Many IT departments have become victims of their own success. They have implemented an impressive array of world class software, enabling lawyers to draft their own documents, send their own e-mails, market effectively to their clients, conduct their own research, record time and manage client billing. What is more, they have made these systems reliable and universally available as IT has become central to the operation of the firm. So they should expect to receive the unqualified thanks and praise of their lawyers, right?
Wrong – one set of complaints has been replaced by another. Lawyers are finding the sheer range and complexity of systems confusing and are retreating to what they know – Outlook. It is easy to use and fits the lawyer’s busy transactional way of working. Plus, it bypasses many of the restrictions and layers of complexity lovingly crafted by their IT departments, enabling them to work how they want, when they want, with minimal training. In a depressing reversal of the 80:20 rule, IT directors are finding that only 20% of their systems are being used 80% of the time and much of the hard-won investment in legal applications is being wasted.
