All About The Apps! Why Law Firms Are Embracing Application Rationalization
An underrated operational advantage, Application Rationalization addresses an inefficiency common across law firms. Lawyers wanting a legal app upgraded, compatibility issues resulting from outdated software, a rollout of the latest release of Windows- these are the common scenarios that prompt Application Managers and IT professionals to review the interdependencies of the application stack unique to each law firm.
Historically, applications were reviewed to determine if an update was necessary, with secondary effort devoted to reviewing for duplicative tools. Firms running the most current version of Windows were considered ‘future ready’. With rapid rate of change and increasing complexity across legal technology, a proactive approach became a business requirement. Today’s market requires new levels of cost reduction, efficiency, and productivity.
The Challenge with Law Firms
For law firms, application rationalization can be particularly taxing due to the specialized nature of legal applications and the need for stringent compliance and security measures. Aligning users’ needs, application usage and product functionality can quickly become a 3-ring circus.
Some considerations:
- How do you find redundancies, gaps, and reduce the fear of missing out on new technologies (FOMO on AI)?
- What is the process for your IT Department to receive, prioritize, and approve application requests from attorneys?
- Which applications are trending, or losing adoption in the market, what are peer firms using?
- If you have applications that have been running smoothly for 10-15 years, what process do you have in place to assess modern alternatives?
- AI applications are a hot topic, can your application team confidently respond to requests with knowledge of current landscape?
Should Application Portfolio Analysis and Governance Planning be a priority?
If your firm’s operational maturity goals include any of the below, keep reading.
- A process that identifies the decision-makers and leaders for specific use-case-based applications
- Creation of a roadmap for maximizing existing tools
- Creation of a roadmap for migrating outdated tools to modern alternatives
Benefits Beyond the Matrix
It is not enough to measure an application against a checklist of functionality and compatibility. For decades, the managed desktop specialists at Kraft Kennedy have meticulously classified various tools to address the diverse needs of corporate functions, litigation, and other legal practices. Our experts noted an uptick in the number of law firms wanting to collaborate on a strategic roadmap to ‘Get Current, Stay Current’ Proactive IT was catching on.
By categorizing the available tools, the comparison and selection is simplified in the often complicated process of meeting the unique needs of a specific practice group. The Kraft Kennedy team recommends this formal review of current application inventory to uncover redundancies, identify opportunities for cost reductions, and consolidate training requirements.
For Law Firms, Application Rationalization has turned a reactive task into proactive management of software portfolios with positive outcomes. Evaluating existing inventory to ensure that each app serves a necessary and justifiable purpose has benefits beyond the financial. Maintaining current records improves security, creating awareness if published critical alerts/ software vulnerabilities are relevant and require immediate attention. The formal records reduce the lift required to meet documentation requirements for compliance and insurance purposes.
Informed Decisions
Legal application subject matter experts are being leveraged as a strategic advantage. Future focused law firms have recognized there are not enough hours in the day to keep up with rate of change, even more so with the emergence of AI add-ons available from nearly every vendor. The rise of the fixed fee model has resulted in a renewed focus on operational efficiencies and learning from the experience of others.
The research, selection and testing of the latest toolsets on the market would require thousands of hours annually. Maintaining relationships with a range of vendors for each technology required for the modern-day practice of law is a full-time job. In addition to avoiding the time-consuming and potential costly mistakes associated with the typical software selection processes, avoiding common pitfalls is invaluable.
“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.”
– Niels Bohr
Planning for Productivity
Beyond a basic application review, understanding how your current applications are used or underused, informs a strategy to maximize existing applications or replace them with better solutions.
In the legal industry, maintaining a streamlined and secure IT environment is a business requirement. By leveraging Application Rationalization, the legal tech application stack becomes a competitive advantage for firms in the know.
Learn More
Explore our approach to the Managed Desktop or request a conversation to discuss your unique needs.