InsideLegal

ILTA 2012: Essential Takeaways

The 35th Annual International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) Conference wrapped up on August 30th in National Harbor, MD, and as usual, it did not disappoint. We attend many legal/technology shows and ILTA is by far one of the best run and organized events of the bunch. To begin with, what other show has member greeters at the doors to the hotel and throughout the lobby welcoming you and handing you a brochure with an overview of all the activities and most importantly, the free internet code? I'll have to  answer that and say none that I know of. Actually, most shows don't even have free internet to give you the code for! ILTA has all the normal components of legal events - networking, partnership meetings, a full exhibit program with many product launches, industry parties and peer awards - but the primary focus of ILTA is, and has always been, education. 

Taking the guesswork out of tech purchasing: Each year at the conference, ILTA and InsideLegal release the annual ILTA/InsideLegal Technology Purchasing Survey. The 2012 Survey, focused on feedback from ILTA member law firms with 50 or more attorneys, includes detailed technology budget data; updated information on firms’ social media and publication preferences; an in-depth analysis of cloud computing and mobile trends; and expansive sections on current and future legal technology purchases. The 37 question surveys always yields an abundance of invaluable legal tech budgeting and purchasing data and insight and 2012 was no different. While you can download the 16 page findings report here or check out our post on key findings, we feel the real value comes from an increasing number of ILTA members using this tool to help budget technology spending and better understand the many influences, ranging from ILTA e-groups to external consultants, that shape tech purchases. In addition, there’s real value in comparing tech budgets and purchasing over an extended timeframe, so we will soon provide detailed trend reports on 10 years of this survey.  

ILTA Conference App: It's no secret that we are big fans of the ILTA Conference App. The app was offered for Apple iPhone/iPad, Android, BlackBerry and a mobile web version and provided access to the conference agenda, speaker details, the attendee list, conference Twitter feed, Gaylord Resort info and maps, new product announcements, latest ILTA news, online session evaluations and more. As in past years, the app was widely used with more than 3,200 installations - 81% Apple devices; 14% Android devices; and 5% BlackBerry devices. The app was open more than 91,000 times and 3,100 online session evaluations were submitted.

Some ILTA Conference Themes

Lean & mean: While it’s not household jargon just yet, Lean Six Sigma (aka, doing more with less via legal project management; process-focused business and operations management principles; black belts that karate chop law firm inefficiencies with process maps) might just be the next cloud computing and ‘BYOD’ buzz to hit the legal (tech) circuit. Based on what we saw and heard at conference as well as ILTA’s recent SharePoint Symposium, the legal trailblazer in all things lean and Six Sigma is Seyfarth Shaw with other firms, consultants and the legal cosmos looking on with interest. What does not sound like an ‘all-or-nothing’ proposition, firms already looking to LPM are bound to adapt some lean concepts in how they manage projects, people and processes. We spoke with Affinity Consultant Group’s Debbie Foster whose consultancy just launched the YourExecutive operations and business management program based on Lean Six Sigma (LSS) core methods. “While law firms are slow to adopt LSS on its own and unlikely to make a huge investment in it, we are seeing a lot more C-Levels ask about it and pay attention to what other firms are doing." 'Early adopters' include Seyfarth, Reed Smith (with certified LSS staff) and Bradford & Barthel (who setup their cloud-based LPM structure based on core LSS principals).

Keep it simple stupid: There's so much more to an ILTA conference than 'just' technology but obviously sharing tech best practices, lessons learned, favorite gadgets, tech 'gotchas' and the like is still the basis of most conversations. Something that we really have not heard much before, but resonated throughout the conference week (culminating in Thursday's CIO 'issues' session) was simplicity. Whether it was comedic keynote Don McMillan reminding us how our legal acronym salad can confuse anyone without even trying (his fave session title "No more FUD around BYOD"), or the wave of tablet adoption paving the way for simplistic computing, complex, hard and difficult to integrate was (at least in theory) replaced by straightforward & simple, easy to use and adopt, and seamless to share. Of course, listening to several CIOs discuss large firm user security concerns did not help matters, but the idea that advances in technology coupled with the consumerization of IT can eventually lead to a simplified view and presentation of technology in the law firm makes sense.

