Competitive gains
The output from LPM Legal IT landscapes 2020 survey draws some interesting conclusions. Competition remains fierce, but around 37% of respondents feared that they would lose out most to new business models built around technology solutions rather than their traditional competitors. This was particularly prevalent in the property sector, where automation of routine processes was cited by several as a key area of concern or opportunity.
The lack of investment in technology solutions was noticeable, with less than 15% believing that their firms were investing sufficiently in new technology. This was highlighted further by a sense that the volume of activity that is currently automated was marginally down on last year’s report, but the perception around what could be automated had increased. These findings corroborate our own experience at tmgroup; we’ve seen more clients than ever have looked to use our automated services in 2019, such as post completion activity in the residential conveyancing market.
The property sector continues to be perceived as the practice area most at risk from cybercrime, with over 50% of respondents identifying it by name, and a further 35% encompassing it as an area they perceive to be at risk. Interestingly, 25% of all respondents felt that the area of compliance that their firm would most benefit from automating was anti-money laundering, where we’ve seen several new technology enabled propositions develop over the past 12 months.
Unsurprisingly, time and efficiency remain a core demand of new technology solutions, and the secure communication and sharing of data between law firms, their clients and partners will be critical in protecting law firms in the years ahead. This is again especially relevant to conveyancing and property departments, where there was a mixed reaction to the question of their ability to successfully scope and price work, in that they were ranked both as the best and the worst practice area by respondents in equal measure. The good news was that around 80% of respondents see secure cloud services as part of the long-term solution, which will be crucial in delivering that truly digital solution for handling property transactions and reverse the trend of ever-longer deals.
This article can be found in Legal IT landscapes 2020 report
Additional sponsor comment
Joe Pepper, CEO, tmgroup | April 2020
Reflecting on the feedback in the LPM report published earlier this year, it’s perhaps no surprise that our recently launched online consumer portal for law firms has attracted so much interest in such a short period of time. The portal is part of tmconnect and something we’d been providing to a few firms for a number of years, but our new version is an off-the-shelf offering, which massively reduces the overall costs to a point where it easily pays for itself.
It has felt like we’ve been pushing at an open door, and the consumer portal is firmly in line with the 80% of law firms that see secure cloud services as part of the solution – as well as helping reduce cybercrime in the conveyancing sector through the removal of potentially exposed email traffic, in line with over 50% of the firms key areas of concerns. It also helps market law firms as technology enabled, addressing the primary competitive concern of 37% of firms, and the way it integrates with various estate agency platforms, including the new sales progression tool has been seized upon by some firms as a real game changer.
It’s reassuring that our strategy has so evidently chimed with so many in the industry, and we’re seeing more and more law firms start to understand the value of working with integrated data solutions to drive their businesses forward in what is always going to be a highly competitive marketplace.
