Law firms findIT outsourcing invaluableKeeping IT needs in-house can lead to a number of unfortunate situations

It’s a well-known axiom of business that nobody is an expert at everything, a principle that applies not just to individual employees but also to entire firms. Why then, do businesses whose core competencies have nothing to do with information technology so often opt to run and manage their own IT departments?  This unfortunate tendency to try to take care of IT needs in-house can lead to a number of unfortunate situations that draw management’s attention away from the bottom line.

It is far better for law firms both large and small to instead rely on IT outsourcing so that a company with experience providing IT support for Law Firms can keep their systems up and running. This eliminates the need for the managing partner to spend his time trying to hire – and possibly fire – the personnel making up an in-house department. Law firm managers rarely have tech expertise, so it makes no sense for these individuals to assume such a responsibility. A far more viable option is for a law firm to hire a managed service provider that can provide cost-effective remotely administered IT services that will maximize data security and minimize downtime.

IT support firms also often provide additional services that can be invaluable for law firms.  Foremost among these may be a CMS, or content management system, for the law firm’s website. In order to recruit new clients and keep existing ones apprised of relevant issues in the voluminous field of law, legal services firms frequently post a great many articles online designed to help educate their public about the firm’s specialty areas of law.  Unfortunately, hundreds or even thousands of articles can quickly make for a highly unwieldy website; one that is difficult for clients and potential clients to navigate.

A CMS can take care of this, removing the need for the hand-coding of web pages in favor of a unified system that produces the needed code automatically when new articles or information are entered into the system.

Learn more about the author Bob Martin