Tablets, “it's what's for dinner”: As mentioned in a mobile lawyering session, all the former complexity required to accommodate 'difficult' lawyers goes out the window with the advent of the iPad. Let's call it iPad amnesia - euphoric legal users are so thrilled by the coolness factor and simplicity of their iPad that they forget about the countless open helpdesk tickets they initiated for complex macros, remote working upgrades, etc. While the novelty will eventually wear off, the sheer number of legal-specific applications and tools will increase at an accelerated, demand-driven rate so our bet is that tablets are here to stay a while. Hard numbers also back-up this water cooler talk. According to the 2012 ILTA/InsideLegal Technology Purchasing Survey, 66% of all law firm respondents indicated purchasing Apple iPads. 74% of law firm IT departments provide support for employees’ tablet use whether purchased by the firm or via ‘BYOD’ policy. And, 35% of firms have a formal tablet security policy in place with 42% currently establishing one.

Turbo charge your careers: As we mentioned, ILTA is much more than 'just' technology. Another topic that was covered this year in several sessions was career/talent. One session, "ReAssess Your Calling to ReDesign Your Career" (audio file - must have login) featured a 'star-studded' panel of legal IT thought leaders including Judith Flournoy, Doug Caddell, Dave Hambourger, Andy Adkins, David Cunningham, Sally Gonzalez and ILTA president Michele Gossmeyer and was moderated by Monica Bay. The panelists offered up career advice, tips for coping with change within the law firm in particular legal IT, and the best ways to jump start your career with actionable interview and job hunting tips. Sally Gonzalez, SNR Denton's global CIO, suggested serious job seekers should start by simply reaching out to the likes of the panel and asking for 10 minutes of their time to pick their brain. "Before you know it, you'll have a network of influencers and advisers, all pulling for you." [A follow-up post will feature another career session, "Cultivating Talent in a Recovering Economy" that was moderated by ILTA member Joy Heath Rush and featured the Year Up program.]

Saving the best for last ..Thursday sessions: For the last three years, we have participated in 'last day' ILTA education tracks and sessions, and to our surprise have discovered that 'saving the best for last' definitely applies to ILTA content. Contrary to other conferences, where final day sessions are often added as fluffy filler, Thursday's ILTA content once again left us buzzing and provided lots of 'food for thought' for our trip home. The Thursday comedic keynote was definitely our favorite of the week primarily because it was truly funny and the standing room only crowd thoroughly enjoyed laughing at themselves and their 'techy and nerdy' legal tech personas. "Anyone remember when Blackberry was a fruit?"  Other noteworthy sessions included 'Attorneys Unplugged: Bulding a Mobile Office' focused on how to best cater to your mobile workforce with simple, yet secure technology solutions ranging from loaner laptops to the most effective remote connectivity options. Our two favorite sessions of the conference (we'll cover later) were also Thursday afternoon - Jobst's was "Should we build an app for that?" (audio file - must have login) moderated by Ayelette Robinson and JoAnna's was "Overcoming Irrationality: Improve Decision-Making and Client Service with Strategic Uses of Data" (audio file - must have login) moderated by Mary Abraham. 

The final verdict on creative marketing ideas, including room-drops: A week or so before conference we posted a summary of creative vendor approaches to ILTA involvement ranging from Workshare’s scholarship contest to Aderant’s comprehensive ‘Aderant at ILTA' landing page. Onsite the marketing push got a bit more intense with collateral room drops followed by sponsored ‘everything’ and the fairly standard offering of booth freebies. What stood out? IntApp continued its annual hotel room full-court press with no less than four booklet drops and a remote control wrap followed by two dedicated channels of IntApp programming. We hope no one made a night of in-room technology tutorials but ‘A for effort’ on the comprehensive branding front. In terms of sponsorships, a couple stood out … EncoreTech’s awesome wireless internet sponsorship and Digomé Legal’s printer station (best place to print out presentations, schedules, etc.) endorsement. This year, in addition to ILTA TV sponsored by ii3, there were other vendors offering thought leader video shoots. Our most creative and professional favorite was Copper Legal who produced a Legal Technology Documentary based on an aggregation of short influencer videos. Stay tuned to their site and InsideLegal for the final ILTA documentary. Finally, in terms of room drops, our winner for most noticed item was Workshare and their invitation to partake in cloudtinis and hors d’oeuvres on Wednesday night.

