Addressing data silos pays off in a big way for small law firms

The devil is in the data silos

We know that one common barrier to greater efficiency in smaller firms — and frankly, to the adoption of technologies that would help enable that efficiency — is the prevalence of siloed data within their organizations. 

Wait — what are data silos? 

They are essentially any repository of data or information that is isolated or stored separately from other systems or data within an organization. The data might be stored on someone’s laptop, on a thumb drive, or even harbored in disparate systems that are used by different practice groups or simply incompatible with one another.

Data silos create a host of problems, all of which can inhibit a firm’s ability to make significant progress in three of the top five areas of concern to respondents in our recent survey of small law firm leaders working to grow their businesses:

• Improving lawyer utilization and realization rates
• Meeting increasing client expectations 
• Adopting comprehensive security practices

According to a study by Forrester Consulting, employees lose an average of 2.4 hours daily trying to find the right data and information due to data silos. That’s 12 hours (30%!) of a 40-hour week! It’s no wonder that 80 percent of the study respondents identified reducing these silos as a top priority for their organization.

What causes these silos?

A variety of common practices create or contribute to creating siloed data in law offices. These include:

No single source of truth where individuals or groups are keeping information in isolated repositories, resulting in duplicate or conflicting “current,” “updated,” or “complete” document versions.

Insecure communication channels make it difficult for teams to put their heads together over sensitive documents, consult with outside counsel, or work in safety and security with clients to co-author documents, share meeting notes, and amend or update case materials.

Emails whose key information is stored separately from the related matters make search and retrieval challenging, as well as compromising the continuity and accuracy of the information gathered.

Paper records and historical documents may be poorly indexed or unavailable to those working in remote locations or needing immediate access to the information.

Not surprisingly, in addition to the eighty percent of Forrester’s research subjects who wanted to reduce silos, ninety percent prioritized better collaboration. Data silos impede collaboration, so these two priorities fit well together. By breaking down silos, you simultaneously increase your ability to promote a culture of sharing and improve collaboration.

First steps to a more efficient and profitable future

Breaking down silos opens the door to more efficient practices that lead to greater worker satisfaction. What steps can legal leaders take to start the ball rolling? 

A shared goal or ambition for the project of breaking down silos is a critical starting point. Some of the broader strokes that follow may include:

• Incentivizing employees to participate by clarifying the rewards
• Deciding how best to automate or streamline manual workflows
• Planning for digitization of paper documents and records
• Preparations for merging siloed data into cross-functional storage

But perhaps the more critical first step involves choosing the right modern platform to make all this effort pay off. A platform that gives people the mobility to work from anywhere on any device — whether they’re in the courtroom or the coffee shop — so lawyers can respond to clients and serve their needs in the moment while content remains secure and governed.

The platform you invest in should allow you to:

• Save emails in context with related work product
• Establish version control and journaling for a single source of truth
• Improve search capabilities across teams
• Implement secure sharing and co-authoring
• Automate records disposition per compliance rules
• Level the playing field with cloud-native and AI-powered solutions

Small firms are in the right place for getting ahead

Clients are looking for greater efficiency and better value-to-cost balance from their law firms. Practice areas once dominated by larger firms have begun to open to lawyers in specialized and boutique firms. And salaries are rising.

Modernizing your document management strategy can help you level the playing field. The right platform brings all of your data together in one secure access point and delivers tangible benefits, using AI, analytics, and automation to seamlessly enhance and enrich your workflows. 

Take the first step — download our ebook today.