Transformation, efficiency, innovation: 2021

For a long time, it was common to hear that a transformation agenda was especially hard to pursue in the law firm environment. There were just so many stakeholders to get and keep onside, and if something was already working perfectly well, why risk making it worse?

Of course, it wasn’t necessarily working quite that well for everyone involved in the effort. But in any event, now the prevailing narrative has changed. That ‘burning platform’ was well and truly engulfed in 2020, and the risk of doing nothing different rather clearly outweighed the headaches that invariably accompany a change, even for the better.

At Briefing TEI (Transformation, Efficiency, Innovation) 2021, we heard that firms might consider several alternatives to their current technology to remain competitive in the emerging landscape – and those business cases for new infrastructure, devices, access points and views should certainly be carefully weighed. But firms will need to keep investing in meaningful ideas exchange and empathy as well.

Change your mindset

Natalie Kuebler, director at Altruistic Ventures, outlines a process of enabling firms to collaboratively come at questions of business transformation, efficiency and innovation from creative, fresh angles – and, of course, while working remotely.

Productivity puzzle

Guy Phillips, VP, international business at NetDocuments, says the choice between collaboration and security is simpler than you think – it’s a single solution. Increasingly, he says, that solution will be found in the cloud and will involve close management of content and documents.

The path to profitable growth

Paul Suffield at OneStream Software says a law firm’s commercial success requires flexibility from performance management processes in law firms – known as corporate performance management in the wider market – as strategic goals and competitive pressures continuously evolve.

Hybrid times

Spencer Lea, sales director, comprehensive services at Kyocera, suggests key questions firms need to ask themselves to get set up for a successful switch to hybrid working, including how to equip and connect people, optimise processes, and which software features to keep on their radars.