Clients are increasingly looking to get their legal work done remotely. To serve clients online, your firm needs a robust IT infrastructure that is secure, remote, and cost-efficient. However, training the legal staff who are good with computers in managing the IT systems is not how a law firm should run its IT operations. Not only is it expensive, but it is also likely to be ineffective.
Therefore, hiring managed IT services for law firms will get you professional IT help at comparatively lower costs, and provide robust security to keep your sensitive documents secure, among other benefits.
Let’s understand how managed IT services work for legal professionals.
Managed IT services refer to outsourcing your IT infrastructure to a third-party provider who specializes in managing and running IT services.
Managed IT services include monitoring and maintenance of equipment, managing servers, network monitoring, cloud migration, etc. Using managed services helps you achieve your business goals while saving money and ensuring you get the best professional help.
Relying on law professionals who happen to be good with technology is not an ideal way to manage your IT systems. They might know how to install antivirus software. But do they know how to move your IT infrastructure to the cloud, access legal documents remotely, chart a disaster recovery plan, and other nuanced processes?
You will need people with highly specialized IT skills to run your IT operations so that you can focus on what matters the most for your law firm – practicing law. Managed IT services for legal professionals provide you with specialized IT services at a reasonable cost.
You might think – ''Hiring a managed IT firm will surely double my IT costs.'' Well, that’s not the case at all. Managed IT providers help you reduce your IT expenses in the long run. With managed IT, you no longer need to spend money on that one-time costly IT fix, purchase in-house hardware or software, or spend on training your staff on IT systems.
Managing your IT operations on your own is a non-billable expense for your law firm. In short, spending time on running your IT systems is killing the time that could be spent on generating revenue for your business.
By delegating your IT tasks to a managed IT provider, you get more time to focus on getting more clients for your law firm. Managed IT services also equip your business with the latest tools to simplify your legal operations. For instance, you can use automation to onboard clients faster or use artificial intelligence to easily scan through large volumes of legal documents in no time.
Using IT systems in your law firm also exposes your business to cyber-attacks. The Legal Technology Survey Report of 2020 by the American Bar Association reported that 29% of the respondents suffered from a security breach.
Managed IT service providers, like Northriver, help you mitigate the cybersecurity risks by using proactive measures and 24/7 monitoring IT systems to stop a cyber intrusion before it strikes your business. Our cybersecurity experts safeguard your IT operations from potential threats no matter whether you run your business on cloud or on-premise.