We respect attention span limits, so have prepared a 'part two' ILTA 2012 post - covering emerging technologies session; build an app session; strategic uses of data session; vendor education program; industry statistics; and vendor announcements - you can check out early next week.

 

2012 ILTA/InsideLegal Technology Purchasing Survey Released

This afternoon, in conjunction with our annual International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) vendor education program, we presented the findings of the 7th annual ILTA/InsideLegal Technology Purchasing Survey. The 2012 survey results include IT budgets, technology spending and purchasing, purchase influences, IT challenges, and cloud & mobile computing trends for law firms.

The 2012 Survey, focused on feedback from ILTA member law firms with 50 or more attorneys, includes detailed technology budget data; updated information on firms’ social media and publication preferences; an in-depth analysis of cloud computing and mobile trends; and expansive sections on current and future legal technology purchases.  

2012 Survey highlights include:

• Overall firm technology spending - as a percentage of firm revenue and based on per attorney spend - is still down from pre-2009 economic downturn figures.
• 63% of all responding firms spend between 2-4% of total firm revenue on technology establishing a new law firm technology budget ‘normal’.
• 52% of surveyed respondents cited increased technology budgets in 2012, up 2% from 2011.
• 46% spend $8K-$17K on technology per attorney. Firms spending $26K or more per attorney is up to 9% from 6% in 2011.
• The top purchases within the last 12 months included desktop/hardware; laptops/notebooks; network/server upgrades; and storage area networks.
• Popular technology purchases based on survey write-ins include desktops/laptops/notebooks, Microsoft Office upgrades, wireless devices, remote access, VoIP and Operating System upgrades.
• 81% of surveyed law firms use outside technology consultants. Of those, 90% hire a third party to assist with implementations.
• Six of the top 10 favorite publications mentioned by respondents are non-legal, general technology publications.
• 32% indicated they are currently using or implementing a cloud solution.
• Beyond security, primary cloud computing concerns include service reliability, control of data, performance/speed, cost and vendor longevity.
• 61% of surveyed firms provide IT support for employees that purchase/bring their own tablet devices.
• 49% indicated buying BlackBerry devices; 48% Apple iPhones; and 10% Android.
• 66% of all respondents indicated purchasing Apple iPads.
• 74% of law firm IT departments provide support for employees’ tablet use whether purchased by the firm or via ‘BYOD’ policy.
• 35% of firms have a formal tablet security policy in place.
• 61% of firms do not reimburse apps for tablets purchased by its employees.

The 37 question web-based survey was distributed to approximately 697 law firms, ranging from 50 to 4,200 attorneys, and yielded 114 unique firm responses. 88% of all participating firms came from the U.S., with the remaining 12% originating from Canada, the UK and the rest of Europe, and Brazil. 85% of all survey respondents are director-level or C-Level executives, and 89% have direct purchasing or purchasing committee responsibility.  

The complete survey can be downloaded here. For more information on the survey results, methodology and other legal market research initiatives, contact Jobst Elster at elster@InsideLegal.com.

“In Their Own Words”: Kris Satkunas of LexisNexis CounselLink

InsideLegal has long been showcasing legal thought leaders with our “ITOW” series. This edition is focused on Kris Satkunas and her LexisNexis CounselLink team’s newest mission…helping corporate legal departments improve the predictability of their legal costs (via AFAs), manage their budgets with more certainty and derive greater value from their work with outside counsel. Our Q&A is focused on a recent LexisNexis-sponsored AFA survey and key findings as well as their recently launched CounselLink Analytics’ role in helping legal departments navigate their ‘value’ challenge.  

IL: A recent ALM Intelligence Survey “Alternative Fee Arrangements for Law Firms and Legal Departments”, sponsored by LexisNexis, shows the billable hour remains dominant with much slower than predicted adoption of alternative fee arrangements. While nearly all the law firms surveyed have adopted AFAs and most respondents expect increased adoption, growth is slow, with AFAs accounting for less than a quarter of most law firms’ work. The same trend is evident on the corporate legal end. Kris, can you please provide InsideLegal with a top level recap of the findings?

