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14 August 2008 / Greg Wildisen
Issue: 7334 / Categories: Features , Profession , Technology
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Return on investment

Spending on IT is an investment rather than a cost, says Greg Wildisen

In uncertain times, one inevitable consequence is that law firms find themselves having to do more with less. With budgets under pressure, it is more important than ever that law firms get more “bang for their buck”. Yet many law firms appear to find it an on-going challenge to measure ROI (return on investment) from technology. Even so, there are a number of core areas of IT planning where some serious and demonstrable gains can be made.

Alignment

First, and perhaps most obviously, a law firm's IT strategy needs to respond to and be firmly aligned with the business of the firm. This may sound straightforward, but with most technology being bought off the shelf, it is not as easy as it seems.

One of the mistakes in the past was buying technology for its own sake rather than considering which parts of the business would benefit from the application of new technology. The process of identifying business needs must

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NEWS
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The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 transformed criminal justice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ed Cape of UWE and Matthew Hardcastle and Sandra Paul of Kingsley Napley trace its ‘seismic impact’
Operational resilience is no longer optional. Writing in NLJ this week, Emma Radmore and Michael Lewis of Womble Bond Dickinson explain how UK regulators expect firms to identify ‘important business services’ that could cause ‘intolerable levels of harm’ if disrupted
Criminal juries may be convicting—or acquitting—on a misunderstanding. Writing in NLJ this week Paul McKeown, Adrian Keane and Sally Stares of The City Law School and LSE report troubling survey findings on the meaning of ‘sure’
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