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Technology is at the center of any successful business, making its evolution difficult to keep pace with all the newest innovations - be they software updates or security measures - or offering 24/7 customer service support.
However, technology remains critical in driving future revenue for any enterprise.
Tech is driving change within the legal sector and forcing firms to transform digitally. Law firms face many of the same pressures other businesses face: managing ever-evolving technology, compliance, and security requirements while offering customers quality customer experiences.
How can law firms keep clients at the center while taking on tasks that will drive revenue growth for themselves?
Managed services (MSPs), which offer IT support to your service desk or help desk, can be an excellent way to take full advantage of digitalization while freeing your attorneys to focus on serving their clients rather than worrying about security, servers or other IT tasks.
This guide details the advantages of engaging an MSP to provide network, security and data management services that justify every penny for law firms.
Managed IT Services For Law Firms
Outsourcing law firms' IT needs allows for safer operations while giving staff time to focus solely on business and cases.
Legal professionals typically possess an impressive grasp of law. Managed IT provides expert technology services without needing to hire in-house personnel; managed IT providers offer this expertise to assist firms in taking full advantage of cutting-edge tech while streamlining operations and offering cybersecurity and regulatory compliance expertise.
Attorneys recognize the significance of an effective IT strategy for their law offices. Utilizing a managed IT service provides your law practice with the protection of client data while simultaneously protecting and encrypting communication channels to maintain privacy and security - crucial components to remaining compliant with all state regulations and ethical standards expected of lawyers.
Managed IT services can assist law offices in increasing productivity, improving collaboration, accessing information more quickly and lowering costs while offering improved client services.
Before delving deeper into their benefits, law offices must understand exactly what managed IT services entail.
What Is IT-Managed Service?
IT-managed service providers (MSPs) provide businesses with IT solutions through managed service agreements (MSA).
MSPs offload tasks to cloud technology, freeing internal teams to focus on work relevant to the firm. If you work at a firm specializing in law rather than technology - an MSP provides technology management to allow lawyers to focus on what matters - thus freeing up more time for law-focused tasks and roles within your firm.
MSPs possess the technical know-how and specialized skills required to assist law firms in taking advantage of cutting-edge technologies for improved business processes and operations, cybersecurity protection, regulatory compliance issues and data security threats.
MSPs can help law firms avoid data security problems by constantly monitoring threats against systems.
MSPs offer an array of technology services ranging from network management and help desk support for users to providing help desk or service desk assistance at all hours and places of the day or night.
Focus law experts' efforts on growing revenue while serving clients rather than being distracted by complex technology systems management issues.
Why Do Law Firms Require IT-Managed Services?
Managed IT services can help solve everything from simple password issues to major data breach incidents and security threats, so partnering with an IT-managed service provider who can manage your environment should always be considered when planning any law firm environment.
Legal firms, in particular, often rely on managed IT services in these areas:
High Downtime
Experienced high levels of downtime should raise red flags. This could be caused by software failing, preventing users from accessing what they require to finish their tasks on time - impacting clients directly while potentially jeopardizing business deals.
Unperforming Systems And Applications
Suppose your systems or applications are underperforming or crashing frequently, disrupting business operations.
Managed IT Services could reduce this issue so business can continue as usual.
IT Support
As attorneys are well known to work overtime hours to compensate for lost work time, their business must run seamlessly by employing a managed service offering 24/7 access.
Poor IT Security
Data protection should be a top priority in law offices and one of their top IT worries. Protecting client and case information must remain safe from hackers at all costs; with cybersecurity constantly changing, it can be easy to fall behind on effective methods.
However, Managed IT services provide vital assistance with keeping up with the best cybersecurity and data protection practices.
Managed IT Services In The Legal Industry
MSPs offer a variety of services including:
- IT Support: MSPs provide 24/7 IT support to law firms, freeing you up to focus on running your legal practice without worry over IT infrastructure or staff security awareness programs. Furthermore, their ongoing security awareness training ensures seamless operations with reduced risks.
- Backup & recovery: MSPs help organizations develop business continuity policies and procedures to remain active during and recover after disaster strikes or remain operational afterward. Cloud computing offers maximum data loss protection while improving workflow efficiency and decreasing downtime.
- Patch Management: Updating software and patches regularly will reduce vulnerabilities, helping your system function smoothly. Managed service providers (MSPs) offer updates for operating systems, applications, drivers and firmware to keep systems secure and working smoothly.
- Monitoring of the Network Operations Center (NOC). NOC stands for Network Operations Center and allows administrators to monitor and maintain networks from a central platform. By early detection of incidents and improving hardware efficiency, NOC helps safeguard the reputation of law firms while saving them money.
- Software and applications consulting: Law firm IT management may integrate various applications for billing or document storage management tasks. Managed service providers (MSPs) work closely with law firms to identify which apps best serve their purposes while ensuring they function optimally.
