Are you planning to move to a new practice management system (PMS) in 2024, such as Legalsense, but are you hesitating? For example, because of the impact of migration, user adoption among colleagues, or the investment? Then read this article to find out why 2024 would be a great year to make the decision.
1. Harness the power of integration
What do we see in the legal profession when we look at practice management software? Increasingly, we see specialized SaaS providers that excel at one component of a complete digital office environment. Together, these providers create an ideal work environment for your firm. For example, while Legalsense as a system focuses on managing your clients and matters, other SaaS providers take care of the other parts of your practice, such as CRM, document management, accounting, and compliance. Based on your personal choice of providers and tools, you combine everything into a total solution to meet your needs. This best-of-breed trend will continue in 2024.
We can list several topics that will become even more important for law firms in 2024, including:
- AML CFT and KYC;
- Document management;
- Business Intelligence (more on that in paragraph 3);
- Document assembly.
These are topics for which you may need specialized sub-solutions. With a best-of-breed environment, leveraging the power of integration, you link specialized tools to the core of your office: the PMS.
With technology, laws and regulations, and society changing so rapidly, it is important to remain flexible. In a best-of-breed environment, you are. This is why more and more companies are opting for an "open API strategy" rather than an all-in-one solution. This allows them to respond to future developments. With a PMS that helps you do this, integration with other tools is quickly achievable and widely proven in practice.
Get rid of those financial migration fears
Choosing a new PMS often means moving to a new financial management system. Increasingly more offices are opting for best-of-breed providers such as Fortnox. This can create fear of migrating financial data to a new PMS. As far as we are concerned, this fear may diminish in 2024. In a best-of-breed environment, you work with specialists who excel at data migration and understand this trick. In addition, these providers offer so many benefits that they easily outweigh the time spent on migration. Think automatic bank connection, real-time payment insight, automated invoice, and payment processing, etc. We work with many of these providers and can say with confidence that migrations are almost always flawless.
2. Working (together) within Microsoft 365
More and more offices are realizing the benefits of working in a Microsoft 365 (MS 365, formerly Office 365) environment; a trend that will continue in 2024. Not only because of the ability to communicate using MS Teams, but also to collaborate on documents online, schedule appointments online, etc. If you want to seamlessly combine this working environment with a PMS, in 2024 you should look for an application that can do this. For example, Legalsense runs in a browser, so it works seamlessly with MS 365 applications. Some PM systems still work with their own mail system, so it is not possible to link to MS Outlook, for example.
If you want to make the most of MS 365's capabilities, you should consider this when selecting a PMS. For example, if you use a SharePoint-based document management solution such as Epona DMSforLegal, you can go one step further. Then you will have your files available in MS 365 and in tools like Teams. So, an important checklist item!
3. Practice management based on Business Intelligence (BI)
Measuring, knowing, and adjusting your practice based on this information will be even more important in 2024. What is your cost price per jurisdiction, which areas are generating the most margin, where is time being lost, etc.? You can make informed decisions based on well-designed business intelligence reports. Most PM systems allow you to run standard reports. If you want more depth, a BI tool can help. You connect it to your PMS. It is advisable to bring in a BI specialist. Think IT Factor and RSULT. They are often involved in our projects. They have already helped many offices to transform data from, for example, financial administrations to which Legalsense is linked, into clear insights. You then get more detailed reports on a variety of business processes.
Browsing around: Always a good idea
Whether you're thinking about Business Intelligence, a best-of-breed environment, an MS 365 environment, or something else like convenient time keeping, it's always a good idea to explore the alternatives. As you have read, the options are interesting, and the migration is easier than ever. Something for the "resolutions 2024" list?
