Running a law firm smoothly is complicated enough without having to worry about keeping everybody’s technology reliable and fully functional. Until relatively recently, this was the domain of the in-house IT team, who could address problems for anyone in the office in person.
However, this in-house IT support model has evolved in recent years. With flexible and hybrid work becoming the norm, devices are used remotely more often, making quick fixes difficult to roll out. The same trend has also heightened the security risk to company data and applications. In addition to this, the hardware and software used by the legal sector have grown in both size and complexity in recent years - so the expertise and resources of in-house IT teams have been stretched to the limit.
The role of IT managers has also evolved in line with the above, with many now finding themselves responsible for making significant business changes through new technology and processes. With all of these changes in motion, it’s natural that many law firms are considering outsourcing IT support to a managed provider. In this blog, we’ll highlight the scale of the potential benefits of adopting managed IT support, both now and in the future.
- Topic:
- Managed IT Services
The legal industry has been undergoing something of a seismic shift in how law firms carry out processes and proceedings. Legal tech and software tools are increasingly imperative to the day-to-day running of things, helping to increase efficiency and security whilst delivering on client expectations.
Although legal tech was already in growth at the start of 2020, the pandemic made a significant and undeniable change to the way we work, and therefore to client expectations. The right tech solutions and services can be a real game-changer, both in terms of productivity and for attracting and retaining business. With so many products now on the market, what does a busy law firm really need in terms of legal tech?
- Topic:
- Managed IT Services
Keeping pace with technology adoption is now a key differentiator for almost all industries. Perhaps more than most sectors, it’s making a particularly big difference in the legal sector, largely because law firms have historically been slow to adopt new innovations and new ways of working.
While the turbulence and unique events of the last few years have forced some law firms to adapt, one major driver of technology adoption is the ever-rising expectation of clients to get the service they feel they deserve. Clients want good quality service and outcomes, delivered faster than ever before, with minimal hassle and clear lines of communication. And in a highly competitive legal landscape where clients can increasingly pick and choose who they hire, law firms are having to turn to technology to meet those expectations.
In this blog, we’ll explore those key client expectations in detail, highlight the technologies best suited for meeting them, and explain why deployment of new tech is just as important as the tech itself.
- Topic:
- Managed IT Services
Did you know that three-quarters of law firms say they’ve been the victims of a cyber-attack? That half of those firms attacked had no restrictions on external access to data storage? And that one-quarter of all law firms don’t encrypt their laptops?
Never before has the legal sector been under such pressure from cybercrime, or faced such serious repercussions in financial, ethical, legal and reputational terms if attacked. With that in mind, this blog will be taking a detailed look at the four compelling reasons why cybersecurity is so important for law firms, and what can be done to remain secure.
- Topic:
- Managed IT Services
There’s no doubt that the world of work has fundamentally changed in the past three years. In particular, millions of workers who hadn’t previously been able to work from home were forced into doing so, and many of them found that they preferred it to working from an office.
As a result, hybrid working models - where employees work some of the time from home and some of the time in the office - have soared in popularity. Workers have come to enjoy the savings in commuting time and money, and the better work-life balance that remote work has given them. Indeed, remote working is now considered so highly by some employees that they’ve been leaving employers not willing to give the flexibility they want, in favour of an alternative business that will.
While the legal sector had already explored hybrid working to an extent pre-pandemic, developing a clear working model is now essential. Law firms that can get this right will empower their employees, find talent retention and attraction easier, and explore potential cost savings through smaller offices. In this blog, we’ll look at all the ins and outs of hybrid working from the specific perspective of the legal sector.
- Topic:
- Managed IT Services
Every law firm deals with large amounts of highly sensitive data, and the volume of that data is increasing all the time. Ensuring that access to and use of that data is both secure and compliant can be difficult enough, especially in an era of more common and sophisticated cyber attacks. However, the rise of flexible and hybrid working has added an extra layer of complexity to this challenge.
Most companies in the legal sector are now (at least partially) running on the cloud, principally for web-based software and for data storage. But this is only part of the story: for hybrid workers to operate both productively and safely, they need access to their entire IT footprint, whenever and wherever they’re working.
Achieving this by replacing a whole IT infrastructure would be complicated, expensive, time-consuming and would demand a whole new learning process. All of these challenges can be navigated by using Virtual Desktop technology instead. This blog explains how it works, and why it’s already proving so beneficial across the legal sector.
- Topic:
- Managed IT Services
In recent years, cloud technology has transformed the operations of businesses all over the world, giving them much more potential for flexibility and scalability. However, compared to most industries, the legal sector has been relatively slow to explore the potential of the cloud.
There are three reasons for this sluggish update: fears over the security of sensitive information and documents; potential high costs of transitioning; and a working culture that is largely office-based with no need for remote data access.
However, times have changed, especially now that more and more legal practitioners want to work from home. For law firms that have not already moved into the cloud, there’s no time to lose in kicking off the migration. This blog explores how the cloud works for law firms, the key problems it can solve, and how it can be the bedrock of a remote working future.
- Topic:
- Managed IT Services
The ways in which technology is used in the business world have changed fundamentally in the last few years. Even before the pandemic, the use of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets was becoming more commonplace, alongside the widespread use of laptops. But in recent years, the move towards more flexible ways of working has only accelerated.
While the wider range of devices, connections and locations being used have helped businesses adapt, and helped employees maximise their productivity, the change has also brought about inherent security risks. That’s why it’s so important for businesses, especially those in the legal sector, to embrace MDM, which stands for Mobile Device Management.
In this blog, we’ll answer the key questions around MDM, including what it means, how it works, how best to apply it in a legal enterprise, and why it’s a far better option than a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policy.
- Topic:
- Managed IT Services
Oosha, an Access Legal company, has been named as one of the world’s premier managed service providers in the prestigious 2022 Channel Futures MSP 501 rankings.
Named as the number one legal specialist, Oosha was also ranked 82 globally, while coming out in fourth place among all UK MSPs.
- Topic:
- Managed IT Services
A Managed Service Provider is a vital ingredient when trying to operate a successful business. They also play a key role in turning IT into a distinctive advantage without straining budgets. It is for this reason that every year Cloudtango honors the most successful MSPs across the United Kingdom in what has become an industry reference due to its independent, unbiased approach, as well as in-depth analysis.
- Topic:
- Managed IT Services
