A Legal Department’s Guide to Selecting the Right Technology for Long-Term Value
Legal departments can – and probably should — implement new technology to increase the value they provide to their organizations. But with so many systems flooding the marketplace, selecting the right one can be tough. Many solutions appear to provide similar capabilities, but of course there are differences.
Traditionally, lawyers have used a variety of point solutions: one system for spend management, another for matter management, a third for e discovery, etc. This breeds great inefficiency for both users of these systems and those supporting them.
An organization looking to embrace newer technology for productivity and cost benefits should consider implementing a platform.
Platforms allow legal departments to choose the best point applications for specific needs, then consolidate and integrate them. Platforms enable a single point of access for tasks, such as reporting, across all systems.
Some organizations have approached Datacert seeking a point solution, such as our matter management application. We help prospective clients identify their long-term strategies, and many realize it’s smarter to go with matter management applications built on a platform.
It’s true. Using a comprehensive solution like PassportTM, our patent-pending platform for consolidating and integrating legal applications, is a better approach.
Many vendors claim they offer a platform simply because all of their point applications are built on a common architecture, even though the architecture doesn’t allow for the consolidation and integration of other vendors’ solutions. It doesn’t allow clients to have an integrated ecosystem composed of the systems that best meet their needs.
Keep this in mind when reviewing new systems. And don’t forget to consider factors such as client-side configurability and integration capabilities, which impact the total cost of ownership.
When choosing a system, determine whether it provides tools that allow you to evolve it internally to meet changing needs. A true platform will offer a complete set of tools for configuring existing applications and building, deploying and integrating new ones, without returning to the vendor or hiring external resources.
One toolkit that Passport offers, for example, is an “Integration Toolkit.” It allows clients to build and maintain integrations between Passport and other systems without “rehiring” Datacert. With a true platform, the total cost of ownership should decrease over time because of the maintenance savings from these sorts of tools.
As the legal industry evolves, so should its supporting technology. Providing on-going value depends on the ability to implement processes that increase efficiency and reduce costs. This can be achieved by leveraging the right technology. So when considering new technology, make sure it can support long-term needs. This is the critical component for future success.
Datacert is a proud sponsor of the 2011 Legal Technology Leadership Summit. Thought leaders and decision-makers will be attending the summit in September to learn about and discuss the ever-changing impact of technology on the legal world.
For more information about working with Datacert, contact Toni Harrison at 832-369-6170 or go to www.datacert.com.
