-up for firms who need to
be at least partly operational again
within 24 hours.
The other factor influencing the uptake
of some or all of the available managed
services is undoubtedly changing market
dynamics. You’ll no doubt be acutely
aware that in the current climate, a
legal firm is a very tough entity to
manage – legislative change, client
demands and competitor pressure are just
one unholy trinity exerting a downward
force on the practice fabric. Throw in
the battle for talent, the need to drive
down costs and the challenge of
negotiating the post-Clementi landscape
and you realise the job has probably
never been harder.
The IT paradox
And then there’s the IT paradox. Most
firms recognise that technology is now
the fulcrum of their business, the thing
that can play a critical role in
boosting efficiency, standards, process,
client retention and acquisition while
also driving down overheads and managing
risk. But, IT comes at a price and
invariably with a large headache.
Investing sufficiently not just to keep
up but to keep ahead; spending and
deploying systems quickly enough to
support critical business agility;
finding and retaining sufficient talent
to manage those systems; using up
valuable budget on ‘keeping the lights
on’ activity when the desire is for
focus on added-value services; dealing
with the inherent unmanageability of a
system where you can’t predict what will
go wrong or what you will need in
response to some internal or external
stimulus; ensuring data security and
network integrity in an increasingly
complex technological environment;
responding to a trend for more remote
and flexible working over myriad
platforms and devices; achieving and
sustaining compliance with Lexcel and
Law Society Code of Conduct requirements
in relation to business continuity; and
coping with the general stress of such a
permanently taut and often fraught
situation.
Managed service provision can take away
a lot of that burden but what it does
not remove is your control. Yours is
perhaps the most serious of
responsibilities, the on-going strategic
development of your IT for the benefit
of your staff, your clients and your
business. What you now have, relieved of
your everyday system administration or
team management duties, is quality time
to focus on the added-value activities
that your senior team are looking to you
to provide. You also manage the
relationship with the MSP, which doesn’t
just revolve around monitoring the
Service Level Agreements but, with a
provider like e-know.net, also
concentrates on consulting and project
work to support the added-value
objective.
Even for those choosing to outsource
just one or two system elements, such as
email, or to take a
specific line-of-business application on
a SaaS subscription, there are the same
sort of benefits to be enjoyed –
affordable access to heavyweight
applications that can put you on a par
with larger firms; fast-track
implementation to speed adoption; 24/7
support and system admin to safeguard
productivity and anytime, anywhere
usage; ready access to the right level
of expertise rather than having to find
it and fund it yourself; in-built
business continuity to protect
operations and ensure compliance; lower,
fixed costs allowing reallocation of
budget to additional projects; automatic
upgrades to the latest versions so
maximising functionality; and increased
flexibility and affordability for
bringing new solutions into the
practice.
Managed service has real potential to
help firms better manage their IT and so
better secure their future success.
If you would like any further
information on any of the issues
discussed or would like to know how
e-know.net can help your Firm,
please call us on 01952 236236
or email
michael.pickford@e-know.net.
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