Legal IT Cloud Xperience – a broader perspective

04
May
2011

Joanna Goodman

Keynote speeches by Charles Christian, Daniel Pollick and David Bennett

Spring is the busy season for legal IT events and along with the usual UK events – the Legal IT Show, LEX 2011 and ILTA INSIGHT – I recently had the privilege to travel to The Netherlands to attend Nobel’s Cloud Xperience. This review covers the legal technology stream where most of the keynote speeches were delivered by speakers from the UK. I also refer to one Dutch presentation on the use of social media in law firms.  Jeroen Zweers, Manager ICT and Facilities at Dutch law firm Dirkzwager took the time to give me an interview about his firm’s unique award-winning knowledge management system, which could well be of interest to LITP readers.

Legal Desktop
The Cloud Xperience preceded the recent launch of Nobel’s Legal Desktop, a cloud-based integrated solution aimed in general at the small and mid-market firms which represent the vast majority of the Dutch legal market.

This one-stop subscription-based solution brings together general solutions such as telephony and Office 2010 as well as best of breed legal-specific products, notably Aderant’s practice management system, Epona’s document management system and CRM software and DocsCorp’s PDF creation software, amongst others. Firms can choose an all-inclusive package or a selection of products to create a tailored solution.

Adding value in challenging times
Charles Christian of Legal Technology Insider and Orange Rag fame – the orange theme was most appropriate in Holland – highlighted the critical role of technology in the changing legal landscape, where law firms are becoming more commercial in the light of regulatory changes such as the UK’s Legal Services Act which allows different ownership and business models.

A challenging economic environment means that law firm clients globally are sharply focused on the bottom line and more than ever before, law firms are looking for competitive advantage. Applying the shareholder test to law firm technology means ensuring that every investment adds value to the business. This means investing in systems that boost efficiency and productivity. Software as a service (SaaS) avoids the cost of replacing and upgrading software. Replacing software licenses with subscription-based services shifts IT costs from capex to operating costs. It is important to have the latest software, but upgrades don’t bring value.

Until recently, moving to the cloud represented a brave step into the unknown, but now it is a serious option. As well as offering start ups and small to mid-size firms the opportunity to benefit from enterprise grade software, the largest firms are using cloud computing as a solution for storing and managing the exponentially growing volume of data that firm routinely deal with. Clifford Chance, the world’s largest law firm will have shifted its documents to the cloud by 2014.

To boldly go – the cloud as a catalyst for change
Although cloud computing has been a buzzword for some time now, the case study presented by David Bennett of mid-size UK firm Thompson Snell & Passmore, currently in the process of moving its entire IT infrastructure to the cloud, offered a refreshingly practical approach.

The catalyst for change was precisely the business environment outlined by Charles Christian earlier: regulatory changes, client demands and increased competition. The firm’s ambitious strategic vision was being restricted by outdated technology and operational practices.

Why the cloud? Two major systems were reaching end of life and needed replacing – the practice management system and the Office environment – so this was an ideal time to review the firm’s IT infrastructure and strategy. David was looking to invest in IT to improve productivity, transform working practices and support and drive business development and cross selling. He wanted to simplify and exploit the firm’s IT capability and use it as a catalyst for operational and cultural change.

With this in mind, he initiated Project Nimbus, a series of transformational projects with the objective of standardising a common set of applications and information resources, defining and simplifying business processes and improving transparency in terms of service and cost.

A key benefit of moving the firm’s entire system to the cloud is the ability to build an infrastructure which is not compromised by legacy systems. The new system comprises ten core best-of-breed applications which are a mix of hosted and cloud solutions. Unlike the firm’s previous system, there are provisions for business continuity and disaster recovery, with everything backed up in a UK data centre. Other advantages include remote access via Citrix and a simplified system which has fewer applications which work together. Importantly for the IT function which previously had been inundated with helpdesk calls, fewer suppliers are involved. Eventually the entire system will be managed by a single supplier – K-Cloud – on a subscription basis.

There are of course operational and cultural challenges. As the implementation was scheduled in a short time frame – between December 2010 and July 2011 – it was important to get contracts negotiated quickly. External challenges reflected the relative immaturity of the marketplace. Initially, some software suppliers were not focused on delivering software as a service (SaaS); in some cases there was an immature relationship between different suppliers who were adapting to the cloud/pay-as-you-go model.

The project started by replacing printers with standardised devices and a managed service and switching core infrastructure services to the cloud. The most challenging piece is implementing the new practice management system and Microsoft Office 10, supported by firm-wide training via a new learning management system which introduces e-learning into the firm.

The main challenge so far is cultural change. Low staff turnover – generally seen as a good thing – means that people are accustomed to particular systems and ways of working and are reluctant to change. This is being addressed by communication and professional development, including recruiting representatives of different departments to undertake extra training to become IT local experts.

Project Nimbus is a work in progress, but David demonstrated how moving the firm’s IT infrastructure to the cloud is removing external and internal limitations to progress and creating a more agile and cohesive organisation.

What’s new? Really
DLA Piper’s Daniel Pollick is the largest law firm in the world by number of lawyers. Daniel is the CIO and Director of Infrastructure, which makes him responsible for everything except the lawyers. As he put it, everything that goes wrong is his fault!

Daniel’s theme was what has changed in IT in the past 15 years and which changes have impacted on law firms. Here are some points of interest from an interesting and highly entertaining presentation.

