The way in which newly available technologies affect the delivery of goods and services has positively impacted just about every industry imaginable, and that effect has been especially apparent in the legal sector. In order to make their operations more efficient, many law firms have implemented solutions like unified communication and collaboration as a service (UCCaaS) offerings to pass along information to clients and the courts.

“Running your law firm – big or small, Main Street or Bay Street, local, national, or global – ain’t what it used to be,” Canadian Lawyer contributor Gail Cohen wrote. “In the last few years, tremendous economic factors have been pushing and pulling the practice in all directions in Canada and around the world. While there has been much talk and many reports on dusty shelves about changes necessary to the legal profession, one senses there’s been a shift recently to a point where action has become unavoidable.”

However, of all the new technologies available to lawyers, perhaps none have been so disruptive to regular business processes as these three trends:

1) BYOD
As smartphone and tablet adoption rates rises across Canada, these devices invariably make their way into the corporate environment. This is especially the case in the legal sector, as industry professionals looking to always be available now have that option readily available to them.

Having a bring-your-own-device policy in place can make a law firm far more efficient and effective, but it also opens up attorneys to a number of security and compliance-related concerns, legal professional Renato Pontello wrote in a separate Canadian Lawyer article. Since many mobile devices lack standardized security features, they are prone to data leakage that can put a client in serious jeopardy if BYOD is left unchecked.

2) Cloud computing
Of all the technologies currently available to legal professionals, perhaps none is as potentially powerful as the cloud. Writing for Canadian Lawyer, commercial litigator Mitch Kowalski noted that a quality cloud computing solution enables attorneys to more easily access stored information and communicate with clients via tools such as UCCaaS. Plus, since hosted solutions are often far more cost-effective than legacy on-premise systems, even boutique firms can afford to implement cloud-based tools.

3) Virtualization
As legal professionals further utilize technology, their legacy IT infrastructure design can quickly become strained from the additional workload. After all, solutions designed with PCs and on-premise hardware in mind will likely not be able to effectively run cloud-based applications or support mobile devices. To account for this rising usage, technology lawyer Danielle Lemon recommended that legal services agencies utilize a virtualized infrastructure to more effectively provision IT resources.

With all of these new technologies suddenly entering the fore, law firms may not know where to begin in regard to implementation. Luckily, FlexITy is here to help. As one of Canada’s largest managed IT services firms, FlexITy has helped many internal enterprise legal departments and law firms maximize their IT investments to better succeed today and in the future. Whether an organization wants to revamp its IT infrastructure design, implement a quality cloud computing solution or start using UCCaaS, FlexITy can assist organizations every step of the way.

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