You purchased technology for your office some time ago to help improve work processes and make your practice more efficient.  But you discover after a year or so that it is not being used effectively, or at all.  How can you determine the effectiveness of your new technology investment?

The first, and probably most important, aspect of ROI on your technology is to look into the adoption rate across the office to gauge if it's being used, how it's being used, and who are the ones using it.  The best bang for your buck is undoubtedly when all users are employing the technology the way it was intended, to complete the most important tasks that the technology was designed to facilitate. Too often, we run across firms who focus so heavily on the deployment and implementation of technology and lose sight of actual
ly taking advantage of the new benefits.  According to Dider Bonnet of Harvard Business Review, ". . . true ROI of digital investments  is collaboration among actively engaged users, smarter decision making, increased sharing of best practices and, over time, sustained behavior change."

Soloway Wright LLP, a leading Canadian commercial real estate and litigation firm, has selected NetDocuments' document and email management service over HP Autonomy's server-based document management system, iManage.  As the firm continues to grow in the Ottawa / Eastern Ontario regions, the need for improved organization, mobility, and increased security became apparent, and the firm began the due diligence and selection process with the help of an outside consulting firm. 

Ploum Lodder Princen, one of the leading law firms in The Netherlands, has selected NetDocuments as their document management system to modernise core technology throughout the firm.

London, UK – Ploum Lodder Princen, a premier law firm in The Netherlands, has completed extensive due diligence to upgrade and modernise technology across the firm, and has chosen NetDocuments for their document management solution.  The firm sought out a modern solution that would allow them to continue offering exceptional service to their clients, while lightening the technology footprint at the firm.  NetDocuments simplifies the firm's complex requirements through secure collaboration and features that will improve the way the firm manages its documents and emails.

We recently sat down with Frank Gillman, the CIO at Lewis Brisbois, to learn more about the firms dramatic growth in recent years, moving the firm into the Am Law 100 list of the largest firms in the US.

Accelerated primarily by acquisition, Lewis Brisbois relied heavily on the ability to ramp-up newly acquired firms quickly. Here are a few words from Frank.

 

Ready to see a demo of how the NetDocuments service will change the way your firm practices law? Schedule it today.

 

LONDON, UK – The leading London-based law firm, Farrer & Co LLP, has successfully deployed NetDocuments' cloud-based service to all 400 individuals in the firm.  Farrer & Co represents the first mid-market UK firm to implement a true cloud-based electronic file solution for managing documents and emails - giving their lawyers, partners, and staff seamless and secure access to their files from anywhere on any device and providing increased efficiency for clients.

The mobility revolution.

According to Pew Research Internet Project, mobile technology has expanded increasingly in 2014 and will only continue to grow into 2015.  Their research shows that:

Along with these statistics, they also show that more than half of app users have uninstalled or decided to not install an app due to security concerns.

There is increased pressure for law firms to adapt to this new mobile environment by making applications accessible outside of the office to keep productivity flowing.  But, since data security is such a huge priority, there is hesitancy to log on to third-party applications for fear of exposing personal or sensitive information.

Some interesting stats and a nice article by Alan Cohen on the topic of data security in this years' technology survey of the Am Law 200 firms. A notable point is that there is no consensus as to which is the #1 security concern for top firm executives. However, the top three security issues for 74 of the top 200 firms are:

The rise in security concerns is in part due to the pressure clients are putting on their firms. The pressure is coming in the form of audits, and lengthy questionnaires. "Five years ago, we didn't have security audits," Gary Becker, the CIO at Reed Smith, stated. "We've had over 15 of them this year."

When I buy a new cell phone, the last thing I want to do is sit through lengthy tutorials on how to use the most common functions.  I just want it to work.  I want it to be intuitive enough that it just makes sense.  Seems like our day-to-day business applications should follow suit, but with technology evolving so quickly, the sophistication and difficulty of implementation is rising with it.  The need for technology geared towards the enterprise to flaunt features that are so cumberso
me that they turn simple tasks into confusing, week long processes, is weakening the firm's abilities to focus on and service clients.  

Sherman Wells Sylvester & Stamelman LLP opened their doors in July 2014 with approximately 30 attorneys and support staff in offices in New Jersey and New York. They decided from day one that investing in people and the technology that would allow them to best service their client base would be a top priority. Their goal between the two offices was to be as paperless and cloud-based as possible. Modernizing the law firm with leading edge technology has helped them realize their goals, and choosing NetDocuments as their content management service provider met their objectives. Harry Atlas, partner at Sherman Wells, explains the importance of technology in the firm and why NetDocuments was the best available solution.