Often, one of the biggest hurdles preventing a firm from moving into the modern age of legal practice management technology (case, document and financial management software) is the concern that their staff will not adopt the system and that the investment will end up being underutilized. This fear is typically a result of past experience or just plain old speculation. It’s widely understood that a practice management system is only as good as the data that is entered. Therefore, the issue of user adoption is an extremely important factor when considering investment in such a system.
Many attorneys, administrators and other decision makers within law firms will constantly make the decision to hold off on investing in practice management technology, even though they acknowledge the need to operate more efficiently. Today, more than half of legal organizations still do not utilize a case management software. This is quite surprising considering how far along we are in the world with technology. Doing away with old paper files and moving towards a real-time paperless office environment seems like a natural progression that any law office would have taken by now. But in the end, what good is the new technology if it’s not being used? Therein lies the rub.
So, how do you find the right Case and Document Management system that you are sure your staff will utilize? Well, there are three basic questions that need to be asked:
1) Does the system integrate into applications that my staff already uses on a daily basis?
2) Is the user interface easy to understand?
3) Does the vendor of the system have processes in place to implement and train my staff thoroughly? Read the rest of this entry »