The competition within the legal sector, between firms and individual solicitors, has never been more intense. This type of competition is largely healthy, but it also means that professionals in the legal sector are constantly looking for ways to get ahead of competitors.
Innovations within legal firms are increasingly coming about due to them leveraging technology, which has become increasingly essential across many sectors. This was confirmed by TechQuarters, a provider of small business IT support London based legal firms have been using for many years. They confirmed to us that they have seen a gradual increase in demand for modern tech solutions among legal professionals.
We asked TechQuarters about the types of technology that they believe can help legal firms.
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Communication Tools
From emails, to instant messaging; telephony to videoconferencing. Communication is so important in modern business, and so important in the legal sector. It helps practices nurture and build relationships with their client, which is why leveraging efficient communication tools is a necessity. As an IT support company London businesses used a lot during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, TechQuarters are well-versed in communication tools fit for business – they recommended Microsoft Teams for efficient, unified communications.
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Chatbot Software
Following on from communication, there may well be times where the clients of legal firms may wish to seek information from the firm out of office hours (or perhaps everyone is very busy during the time when a client needs info). Chatbots are an effective way to ensure clients can get certain types of info quickly and independently. Having chatbots on their website, a legal practice gives site visitors a tool where they can get answers to their questions.
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Case Management Solutions
Digital business management is a popular category of software for many organisations. It works by helping to centralise data, connect individuals within an organisation more effectively, and automate certain tasks and processes. For legal firms, digital case management solutions are available that are designed specifically for their line of work. These solutions manage things like organising case documents, contact lists, and calendars. Case management solutions provide an easy-to-use platform for sharing and communicating information with relevant parties, and helps centralise all the different aspects of a case into a single interface.
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eDiscovery Tools
Discovery is a big part of legal firm’s work, and oftentimes, the pre-trial procedure involves a lot of searching through stacks of documents. eDiscovery, as the name suggests, enables parties to digitize hardcopy documents, as well as consolidate digital documents into a single platform. This means that all case-relevant information – whether it be documents, emails, photos, databases, etc. – can be stored and accessed digitally, and from any internet-connected device. eDiscovery solutions nowadays even contain analytics capabilities that make it easy to search for relevant information.
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Cloud Storage
Nowadays, cloud storage is become all but a prerequisite in business. Organisations don’t want to be relying on large, costly, energy-intensive servers, and they definitely don’t want to be relying entirely on filing cabinets. With Cloud Storage, you can centralise all your information where it is secure and easily accessible by authorised parties. According to TechQuarters, who have been providing IT support for legal firms for over a decade now, cloud storage is a frequent priority for clients in this sector.
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Template Management Software
Documentation is very important in the legal sector, and documentation should also be standardized within an organisation. Automated template management is therefore a most valuable solution for firms. Firstly, it makes it easy to spin up a variety of standardized documents for different purposes; and it makes organising and accessing past documents much easier.
