We will be sending a more detailed summary of the results to all participants who provided us their email address, but some highlights to share:
- Unsurprisingly, Microsoft Office was the dominant productivity suite used by legal teams.
- Most legal teams already have a documents and records management system.
- Only a third of legal teams have an existing matter management system, but this was the most common tool being actively considered.
- About half of legal teams have a knowledge management system, and the other half of legal teams are not considering one at all.
- Every legal team ranked their technology maturity between “just starting out” and “on our way, but plenty of work to do”. No one felt fully on top of legal technology – you aren’t alone if you are feeling that you haven’t got this stuff sorted out yet!
- Three of my favourite tools in the Office 365 ecosystem are some of the least used. Microsoft Planner, Power Automate (Flow) and Forms have some fantastic possibilities for legal teams, but are not used by many.
Perhaps most interestingly, there was considerable variation in the challenges and pain points faced by legal teams in adopting new legal technologies. 'Lack of time' and 'lack of budget' were most frequently ranked as the biggest single challenges, but 'knowing where to start' and 'knowing what is available' also featured highly. 'Support from my organisation' and 'change resistance' weren’t rated as the most pressing concerns by many, but those that did rate them found them particularly challenging:
What does this mean in practice?
I am a big advocate of legal teams (re)using the tools and technologies that are already available to their organisation. You don’t need to spend a lot of time and money, or procure new software, just to make improvements to the way you provide legal services or operate as a legal team.
We’re therefore pleased to confirm that later in the year, we will be hosting a Juno Learning in-person event focusing on kickstarting your digital transformation, including practical steps that you can use to identify your needs, find the tools suitable to address those, and roll those tools out to your legal team efficiently, effectively and enjoyably.
And if you want something you can do right now, try out Microsoft Planner for collaborative task and matter management at https://tasks.office.com. If you are an Office 365 user, it’s already included in your subscription.