All law firms have some form of practice management system (PMS) and most firms except the very smallest will have software to support their human resources and marketing operations. Much has been discussed about whether integrating ‘best of breed’ applications provides a better platform than purchasing an integrated system from single supplier, but is there any value in joining these systems at all?

There are several arguments put forward for having integrated back-office systems. Looking at the business from the point of view of efficiency, an integrated system can reduce the amount of work by eliminating having people entering the same data into multiple systems and duplicating effort.