Top 5 Legal IT technologies of 2010
Happy New Year to you all!
Hope you had a good 2009 and I wish you all a great 2010. For me what better way for me to start the blog this year than conforming with a blogger tradition and compiling a list.
I thought I’d try a prediction of the technology areas that I will be big for Legal It in 2010, so here it is my top 5 list of legal IT technologies for 2010.
#5 Mobile Applications
The Smartphone is well and truly main stream now (thanks mainly to the iPhone, but also Windows Phone, BlackBerry’s and Android phones). And 2010 will be the year it moves from just being an email device in the hands of fee earners. It’ll be the year of an explosion of business applications on mobile devices.
#4 – Search
I think this will be a big year for search technology, in particular IDOL. This will initially be driven by the numbers of firms on Autonomy’s iManage WorkSite product moving to the latest 8.5 version with IDOL. But once it’s in I think search will start to grow as a key technology in 2010.
#3 – Office 2010/Windows 7
After 18 months of “make do” most firms will start to look at these two products together. After all I suspect almost all law firms are on Windows XP still and Office 2003, right? I also think there will be a fair few mid-sized firms who go down an alternative route and go to OpenOffice in 2010 (like Ford & Warren Solicitors in the UK. A Law Firm in Leeds with 200 desktops are using Openoffice 3.0 now).
#2 Instant Messaging
MSN Messenger comes to Legal IT! After years of being the #1 consumer product for Generations Y & Z this will be the year Instant Messaging breaks into the corporate world in a big way (including Legal IT). There will be lots of arguments against, but 2010 will be the year for IM starts becoming a standard business tool.
And Finally……
#1 Speech Recognition
I remember this being touted as the killer technology back when I started in Legal IT in the mid to late 90′s. But the technology has advanced sufficiently to warrant a return in a big way in 2010 (Nuance have been working on the technology and have acquired all those names of old, IBM ViaVoice, Dragon Dictation etc – just this week they bought SpinVox).
I think also the general shift in secretarial/fee earner ratios will mean fee earners will do more of their own document production (also I think younger lawyers are more comfortable doing this anyway). Speech recognition is perfect for addressing this, giving you a quick start on your document.
So that’s my list, one for a review at the end of the year. What do you think? A accurate list or a sure fire way to get myself on a list of infamous quotes on 31st December 2010?
It’ll take a lot to beat this quote, my favourite from a list circulated this week on twitter:
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” 1977 — Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC)
Although when you think about it now, he’s probably right. Do we really want a computer or just an internet device in our home?
Not convinced about speech recognition; I think more and more fee earners can type for themselves, and typing is so much more efficient than speech recognition that I really doubt it.
Digital dictation is a different story anyway, as there are intelligent secretaries who are increasingly being turned into layout / house style experts.
I do agree with some of the “general statements” made here like mobile apps and search, but the rest. I don’t know?
My big concern is a focus on Microsoft Technologies. Don’t get me wrong, Microsoft does some good things, but to totally disregard open source and the Mac is short sighted. For example, there is already a highly secure IM that works on a platform with a collaboration suite that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux clients. The collaboration software is Lotus Notes/Domino, and its IM product has been around forever – its called Sametime. The US government and many IP sensitive institutions like banks and the auto industry use this heavily. Then add to it all that there is a great legal (case analysis and ediscovery) software out there called MasterFile (www.masterfile.biz).
This just mentions a few – price wise this is cheaper than any MS solution, but there are others like Google Apps, OpenOffice, IBM Symphony, etc.
I think web 2.0 collaboration tools will be big, we are already seeing it. Taking wiki workspaces and adding social collaboration to the enterprise is just starting to take hold. With econonmics playing a bigger rle than ever in Law firms, Saas based solutions will be attractive to any IT budget.
Very nice list, and a fun peek into what might be blooming on the horizon. I would add social media apps and sites. You have the big boys like Facebook and Twitter, but growing microcommunities as well. I think more and more firms will be trying to get involved with the big surge in e-word-of-mouth.
So glad I got out of Legal IT after 8 years or so. The list reads like a list for everybody else from 5 years ago. IT and the trainees have there heads screwed on; it’s just the old folks, the ones with purse strings.
Kudos to Ford & Warren for going with Open Source. Legal are like sheep when it comes to software.
It’s a good list though, so I hope they get why it’s needed.
I agree with Tom that the list is kind of same old story. MS created the glut of data they should do something with FAST to help clean it up.
I also agree with Gregory in that the only way the Law Firms will be able to provide the appropriately priced legal services given the growth of data in most corporations the model will have to be Culling tools, SaaS review applications combined with outsourced legal review. Clouds are here to stay and accordingly will also drive/force improved security for repositories.
Interesting list…not a lot of client facing or engagement tech mentioned.
Some really good comments, thanks.
Few things jump out.
Richard, Bighand’s new product with 3.3 may change this.
Mike, until Apple drop their prices Mac will never infiltrate legal nor most businesses! I agree though a shift from Microsoft maybe a good thing.
Carrie, I’m not sure security is the big issue in cloud adoption in legal. I think it’s data location, your data in a different jurisdiction (more an issue in Europe).
Tom, hopefully things will change which in turn will lead to Jon’s point, that we turn to the client and see what they want!
[...] I posted on my blog what I thought were the top 5 legal technologies in 2010 at the start of the year. I stand by them [...]