KS: The biggest take-away to me is that AFAs are broadly used (by 99.5% of law firms and 82.6% of legal departments surveyed) but not deeply utilized. Both inside and outside counsel clearly see the importance of AFAs. Yet for many reasons, most are using AFAs sparingly. And both sides point to internal and external reasons for the lack of adoption. In other words, in house counsel fault law firms with resisting AFAs while few GCs have the expertise needed to leverage their own data to identify and propose alternative fee structures that might be amenable to outside counsel. The bottom line is that expanding the use of AFAs is proving to be a struggle for both inside and outside counsel.

IL: Do these findings surprise you?

KS: The findings don’t surprise me. I’ve had conversations with many corporate counsel who have expressed that they want to use AFAs more, but don’t really know where to start. A lot of them also suffer from the “my matters are all unique” syndrome, which is just another internal form of resistance to trying something new. What is a bit surprising to me is the high percentage of both inside and outside counsel who say they don’t have the data to determine appropriate AFAs. Most large corporate legal departments have e-billing and/or matter management systems and law firms have time and billing systems. All these systems contain a wealth of data. The problem is that gathering useful data is only the first step. That’s where CounselLink Analytics comes in. This service bridges the gap between raw data and decision making through delivery of specific recommendations on AFAs and on broader cost management strategies.

IL: Based on your understanding and knowledge, and as cited in the survey, why are AFAs not as widespread as expected or at least as publicized? Do you think corporate counsel’s cost predictability argument pro AFAs will spill over to the firm side?

KS: This is an industry that is slow to adopt change. We’re talking about a fundamental shift in a law firm’s operating model, and I believe that is going to take time to happen. We’ve seen AFAs increase a bit every year. Companies using CounselLink used AFAs for 17% of their matters in 2011, and that percentage has slowly increased each year. As to the cost predictability component, that may be a side-benefit to law firms, but what is really going to drive them to use materially more AFAs is their interest in retaining clients and winning new business.

IL: As you have mentioned, most legal departments have reams of data but aren’t sure how to analyze and interpret that data to identify inefficiencies and to quantify for corporate leadership, the value being generated by the company’s legal department. Please explain how CounselLink Analytics will help address this challenge and what other resources exist to help quantify value.

KS: Legal departments create value by among other things, managing risk, communicating clearly with internal clients, and by helping their organizations to avoid, minimize and manage legal challenges in the most cost effective manner possible. The goals of legal departments vary, but the adage about needing to measure in order to manage applies regardless of those goals. One of the ways CounselLink Analytics helps legal departments is by helping them identify and leverage specific metrics they can use to quantify the value they are creating. We also set up electronic dashboards or scorecards to effectively track, display and share that information with senior management. In addition, our services provide a framework, or methodology, to efficiently answer questions that arise as the metrics are distributed.

IL: Before joining CounselLink, you led the Redwood Analytics Think Tank to help improve law firm performance via the use of analytics and best practices. Please elaborate on this initiative and share with us any specific best practices and metrics that the think tank developed and/or published.

KS: The Redwood Think Tank was an independent research group founded by Redwood Analytics in 2006. The Think Tank conducted quantitative studies, developed and tested hypotheses, and suggested solutions to tough management issues. Members of the Think Tank were law firm leaders with a progressive outlook on firm management issues. One big topic we studied was client attrition. This study had a definite impact on how many firms thought about relationship management. We identified the factors most correlated with whether a client would continue to provide work to a law firm. There were 4 factors that we found to be the most critical, and believe or not, rate discounts were not among the top four! 

 

ILTA Conference Vendor Education Program

Again this year, we are partnering with ILTA to produce the annual Vendor Educational Program at the 2012 ILTA Conference. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to JoAnna Forshee with name, title, company and email address for each participant. Below is information on the program.

