Software solutions - do you have a joined-up practice?

Last month, most law firms will have received a copy of the latest edition of the Law Society's software solutions guide to legal software suppliers.

It provides an excellent introduction to some of the many practice management systems now on sale to solicitors' firms; however, it does still only represent part of the story.

Therefore, one of the purposes of this new fortnightly column is to look at the various business and management issues associated with the successful selection and implementation of law office technology projects - and we start with the concept of the joined-up law firm.

We have all heard stories from other members of the profession about computer disasters, but one of the more perplexing issues is why a particular system seems to work perfectly satisfactorily in one firm yet prove an unmitigated flop in another.

The explanation of the 'disaster' all too often turns out to be the right system but in the wrong firm.

Despite the fact that we habitually talk about computer 'solutions', legal technology is not an end in itself; it is merely a set of tools to help solicitors and law firm staff achieve specific professional and commercial objectives.

Or, to use the well known Black & Decker analogy - people do not buy an electric drill for its own sake; they buy it because it will help them make holes in walls or pieces of wood as part of some larger DIY project.

Unfortunately, many law firms still fail to appreciate this and focus almost entirely on narrow technology issues rather than how that technology might help their firm achieve its broader business objectives.

Such firms have what can only be described as a semi-detached IT strategy that has been drawn up, often by technology enthusiasts, in isolation from - or at least involving little consultation with - their colleagues within the rest of the firm.

For technology to work, it must be seen in its correct context as a complementary, or enabling, part of the firm's overall practice (or business) development plan.

A firm must first decide where it is going as a whole - which areas of legal practice it wishes to focus on and what types of clients it wants to service.

Only then can it turn its attention on how technology can help it reach these objectives.

In other words, technology must be part of a joined-up rather than a semi-detached strategy.

Next time I will be looking at the relationship between partners and technology.

Charles Christian is an independent adviser to the Law Society's software solutions guide