Why Law Firms and Legal Practices Are Using Managed IT Services

Core Challenges for Law Firms

• Bottlenecks - Internal bottlenecks are the fault of inefficient IT architecture, where workflow grinds to a halt. Some questions you can ask yourself, and your partners to find your bottlenecks include: 
• How long does it take to find a client's phone number? If this is more than a few seconds you may want to consider bringing on an IT partner to help streamline this process. 
• If a case file isn't in your filing cabinet, can you access it immediately online? If not you may want to discuss cloud solutions with your IT provider. 
• Is it easy to find all relevant emails and correspondence between yourself and your clients, and tie them to the appropriate case? You may want to discuss email archiving, and which product is best for you with a neutral third party, IE your Managed Services Provider. 
• Lack of Security- The main reason a law firm invests in IT is to keep data safe and secure. While your practice management system may not be particularly valuable on a single day it becomes more valuable over time as you enter more data into it. If you lose that data or experience down-time, your investment becomes moot and can have other considerable financial repercussions. 
• Talent Retention - In today's modern society employees care about IT solutions that make their jobs easier. You need products and processes that blend well with your employees' personal and professional lifestyles. Young innovators are key to business success and lackluster technology can repel prospective employees. 
• Waste - From the automation of monitor sleep times to defragging at the right time of day to digitizing your library. We can help you cut down on your offices waste. You need an IT partner that provides creative solutions allowing you to work smarter. 
• Some other common IT problems you may be experiencing include: 
• Downtime
• Exposure to malpractice
• Chronic IT issues
• Short hardware lifecycle
• Integration issues with 3rd party vendors
• Work-arounds that seem to multiply daily
• Vulnerability of your network 
• Complexity
• Lack of Urgency 
• Untimely Failures
• Finger Pointing
• Internal Collaboration
• Reactive Buying Habits
• Etc

So What IS Managed Services and how can we help?

Think of us as the invisible force behind your business. Rarely seen, but always active diagnosing problems that was about to happen, and resolving them BEFORE they turn into monumental issues. The entire basis of the managed services model is that our business is more profitable and performs better the less problems you have. That means that we put 110% of our effort into stopping problems before they even exist. We are an IT management program that delivers proactive maintenance and monitoring alongside management of your software and hardware. You take care of the legal stuff, and we make sure your technology is helping rather than hurting your business. We make it our job to resolve network issues before they affect your firm's productivity.

Some benefits of Managed Services:

• Highly tuned (faster) network performance
• Staff productivity increase
• Increased uptime
• Predictable monthly IT costs
• Labor cost reductions
• Allows you to focus on your business
• Security risk reduction
• A wealth of IT knowledge at your fingertips
• Existing equipment life extension
• Measurable business value added

This has been an introduction to managed services. There are many different kinds of managed services that are important to your practice and I look forward to focusing on each of them in the coming months to better explain how to choose the best MSP for you. 

If you'd like to see a testimonial from one of our legal offices you can do so here.

While TaylorWorks is not the solution for every law firm, we'd love the opportunity to check out your network, and see if we might be the managed services company for the job. You can request a meeting here.