Legal Tech: Establishing, Collecting, and Analyzing Metrics for Success
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As legal tech vendors, we’re often asked, “What’s the ROI on your software?” Our response is familia(...)
Generative AI in litigation: Turning talk into transformation
Opus 2
In recent years, generative AI (GenAI) has captured the legal industry's attention, moving from buzz(...)
Imagine there’s no infrastructure...
You’ve moved to embrace utility computing in the cloud. Your server room has been turned into a beautiful, tranquil Zen garden where you and your staff can go for quiet contemplation of the universe.
Imagine there’s no PC hardware to refresh...
You’ve moved to a virtualized client and your employees are choosing and buying their own equipment. Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X/iOS, Google Chrome OS and Open Source Unix-based operating systems sit side by side in total harmony.
Desktops, laptops, tablets, tabletops, each user choosing according to his or her own desire. Users productivity soars as they use what they like. Support issues are minimal.
Imagine there’s no MS Office to install...
Your new HTML5 applications (like WordPerfect 3030) are running along swimmingly. Features you actually use have replaced features you never use. Third party add-ins are a thing of the past. Code stability and efficiency make an amazing comeback.
Imagine there’s no meeting...
Physical meetings are replaced with IM and personal video. Through federated presence tracking you can find your colleagues and clients.
Imagine there’s no synchronization issue...
Your dispersed resources, mobile phones, tablet, home entertainment system, even grandma’s electronic photo frame are all managed by synergistic tools in your private cloud. Data flows, automatically updating various systems and tools. And even your CRM system only has one centralized copy of John Smith, Vice President and General Counsel of Acme Inc.
Imagine there’s no network administrator...
The cloud has consumed your hardware. The next logical step was for it to consume the management of that hardware and software. With no servers and infrastructure to manage, your staff is composed of high end analysts whose sole purpose is to enhance each legal practice area by improving work flows, tweaking or adding applications and truly integrating technology into the practice of law.
Imagine there’s no keyboard...
Gesture and voice recognition technology is so simple and reliable that even my mother is using a computer.
Imagine there’s no security woe...
Your mobile phone and tablet data is safely encrypted. Biometric security has replaced strong passwords. Enterprise security and management tools are built into even the lowest of consumer devices.
Imagine there’s no physical library...
All the books, treatises, magazine and such are online or in ebook form (available through iTunes). The mundane and unappreciated tasks of managing the physical collection are gone. Your library has been turned into a beautiful Zen garden where you and your staff can go for quiet contemplation of the universe. Your staff is composed of high end researchers whose sole purpose is to enhance the legal, business and marketing aspects of each legal practice area by improving research and information work flows.
Imagine there’s no end to ediscovery...
Every new “social” tool results in more and more information. All the social networks, blogs and clouds are easier to mine and turn the smallest of collections into exabytes of data.
Imagine there’s no problem sharing...
You’ve created a wonderful web-based collaborative environment, communities of practices where all the attorneys go to freely share information and ideas. Information is automagically compiled from all the disparate systems inside your firm. The CoP is optimized for your tablet and attorneys yearn to share and collaborate with their partners and clients.
Imagine there’s no client extranets...
The old law firm client extranet has been abolished by decree. Instead there is a simple, painfree process to sync and share your client data directly to the client. That data appears in the client’s intranet or directly into their case management system, finally achieving optimization of both ends of the work process!
Imagine there’s no waste...
Your hardware is green as can be. The tablet senses your touch and instantly turns on. It’s new bio-recyclable battery tech automatically starts charging as it touches the surface of your desk. Light switches have been replaced with sensors that turn the lights on or off based on the time of day, ambient light available outside and the presence of people in the office.
Imagine there’s no document or content management system...
Built into the new operating systems of your tablet and other devices is everything you ever wanted in a document management system. It contextually and accurately fills out metadata, making sure that all of the zettabytes of data, whether textual, pictorial, video or voice are all indexed and instantly available to you.
Imagine there’s no drudgery...
Your tablet is equipped with IBM’s 5th Generation Watson AI. (Known as the M5). You’re a better lawyer because the M5 can do all the background, preparatory work and research - assembling the first drafts of the complex documents or sifting through massive amounts of discovery data you need to win your case.
Imagine there’s no office...
With real estate premiums at an all time high, your law firm has decided to go virtual. Your downtown office has been turned into a combo Starbucks/Baskin Robins/KFC. Your new office is less than 20 feet away from the master bedroom. All the resources you could possibly need are accessed through your triple fiber 1 TB connection from Comcast.
Imagine there’s no time sheet...
Paper and electronic time sheets are gone. Recording of time is a thing of the past. Clients have worked out elaborate alternative fee arrangements with your firm and they cheerfully pay you for the value and results you produce for them.
Imagine there’s a golden set of standards for cloud computing...
Ok, so I went too far...
A good CIO needs a good imagination. Great CIOs have great imaginations! They work to envision what things could be like and then work to make it a reality. Change is always difficult. Sometimes it involves education and cultural shifts. Sometimes it takes added collaboration and new structures. They work with their tacticians to create a plan to get from where we are to where we see we can be. If you can’t imagine the world differently, how do you add value?
“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you will join us.“
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