Firms facing data management crisis

Poor data management means more than a quarter of UK law firms would be unable to work and could permanently lose their data if a disaster struck, a new survey shows.

The study by communications technology provider Kingston Communications reveals that 28% of law firms rely on on-site automated or manual back-up.

This means that if the lawyers were unable to get onto their premises, eg as a result of fire or flood, then access to systems and documents would, at best, be limited, and at worst, work would have to cease altogether.

Many legal firms depend on staff to manage data, with half of the firms questioned requiring employees to perform data storage tasks as par t of the back-up routine. This, says the report, is a high risk strategy, as recent research by ITPolicy- Compliance.com shows that human error—such as employees deleting or saving over information— accounts for 50% of cases of data loss.

Around 20% of law yers revealed that their firm had lost files after an IT system failure, and nearly one-third said they had lost information to a virus attack. These issues, say the report, are simple to prevent, provided storage, back-up and security solutions are adequately considered and acted upon.

The worst culprits are firms based in the north—where 40% are still backing up data on-site— and smaller firms with fewer than 10 partners, where 60% have no off-site back-up arrangements in place. Most (68%) of firms in the Midlands—16% higher than the national average—require individual employees to perform data back-up tasks. And again it is smaller firms that are more likely to risk their data assets by relying too heavily on human intervention.

Kevin Walsh, executive director at Kingston Communications says: “This research clearly shows that many law firms can’t guarantee the protection and accessibility of critical business information. In the event of a disaster, one in four would not be able to continue working and would likely lose all of their data permanently. This is despite the fact that data back-up does not have to be complicated or expensive.” The study also highlights that the legal industry is embracing technology as a way of improving its efficiency—more than 80% of firms are using electronic communications more than they used to, and two-thirds of lawyers now use a personal digital assistant (PDA) device, such as a BlackBerry, at work. Walsh says: “Employing technology to improve communications can give a competitive edge, however, any implementation has to be seen in a wider context as without the correct back-up and business continuity planning, these advances may be counterproductive as they open up law firms to unnecessary risks.”