Conclusion:

About Exponential-e

With this paper, we set out to help you assess your organisation's ability to anticipate change, focus on innovation, challenge the status quo and achieve greater success.

Once you have determined the current position of both your organisation and your IT team, you will be in a position to begin your Digital Transformation journey.

The most overwhelming disruptive influence on Legal right now is digitisation. Industry-specific challenges thrown up by digitisation covered in this paper include: the emergence of digital-native disruptors (e.g. DoNotPay, LegalZoom), the rise of customer demand for digital channels of communication, sector and regulatory pressures relating to the securing of sensitive data, and the importance of attracting a digital-native workforce.

But while digitisation throws up new obstacles, it is also presents the Legal sector with an abundance of opportunities. Above all, Digital Transformation promises to give Legal firms that key ‘X’ factor that they need to remain relevant in this fast-moving digital age: agility.

Agility is about being free to innovate and improve, and technologies such as digital automation - as well as optimising and economising various processes and services - promise to free IT teams of the burden of all sorts of time and labour-intensive activities.

Freeing-up time is essential, because time is undoubtedly the biggest barrier to Digital Transformation. Very few businesses have the capacity to work harder, but they can work smarter. While technology can help with this, smarter working also entails being able to entrust operational-intensive and low-value tasks to trusted partners and specialist advisors.

As organisational and personal control of technology is relinquished, trust in that technology (and in its providers) must be safeguarded. Along with offering access to reports assessing risk and operational health, IT must take a proactive and holistic approach to security, supporting - rather than stifling - innovation.

There should also be trust in - and understanding of - IT’s agenda from the wider business, so that others can see how Digital Transformation integrates with the business goals. IT therefore needs to be positioned in alignment with the business in order to have its aims understood – and fulfilled.

To bring others along on the digital journey, you need to know where you’re going, and where you’re starting from. Before transformation comes preparation, and a transformation readiness assessment is an ideal starting point.

About Exponential-e

Exponential-e is a Cloud, Digital Services and Communications pioneer. Our experience in leveraging IT solutions and services to deliver transformational business change has made us one of the fastest-growing private companies in the UK.

Our latest innovation is our Software-Defined Digital Platform (SD-DP) for Digital Transformation (DX), which we call our DX Toolbox. Delivering the requisite ‘underlay’ infrastructure for Transformation, our DX Toolbox aids organisational evolution, and has already enabled major DX programmes for leading organisations across all sectors.

To find out more about our DX Toolbox, watch our video at
www.exponential-e.com/DXToolbox

With our proven track record and 8 ISO accreditations, we deliver Peace of Mind-as-a-Service to over 3,000 customers, and have the leading NPS score in our industry.

Exponential-e in the Legal Sector

Exponential-e empowers legal firms to compete more effectively, innovate more rapidly and operate more efficiently by providing world-class Digital Services and Connectivity, Cloud, Cyber Security and Communications solutions that address current and future needs.

Our solutions offer seamless integration across IaaS, Cloud, Communications, Connectivity and Network solutions. Our breadth of services enables firms with greater interoperability, assurance of a single end-to-end SLA and clearer accountability from one provider.

We understand the operational implications as a by-product of security threats and regulation pressures, and adhere to the myriad of security protocols relevant to the Legal sector such as ISO 27001, the requirements of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), and the demonstration of data sovereignty.

We have worked with over 120 clients in Legal, including Pinsent Masons, Leigh Day, Stewarts Law and Lewis Silkin. We have helped many of these clients to free up time to focus on business transformation.

By taking over low-level tasks for one firm, for example, we enabled 80% of their IT resources to be focused on Digital Transformation projects, where previously they had only had the capacity to devote 20%.

Through engagements and discussions with senior stakeholders and partners at these firms, we have gained valuable insight into the challenges faced by the sector and know what clients and customers are seeking from the modern legal firm. This expertise has helped inform the creation of this white paper.