The digitisation of content – a major development – has not had a great effect on law firms apart from the fact that they require more data storage. Daniel believes that access to more data storage – particularly in the cloud – has had a negative effect on business. If you have more cupboards, you store more stuff says Daniel.

Email traffic is increasing by 100% a year. It is generally accepted that lawyers live in Outlook. They tend to forget that email is a tool that was not designed as storage. Email, which has been in use since 1992-93, has changed people’s expectations. It has made people busier because they burn the acceleration benefits. For example in 1980 – before email – there were on average about three drafts of each document. Since email, it is more like 103. Daniel draws a parallel to the use of safety devices. Airbags, seatbelts, cycle helmets improve safety but also encourage reckless behaviour.

Mobile and remote working has become commonplace in the past few years and technology has moved from CDs to iPhones. It is difficult to gauge whether this trend was driven by technology or whether the technology was developed to support the shift in working culture. In 1990s people had Psion organisers and Nokia phones. Now, as Daniel puts it, most lawyers are having an affair with their BlackBerry – they are found surreptitiously checking it outside office hours! More seriously, BlackBerry exacerbates the acceleration effect as it changes clients’ expectations when it comes to response times. Why do clients expect a legal opinion in five minutes?

Blurring the boundaries between professional and personal technology has produced devices that blend IT and telecoms: notably the BlackBerry, the iPhone and now the iPad.  Daniel was not convinced that the iPad is a revolutionary tool that law firms need to support. “While it is useful for consuming information, authoring documents is easier with a keyboard, screen and mouse,” he says. Although this view represents the current consensus, law firms are increasingly supporting iPad use as part of a “bring your own device” policy.

E-commerce household names Google, Amazon, YouTube and Facebook are all less than 15 years old. Google and Amazon were founded in 1998, Facebook in 2004 and YouTube in 2005.  In the1990s, people bought from shops; now they shop online. But this has made little difference to most law firms. Law firm websites tend not to have many interactive features and generally do not sell services online. Although this may change, so far the internet hasn’t significantly affected legal services delivery.

What’s basically the same?
Notwithstanding massive developments in technology and telecoms – in terms of the widespread use of mobile phones and smart devices - Daniel doesn’t think a lot has changed in 15 years when it comes to how law firms use computers.

The PC is here to stay, notwithstanding other devices as it’s the quickest way to create content. The blurred boundaries between work and leisure in terms of technology are illustrated by the internet-enabled TVs

Microsoft Windows 7 is reliable, but it isn’t significantly different from Windows 95. Microsoft 2010 also includes cloud-based solutions, but the main difference here is that Microsoft also faces serious competition from Google Docs and other cloud providers. So cloud computing is one of the factors that is seriously opening up the market.

Time recording is another consistent feature for law firms. Daniel believes that most practices will continue with the billable hour. Although there are only a few time recording systems, he believes that this is the only clear way of measuring lawyers’ efforts.

Paper was popular in the 1990s. It still is!

And what might actually change?
Landlines were the main channel for business communication. Now mobile and remote working means people rely on BlackBerry, iPhone and other smart devices for calls, instant messaging email and social networking.. Daniel forecasts that the next 10 to 15 years will probably see the end of telephones on desks and numbers will be attached to individuals not devices.

Web browsers – we won’t stop browsing, but the way we do it is already influenced by the devices we use and the development of the app.

Email – may lose its place as our main way of communicating as it is often superseded by various forms of instant messaging, but is still the quickest way to send correspondence and documents.

Social networking – the effect of Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter – is significantly changing the way everyone – including lawyers – does business. We increasingly utilise and create technologies designed to bring lawyers and clients together.

Blogging the knowledge
Jeroen Zweers has done just that at Dirkzwager where he was instrumental in creating a knowledge sharing platform which recently won an award for its innovative approach. It started in 2009 with a blog for lawyers on the firm’s website. The next step was to digitize the firm’s newsletters and internal and client-facing knowledge resources and turn them into feeds that can be shared across all platforms and devices, including mobile and social media.

Jeroen illustrated this with an infographic based on Amsterdam’s metro station plan. Each of the firm’s eight practice areas has its own blog, which is written by lawyers in particular specialisms. These lawyers received specific training in blog writing. The blogs are used to generate digital newsletters for clients. Basically it transmits the firm’s specific industry knowledge to its clients. There are also ten news feeds covering different themes so that lawyers can create customized feeds for themselves and their clients. Clients can also link these feeds to their global intranets.

Many enterprise clients don’t have knowledge managers, so the idea was driven by the need to transport legal knowledge to enterprise legal departments. Dirkzwager’s feeds and newsletters can be accessed via the internet as well as via email and specific apps for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android. Dirkzwager is currently piloting a desktop app for Mac and Windows.

Nobel – a broader perspective

The event highlighted two major IT developments in the cloud that are impacting significantly on the legal sector: the adoption of cloud-based systems and applications and the uptake of social networking. Both these developments require a leap of faith. The 21st century law firms are more commercial and in tune with the business environment and some law firms are learning from other sectors and leaping ahead of the curve. Nobel’s Cloud Xperience reflected this as the legal stream was only part of an event showcasing cloud offerings directed at a wide range of sectors and industries. This broader perspective differentiated this event from the legal specific events I have attended in recent weeks.