What:     ILTA/InsideLegal Vendor Education Program
When:    Monday, August 27th 2-5:30pm
                (breakout below - attend the entire program or any portion)
Where:  Potomac 1 & 2, Gaylord National Harbor

2-2:30p        ILTA Vendor Business Meeting
This session will include an opportunity to meet the ILTA staff and Board, receive an update on conference activities, and learn how to work with ILTA throughout the year.
Faculty: Peggy Wechsler - ILTA Program Director; ILTA staff and Board

2:30-3:15p    How to Work with ILTA
Everything from advice to selling to ILTA member firms to conference newcomer tips. If you are new to the ILTA conference, this session is a must!
Faculty: Cheryl Proctor - LPM Director - Litigation Support, Baker Donelson & Mike Proctor - Client Services Director, CaseLogistix

3:15-5p        Legal Market(ing) Flash Series
We know firsthand how valuable your onsite time is at ILTA, so this rapid fire session format (think speed dating!) packs in as much priceless industry and legal marketing information as possible. Walk away with dozens of tips, tricks and legal resources you can use immediately.

• legal industry statistics
• the one thing EVERY legal vendor should do...and it's free
• how do you compare to other legal vendors - marketing budget benchmarks
• social media - how to use it to your advantage (even if you don't participate)
• tips for working with industry consultants
• where to get market research and what to do with it
• tips for working with the legal media
• Last but not least - results of the 2012 ILTA/InsideLegal Technology Purchasing Survey (Hot off the Press - attendees will receive a hardcopy report) [View the 2011 Survey here]

Faculty: JoAnna Forshee - CEO of InsideLegal & Jobst Elster - Head of Content for InsideLegal

5-5:30        Networking Reception
Stick around to network with the ILTA Board & Conference Committee, ILTA staff, your peers, legal media and influencers.

 

Am Law 100 Overview for 2012

The Am Law 100 2012, the annual law firm ranking of America's top 100 revenue grossing law firms compiled by ALM, has been released. Below is an overview and some key findings taken from this year's report at The American Lawyer website. For the full story, view ALM's coverage and/or purchase the entire report from ALM Legal Intelligence for $499.

"This year Baker & McKenzie tops our chart and DLA Piper, another verein, comes in second, knocking Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom out of that position. Latham & Watkins comes in fourth, with revenues topping $2 billion." 

Am Law 100 1-10 from The American Lawyer

 

• 13 firms made more than $1 billion last year. 
• Eighty firms reported gains in revenue, with the biggest gainer, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, posting 31.4 percent growth.
• Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz had the steepest decline at 4.8 percent, with Fulbright & Jaworski close behind, falling 4.5 percent. 
• Gross revenue, revenue per lawyer (RPL), and profits per partner (PPP) for The Am Law 100 rose by single digits last year.
• Eighty-three firms posted revenue gains—25 more than in the previous year.
• The terrifying days of mass layoffs seemed to be over: Firms reversed course and added to their head count.
• Equity partners grew their ranks on average after two years of flat or negative growth. 
• Both The Am Law 50 and The Am Law 51–100 reported 6 percent increases in gross, to totals of $50.9 billion and $20.1 billion, respectively.
• The Am Law 50 posted average profits per partner of $1.6 million last year—a 4.8 percent jump—versus The Am Law 51–100's 1.4 percent PPP rise, to $1.1 million.
• Gross revenue for the Am Law 100 rose 5.3 percent last year, to an average of $709,725,589. Firms continued to raise rates slightly, push work upward to partners, and see growth in their litigation, energy, and regulatory practices.
• Three of the five firms with the largest gain in gross revenue are:
  • SNR Denton (formerly Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal and Denton Wilde Sapte) (58% growth)
  • Squire Sanders (previously Squire, Sanders & Dempsey and Hammonds) (43% growth)
  • Edwards Wildman Palmer (née Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge and Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon) (18% growth)
• The Am Law 100 employed 86,272 attorneys in 2011, a 3.3 percent increase from 2010.
• Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan had the biggest head count jump of a firm that was not involved in a major merger or verein combination. The Los Angeles firm added 190 lawyers—a 42 percent increase—and opened offices in Washington, D.C., and Moscow, while boosting its PPP 15 percent. The litigation powerhouse also reported the highest profit margin on our chart—64 percent.
• Mayer Brown and Hunton & Williams both showed double-digit RPL gains, too. These came on the heels of shrinking head counts—each firm shed more than 100 lawyers—a decline of 7.4 percent at Mayer Brown and 12 percent at Hunton.
• The Am Law 100 showed on average growth of 3 percent last year in profits per partner with Arnold & Porter and Alston & Bird posting PPP increases of 25 percent and 24 percent, respectively.
• Cutting into profits were technology upgrades, spring bonuses, and real estate–related expenses, according to firm leaders.
• There are four firms that are new to the list this year:
  • Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith (new to the list)
  • Barnes & Thornburg (new to the list)
  • Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton (result of a merger)
  • Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker (up from the Am Law 200 last year)
• There are four firms that were on the list last year, but not included this year:
  • Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo
  • Bracewell & Giuliani
  • McKenna Long & Aldridge 
  • Husch Blackwell

