Aligning technology with strategic goals for SME law firms

LPM Frontiers report offers a fascinating insight into the strategic thinking of mid-market law firms.

For a technology provider like Tessaract, it’s a mistake to design a product for customers in the hope that they will like it: it’s essential to understand how modern law firm leaders think about their strategic priorities.

From the point of view of law firms, it’s equally important to consider how to leverage technology to achieve strategic objectives. Alignment of technology with broad commercial strategy has never been more important.

Client experience and building a digital-first culture

Almost 60% of firms surveyed identified improving the client experience as critical to future success. What’s interesting is that the same number believe building a ‘more agile, digital-first culture’ is equally important.

In many ways, these ideas are two sides of the same coin.

In 2024 a firm can’t improve the customer experience without harnessing technology to bridge the gap between the day-to-day work of fee earners and how clients navigate their journey with the firm.

What does this mean in practice? It’s about making the right investments to ensure your technology stack fits together to form a whole.

A firm’s core technology — the practice management system — is critical in delivering client satisfaction, even though a client will never have direct visibility of it. Why? There’s a couple of things to consider here:

• Data All your clients’ key data should be available and easily accessible in your PMS. This might be case-related data, or it could be financial/invoice/payment data. If a firm doesn’t understand its clients, it becomes very difficult to deliver high-quality service.

• Communication If you’re not communicating, you’re not helping. A modern PMS will allow you to communicate with clients in multiple ways. For example, all the data points above can be shared via a client portal, meaning a client is always up to date with their case and what they owe the firm. A cutting-edge platform like Tessaract will also offer ‘chat’ functionality, allowing clients to communicate directly with fee earners in real time (if appropriate).

Increasing technology investment and moving to the cloud

Of the firms surveyed, only 3% are considering a reduction in technology spend, compared with 65% contemplating an increase or a significant increase. It’s clear that mid-market law is aware that investments are required to meet the expectations of tech-savvy clients (and employees).

Aligned with this is the move away from ‘on premise’ to cloud-based technologies — with only 3% of firms describing cloud as ‘a peripheral part’ of IT strategy!

Again, this change derives from aligning technology with broader strategic objectives. Progressive law firms know that only cloud can offer them the security, scalability and ‘future-proofing’ they need, while in tandem helping to manage risk and lock in valuable future cost savings.