This article is the third in a series focusing on the major themes that emerged from the recent ILTACON conference. Read Parts 1 and 2.
A sign of maturity in the legal tech space is the relative decline of visionary speakers extolling the Next Big Thing or Silver Bullet that will change everything. ILTACON this year showed the practical, pragmatic side of the legal tech professionals that are using technology to add value to their organizations every day.
In many conference sessions, the lawyers, technologists, knowledge managers, and heads of innovation doing great things were advising their audiences to start small and incrementally. More than a few times, the phrase “use what you have” was invoked, meaning that many changes to processes or data management can be accomplished with tools already available to them, such as the Microsoft Office suite or existing financial or marketing systems.
Innovators repeatedly urged their peers to focus on solving an immediate problem or challenge on a small scale as a first step rather than biting off too much at once. This was particularly true for applications involving leveraging data. For example, a team that can solve a problem or support decisions with a simple dashboard will build credibility and acceptance for a data-driven solution for the next business issue that needs to be tackled with a data-driven initiative.
Across dozens of conversations, a consensus that transformation is a marathon, not a sprint, was apparent. Law firms are only beginning to wrangle the valuable data they have available to them as part of their operations. Turning that data into client services and insights about their market and their own businesses will happen one small change at a time rather than a big bang.
Stay tuned for the next blog post: Part 4 - Security and the Cloud: Keeping the Lights On.
Posted in ILTACON