Related Links:

Information/Background on the Am Law 100 Survey

Survey Methodology

What percentage of revenue do legal vendors spend on marketing? 2012 InsideLegal Vendor Marketing Survey Now Open

What percent of total revenue do legal vendors spend on marketing? What about your competitors? How does your budget compare?

You can read the results to that question from our 2008 legal vendor survey here, but better yet, you can complete the 2012 InsideLegal Vendor Marketing Survey (takes approx. 10 minutes) to find out how your marketing budget compares to other vendors, what your competitors spend on marketing, where they advertise, what market research they value, etc. In exchange for participating, you'll be the first to receive the full results report upon survey completion (for free) and we'll also immediately email you the complete 2008 survey report with data from 97 legal vendors to review in the meantime. Here are the details...

Since joining legal in 1999, we had searched for industry marketing and spending benchmarks that are commonplace in other industries that don't exist within the legal community. Knowing what your peers are spending on marketing and getting a better feel for what marketing strategies work and why is essential. For that reason, in 2008 InsideLegal conducted its inaugural Legal Vendor Marketing Survey that covered marketing budgets, the marketing mix, public relations, market research and the relevance of specific legal technology events and it yielded 97 unbiased and independent responses. We now feel the vendor community is ready for a follow-up survey - especially considering the major economic downturn we experienced. We encourage all vendors interested in getting better data surrounding their marketing and PR efforts to complete the survey and get engaged in the ensuing conversation. 

With that said, we are currently inviting legal technology vendors (CEOs, VPs, directors, marketers, managers and anyone with keen insight and understanding of their corporate marketing strategy and plan) to complete our 2012 InsideLegal Vendor Marketing Survey. We received 97 responses to our 2008 survey and we'd love to exceed that. The 42 questions will take participants 10-13 minutes to complete and all respondents (with completed surveys) will receive the final results. All results are kept completely confidential. In addition, upon completion of the survey, we will immediately send you the results report from the 2008 InsideLegal Vendor Marketing Survey. Take the time and complete the survey now and you'll have that information before LegalTech New York next week. The 2008 survey included the following, and much more, from a wide mix of legal vendor respondents:

• % of revenue spent on marketing
• what publications they advertised in
• reviews on the top legal conferences
• top categories of marketing spend
• market research recommendations

Here is a glance at the 2012 InsideLegal Vendor Marketing Survey questions:

• Marketing Budgets: How much are you spending on marketing efforts and how does this compare to other vendors?
• Marketing strategy: Who do you market to? What are your key marketing objectives?  What aspects of your marketing program have you outsourced?
• Marketing Events: How do you rank/rate the big legal events such as LegalTech and ILTA? Does your company host a User Conference? 
• Advertising: Where do you advertise? What is the mix of print vs. online?
• Public Relations: What is your media relations approach?  What is included in your (and your competitor's) PR plan? 
• Market Research: Who uses research to support marketing and sales efforts? What type of research proves most effective? What industry surveys do you and your competitors follow?

 

How Efficient is your Law Firm Help Desk? The 2nd Edition Guru Guide Tells All

Business audits and financial check ups are an important component of not only corporate life but also law firm operations. Gathering business intelligence about law firm clients, firm profitability, new business oppoortunities and the like is increasingly becoming a legal executive priority. What about as it relates to user support though? Most of the time efficiency starts and stops with your employees and their ability to swiftly and cost effectively serve clients. When is the last time you asked them about the firm's helpdesk (aka service desk) and its ability to minimize technology or workflow-related downtime and get users back up and running and focused on billables? In many scenarios, a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy exists, but in many others it has been 'don't ask, because we don't know'.