- Cybersecurity threats come in various forms, from phishing attacks and spam emails, ransomware infections and malware infections to managed service providers specializing in customizing solutions tailored to individual companies' security requirements and maximizing protection for them. A top MSP might offer consulting and compliance services and install security systems.
Also Read: What Is The Difference Between Staff Augmentation And Managed Services?
Benefits Of Hiring An Msp Who Has Experience In The Legal Industry
Being a lawyer is undoubtedly demanding, with multiple court dates, client meetings, and administrative duties to complete each week.
When firms lack enough IT staff members for security issues and implementation procedures, you are left to deal with this task yourself. All this takes up time, preventing you from accomplishing key tasks and diminishing morale and productivity in the team.
Such disruption could prove particularly costly in industries relying heavily on billable hours for success.
Managed IT service providers (MSPs) can greatly assist in streamlining processes, improving technology, protecting data and saving money.
A dependable MSP will help your organization by simplifying procedures, upgrading technology and saving on expenses. Intelligent Technical Solutions has provided enterprise-grade managed service to law firms, businesses and other organizations for over 10 years - and this article explores why outsourcing worked IT for law firms makes sense.
Outsourcing IT to an MSP can bring many advantages for law firms. Here are just a few ways an MSP may assist you:
Save More Money
An IT firm offering enterprise-level managed technology may seem expensive and complex for small businesses; in actuality, it makes sound business sense as managed service providers can save your business thousands by preventing unscheduled downtimes, cyber-attacks or outages from occurring.
IT support companies will optimize your processes to get the maximum use out of technology, freeing your team to focus on what matters: winning new clients, managing existing cases effectively and concluding deals.
Reduce Time Spent On Non-Productive Tasks
Does your team spend too much time on administrative tasks that could be more useful, such as data entry or document management? If the answer is several hours per day, that time could have been put to better use in impactful work that generates billable hours - meaning less profit in an industry reliant on billing revenue.
Though this situation is certainly concerning, it could be worse. Your team could suffer as their morale hits; meaningful work contributes directly to job satisfaction.
This could make the difference between an attorney feeling happy and productive at their firm and looking elsewhere for work with more meaning and one who leaves in search of better opportunities elsewhere. Hiring an MSP can significantly cut back your administrative workload. They offer document and data entry solutions, enabling your team to focus more on important tasks like servicing clients.
Protect Sensitive Data
American Bar Association CyberSecurity Report, states that 25% of law offices have already experienced data breaches - an astounding number when considered against ethical and common-law obligations to protect client confidentiality; such stipulations can be found within contracts and industry regulations enforcing them.
Unfortunately, this presents new challenges since most managed IT services lawyers possess a strong understanding of law and cybersecurity but lack experience or formal training in this practice area.
IT support companies offer invaluable help with these problems, bolstering cybersecurity measures and training team members.
Maintain Compliance
Legal work is highly confidential; therefore, the industry is heavily regulated. Your firm must abide by various other standards depending on which cases it handles; HIPAA compliance, for instance, when gathering medical records to prove cases.
You likely are aware that privacy laws exist, as well as various regulations regarding data storage.
Regulations are constantly adapting to protect businesses against new risks. Unfortunately, keeping up with all of these new rules may prove challenging, consuming a significant portion of resources for your company and risking reputational harm as well as lawsuits or even fines for failing to abide by them.
Expert-managed service providers can be invaluable resources in aiding law firms to stay compliant. Their expert guidance ensures all data transmission, processing and storage adhere to stringent security standards that comply with various regulations for your firm.
Improve Collaboration
Successful law practices rely on collaboration. Your team must bring professionals from various fields together to produce tailored solutions tailored to clients' needs.
Reliable MSPs can play an invaluable role in supporting your firm in these ways.
Reduce Downtime
IT issues and downtimes can happen at any moment. Imagine responding to a server failure at an important moment during a case; such an outcome could spell success or failure for your law firm.
By engaging in proactive maintenance, an IT firm can greatly decrease downtimes and quickly resume work following outages.
Keep Up With The Latest Technologies
Managed IT service providers are technology experts. Many specialize specifically in serving law offices and understand what services and equipment law offices require to operate smoothly.
A managed IT provider may advise your firm regarding which technologies it needs to expand productivity or enhance security measures while making customized recommendations based on current hardware or software infrastructures.
After providing advice, managed IT service providers take over. Their professionals will install and maintain new systems while offering training to your staff on how to utilize these new tools, upgrades or ways of working efficiently - even tech-phone colleagues should find quick success with such assistance.
Upgrading And Maintaining Your Hardware
Managed IT providers play an invaluable role in helping firms maintain and upgrade their hardware. By monitoring systems at law firms and checking that tools are operating effectively and efficiently, managed IT providers ensure all tools function as expected if there are any problems; should any arise, they notify law firms promptly of potential issues as soon as they appear.
In addition, they perform routine maintenance such as cleaning hardware components, updating software updates if applicable, and completing any needed repairs if any arise.
IT providers can assist law firms with any hardware questions or problems they might be having, creating backup copies for data and systems as needed and managing emergency recovery processes to minimize downtime in an emergency.
