In an industry that has been slow to adopt new technology, more and more lawyers are finally warming to the cloud. Cloud based practice management software provides many advantages over on premise solutions, including constant availability, simple scaling and efficiency, all of which help lawyers increase the law firm's productivity and profitability.
Let's dive deeper into the 3 main reasons more lawyers are choosing cloud based practice management software for their growing law firms:
Constant availability
With cloud based case and practice management software, all of your documents, emails, events, due dates, tasks, contacts, time sheets and invoices, can be accessed at any time, by any authorized user, on any device. The cloud gives you the freedom to retrieve and work on case information in a secure environment without the need of complicated network connections. Since everything is synced and stored in the cloud, you can be 100% confident that the information you're accessing is the latest version of documents and data.
Furthermore, the cloud offers entirely new possibilities to make better use of your time (for example, during business trips) or to improve the work life balance (for example with the flexibility to work from home) thanks to mobility. Since no data is stored or processed locally (on your work computer for example), you benefit from being able to access the latest version of your documents. Everything stored to the cloud is synchronized in real time so you can access it via a web or mobile app. And thanks to the encrypted data transmission with secure password protection, as long as you have internet access you can log in from any device – a benefit that can come in handy in an emergency! Compare this to on premise solutions that often require complicated access portals if you want to work out of the office and you can see how the cloud simplifies availability, while keeping data secure and protected.
Simple and secure scaling
Cloud solutions have on premise solutions beat when it comes to rapid adaptation and flexibility. For small law firms that need a practice management solution that will grow with them, cloud solutions are the obvious choice. Law firms can pick and choose modules or features are most important to their firm, and integrate with existing tools (like Word or Outlook) or services like e Justice or e Court portals or billing software). Modular concepts facilitate a rapid roll out and a dynamic functional expansion without the long, complex IT projects that are synonymous with on premise solutions. Point being, you can also start with a small number of functions and users and still work in a future proof way!
Furthermore, by setting your law firm up with secure, ISO 27001 certified tools you can stop worrying about data back up, recovery, compliance and security forever. With all your data safely secured and automatically backed up in a highly secure private cloud, you can effectively reduce data loss risks posed by natural disaster or cyber attacks. You control who has access to what client information so you can rest assured that you can meet rigorous confidentiality, professional secrecy and third party data protection obligations that the client demands.
But that's not all. Cloud solutions also support secure collaboration and file sharing between colleagues, clients and third parties by using a central information system. This reduces the inherent risks posed by relying solely on email (which is a cyber attackers gateway to accessing confidential client and firm data).
Efficiency
It goes without saying that practice management software increases efficiency over manual, analogue processes but what makes cloud based solutions so much better?
With a cloud solution, everything is updated and linked in real time. As a lawyer, this means you can stay on top of your tasks and deadlines with an up to date calendar and alerts, ensuring you're always one step ahead of client demands. It means you can stay on top of billing with more accurate invoicing, thanks to case tracking and time or activity based management. As a managing partner, one click reporting allows you to measure productivity and overall financial performance. You can also more easily identify debtors and chase late payments. By reducing the time it takes to generate an accurate view on your firm's performance you finally have the time and the means to drive growth and profitability.