Last year, Intelliteach, a legal technology vendor and only dedicated law firm helpdesk outsourcing provider, developed the User Support Guru Guide, a PDF report that takes a close look at legal service desk metrics and key performance indicators that will help law firms, corporate legal, legal technology vendors and anyone in the space operating a helpdesk better manage their operation.

Introducing ... the User Support Guru Guide, 2nd Edition 

The data and statistics included in the 2nd edition Guru’s Guide represent over 1.2 million service desk tickets closed across a variety of law firm sizes, locations, and hardware and software configurations during the period of January 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011. The new Guru Guide report includes the following:

Top ticket categories: Over 43% of 1.2 million service desk tickets logged are specific to various versions of Microsoft Office, 22% of those pertain to Microsoft Outlook. 14% of all helpdesk calls are regarding various firm document management systems.

Conversion & upgrade impact on the service/helpdesk: Conversions cause a significant increase in volume and add additional strain to existing resources, systems and service quality. Based on Guru data, ticket volumes increased by 42% during firm-wide upgrades (average tickets per user per month increased from 2 to 2.85 during rollouts) and took an average of 90 days to return to pre-conversion levels.

Live rates: Pre-conversion, the overall live rate is 93%. If staffing is kept the same during conversions, the live rate drops by 25%. On a related note, “average wait time in the queue” jumps from 10 seconds to 81 seconds.

Tickets by origin: How are users reaching out to the service desk? 70% used the phone and 27% sent an email describing their technology issues, however it seems email is far less efficient for both the user and the service desk: 86% of live (phoned-in) service desk tickets are resolved in that first contact whereas only 7% of email tickets can be resolved in one single contact. Data indicates that, on average, tickets created via email have a lifespan 6 times longer than those originated by phone.

Tickets by weekday: Based on 1.2 million analyzed tickets, Tuesday sees the highest call volume (20.52%) and Friday (16.81%) the lowest.

The complete 16-page Guru Guide can be downloaded here and additional service desk specific data and analysis can be accessed on Intelliteach's Guru webpage.  

ILTA Members Listed 103 Vendors as Giving Exceptional Customer Support

 

As part of our 6th annual "2011 ILTA/InsideLegal Technology Purchasing Survey", which was distributed to ILTA member firms with 50+ attorneys, we asked what legal vendors provided ILTA members with exceptional customer support. The vendors with the most unsolicited mentions for providing exceptional customer support include (in alphabetical order):

Adaptive Solutions BigHand CDW Dell LexisNexis

Microsystems mindSHIFT OpenText Traveling Coaches

Other vendors receiving a mention include (in alphabetical order):

ADERANT agile360 Alexander Open Systems AppRiver Arraya CaseLogistix Cisco Communications Strategies Copitrak CORETECH Leasing Crowther Consulting Corporation CT Summation Cypress Communications D4 Discovery Data Fusion Technologies Deloitte DocuSource Education Partners EIM International Element55 EMC Equitrac Esquire Innovations EVault Evidox Geller Data Solutions Google Handshake Software Heavy Water Hildebrandt Baker Robbins HP Hubbard One/XMLAW iEnvision Technologies Information Architects  Inherent Innovative Computing Systems Insight Investments IntApp Intelliteach Interwoven Ion Resources IPM IPRO Tech iQuest Analytics Juris Keno Kozie Associates King Herpel & Associate

Kraft Kennedy KwikTag LightPath Technologies Litera Maxis Networks MicroMenders Microsoft Mimecast NetDocuments NetFusion Omega Onward Technologies Optimum Orion Law Management Systems PAETEC PayneGroup PensEra Project Leadership Associates PROLAN Network services ProtectPoint QUiVX Electronic Discovery RBRO Solutions Sage Solutions Sayers Technologies Secuit360 Sharp SoftChoice Softmart Symantec TecCon Thomson Reuters (MTS) Tikit Trinogy Systems VentureNet Verdatum VLCM VMWare WAMS Waveguide Consulting West West KM William Ives Consulting Winscribe Workshare World Software Corporation Younts Consulting Zones

ILTA and InsideLegal Release 2011 ILTA/InsideLegal Technology Purchasing Survey

           

The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA), and InsideLegal just released the findings of the 6^th annual ILTA/InsideLegal Technology Purchasing Survey (Survey). The 2011 Survey, focused on feedback from ILTA member law firms with 50 or more attorneys, covers detailed legal technology budget questions; updated information on firms’ social media preferences; an in-depth analysis of cloud computing; and sections on technology outsourcing and IT challenges.

