With this current series having now been running for more than a year, it is probably fair to say that if the missing user manual has not been found by now, its location is certainly a lot clearer than it used to be.

By way of wrapping up this series, hopefully the main issue I have brought to your attention is that legal technology is not some special 'thing' that must be handled with kid gloves, but rather a fundamental, yet at the same time pervasive aspect of running a modern law firm. In other words, like electricity and water, it is one of those things you have to have in today's solicitors' practices - and probably the sooner more firms start treating IT as just another part of the law office wallpaper and stop worrying about the mystique surrounding the subject, the happier they will be.


Charles Robinson: technology puts you on the driver's seat

Forget all that dot-com era nonsense about technology opening up new legal paradigms; IT is primarily a tool that can help you deliver legal services in a way that is more convenient both to your firm and your clients - e-mail, and before that the telephone and the photocopier, are good examples of this aspect of the benefits of technology.

In addition, it can also deliver improvements in productivity, so you can get through the same workload with fewer resources and in less time - or more work with the same resources and in the same time.


Relevant technologies here include case management and digital dictation systems.


IT must also be used to improve your firm's profitability - remember the old accountancy adage that turnover (and for lawyers this means total billable hours) is vanity whereas profits are sanity.


Technology can also give you access to information to help you run your firm and make practice development decisions - such as where you can make improvements in productivity, client service and profitability - on the basis of sound business intelligence rather than guesswork and wishful thinking.


This aspect is particularly important in smaller firms that do not have the resources and reserves to cushion unprofitable areas of practice or fee-earners who do not pull their weight.


By giving you access to business critical information - typically through the reporting facilities of a modern practice management system - technology can put you in the driver's seat, rather than leaving you as a passenger who is swept on by events.


Charles Christian is an independent adviser to the Law Society's Software Solutions guide