Managed IT service providers take the hassle and burden out of keeping hardware operating at optimal conditions, leaving you to focus on helping clients instead of the burdensome task of maintenance.
Keep Your Team Connected Wherever They Are
Legal Trends Report 2022 found that hybrid workers experienced the greatest change in office use. More and more workers are opting to work remotely regularly - an initiative that may benefit both employees and companies, yet also presents technological obstacles.
Working remotely makes communication and collaboration more challenging, and remote workers may need more secure and reliable access to company resources and networks if your infrastructure is designed to accommodate remote access.
Protecting data and systems against cyber threats becomes even harder with employees having remote access - it may, therefore, be necessary to implement additional security measures, like virtual private network (VPN) technology or two-factor verification as an extra defense measure.
Equipment deployed, maintained and supported properly is crucial to hybrid teams working effectively; these experts play a pivotal role in every stage of production chain management, ensuring new employees receive all of the tools required for doing their job, remotely troubleshooting any IT issues that arise and answer queries about two-factor verification process from home workers.
Protecting Your System
Data security is paramount; thus, hackers frequently target it for compromise.Data security is one of the primary focuses of managed IT service providers.
They stay current on threats to help educate staff members on avoiding cyber-attacks while equipping your company with tools such as data encryption. Don't use ignorance as an excuse; HIPAA applies to anyone handling personal health information. Avoid embarrassing mistakes by informing their team.
Also Read: Optimizing Technology Services For Maximum Efficiency
How To Select The Best IT-Managed Services Provider
Construction managed IT services for law firms come in various services and prices.
Law firms must understand which contract best fulfills their technological and financial requirements.
You have three choices to consider when making the switch:
- Bundled Services -- Choose a program or tier that includes all your needed services. Bundled services may consist of services you never use.
- A-la-carte -- This allows for much customization, allowing you to choose and select specific services. This option is popular because of its flexibility.
- Fixed Price -- You get unlimited support at a fixed price. It's important to check the fine print, as there may be limitations on the 'unlimited service.'
It would help if you looked closely at your provider once you have decided on the managed IT services package you will use.
Below are some things to look for.
Experience In The Legal Industry
Locate a managed IT service provider, such as a law firm, with legal sector experience for optimal support. Request references from previous or current clients as connections will serve you better.
Invest In Your Success
Managed IT services should offer more than mere technical support; they should demonstrate commitment to your success and supply you with services tailored specifically for you.
Staffing And Technology
When choosing managed IT services, both staff members and technology must play a part in making an informed decision.
Look out for certifications, software support from vendors and expert knowledge behind each piece of software they sell; your provider must offer everything required.
6 Problems That Managed IT Services For Law Firms Can Solve
Modern law firms rely heavily on technology. Lawyers depend on it for the efficient and effective operation of the practice of law; with so many solutions out there available, it may be hard to choose one specifically tailored to the course.
Managed IT services may help.
Managed IT Services offer legal firms many solutions for common IT-related challenges they often encounter; here are six:
1: You Do Not Have The Time Or Resources To Manage Your Infrastructure.
Managed IT services provide an economical solution, giving you more time and flexibility for other aspects of your business.
Hiring on-call 24/7 IT specialists would prove prohibitively costly due to tech drain issues.
2: Your It Infrastructure Is Outdated And Needs To Be Updated Or Replaced.
Managed IT service providers can assess your IT needs and suggest the most beneficial course of action, whether updating the current infrastructure or moving onto a different system altogether.
3: You're Unsure What Security Measures To Take To Protect Your Data.
Managed IT service providers can be invaluable partners in identifying and implementing effective security measures to safeguard data against unintended access.
Many law firms lack the time or capacity to keep pace with an ever-evolving security landscape, leaving managed IT service providers as invaluable assets in these cases.
4: Your It Infrastructure Is Performance Problems.
A managed IT services provider can assist you in identifying and implementing the right security measures to safeguard your data against unauthorized access.
Many law firms need more time to keep up with the constantly changing security landscape.
5: You're Unsure What Software Is Best To Use To Meet Your Needs.
Managed IT providers can assist your company in selecting and implementing appropriate software efficiently. Legal software has become more advanced over time; perhaps you need to be made aware of all of the solutions currently available to boost ROI and speed processes along more quickly.
6 : You Are Not Sure Of How To Back Up Data And Need Help Setting Up An Official Backup Plan.
An IT provider can assist in developing an effective backup plan to safeguard the information on which your business depends.
Would it be possible for you to recover all the lost files if disaster struck today, and would it affect clients adversely? Your data is exposed to numerous risks today that need protecting from being lost forever.
Conclusion
Managed IT services legal providers are invaluable tools in increasing productivity, efficiency and security at any firm.
Their expert professionals can assist in the deployment of new technology or optimizing existing legal tech to address issues or deal with security threats as needed. However, you should carefully vet these providers to make sure that they fit well with your firm and offer advanced legal practice management technologies that best support it.