Survey findings and analysis are being presented as part of InsideLegal’s vendor education program in conjunction with ILTA’s Annual Conference, taking place at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, August 21-25.

The 33 question web-based survey was distributed to approximately 684 law firms, ranging from 50 to 3,000 attorneys, and yielded 118 unique firm responses. 84% of all participating firms came from the U.S., with the remaining 16% originating from Canada, the UK, Australia, and Brazil. 85% of all survey respondents are IT Directors or C-Level executives, and 86% have direct purchasing or purchasing committee responsibility.

2011 Survey highlights include:

• Overall firm technology spending, as a percentage of firm revenue and based on per attorney spend, is still down from pre-2009 economic downturn figures.
• 57% of all responding firms spend between 2-4% of total firm revenue on technology.
• 46% of survey participants indicated spending $8K-$17K per attorney on technology purchases, the same response rate as in 2010.
• While budget slashing has been curtailed, keeping budgets balanced has taken priority with 35% indicating their budgets remained the same.
• The top five technology implementations within the last 12 months included desktop hardware; laptops/notebooks; network/server upgrades; storage area networks and virtualization.
• While ILTA’s Peer to Peer Magazine and ILTA whitepapers remain ‘favorite’ reads, 5 of the top 10 favorite publications mentioned by respondents are non-legal, general technology publications.
• Of the 52% who indicated using Twitter, many of them (27%) have an account but don’t actively use it.
• 44% of this year’s respondents reported they use outside technology consultants to aid in making purchasing decisions.
• Internet research was cited as the 2nd most popular influence in terms of aiding IT purchasing decisions (next to peer recommendations).
• 33% indicated they are implementing a cloud strategy, up from 17% in 2010 and 9% in 2009.
• 55% of surveyed firms provide IT support for employees that purchase and use their personal tablet devices.

RESOURCES:

Download the complete 16 page survey findings & analysis

Download the official press release

 

ILTA Vendor Education Program

Once again InsideLegal is working with ILTA to produce the annual ILTA Vendor Educational Program at ILTA 2011 (August 21 – 25 in Nashville). This program is for legal vendor executives and sales and marketing contacts. Below is the information on the program. 

What:  ILTA Vendor Educational Program
When:  Monday, August 22nd 2:00 pm – 5:30 pm (breakout below)
Where:  Ryman Studio PQ, Level 0

2:00 – 2:30 pm
ILTA Vendor Business Meeting
This session will include an opportunity to meet the ILTA Staff and Board members, to receive an update on conference activities, and to hear tips on working with ILTA throughout the year.
Faculty – Peggy Wechsler (ILTA)

2:30 – 3:15 pm
Advice for Selling to Law Firms 
ILTA law firms members tell you from their point of view.
Faculty – Joy Heath Rush (Sidley Austin) (Past President of ILTA) & Scott Christensen (Wildman Harrold) (ILTA President) 

3:15 – 3:45 pm
Vendor Thought Leadership  
How to establish it, maintain it and incorporate it into your social media program.
Faculty – JoAnna Forshee (InsideLegal); Donna Payne (Payne Group)

3:45 – 4:15 pm
2011 InsideLegal/ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey Results
Hear the highlights and get your copy.  Check out the 2010 survey here
Faculty – Jobst Elster (InsideLegal)

4:15 – 5 pm
Legal Industry Media Panel
Find out how to work with the media to get coverage for your products/services news.
Panelists – Randi Mayes (Editor, ILTA’s Peer to Peer); Monica Bay (Editor-in-Chief, Law Technology News); Charles Christian (Editor, American Legal Technology Insider) & Moderators – JoAnna Forshee & Jobst Elster (InsideLegal)

5:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Networking Reception

Set your booth up early Monday morning and join us for this very informative and interactive meeting!  If you can’t attend, send a representative from your company.

If you have not already RSVPd, please email name, title, company and email address for each participant to JoAnna Forshee at jf@insidelegal.com.