4 Reasons Why Cloud Services and Law Firms Belong Together

Cloud environments provide a lot of advantages no matter what industry is served. But, law firms especially benefit from specific features and services that cloud hosting can supply. These four big reasons make it clear that law firms and cloud services belong together:

1)      Email hosting

What would happen if your email host experienced an outage? How much would that affect your ability to work with clients? Beyond that, do you know for sure that your email encryption is strong enough?

The cloud eliminates both of those worries in one fell swoop: It makes email hosting reliable and secure. Attorneys and other employees will be able to access email anytime away from the office, and it is as safe and as dependable as it would be if they were sitting at their desks in the middle of the business day.

Cloud hosting also means that your firm is not storing files on any device, which is a key provision to the Health Care Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In fact, if your law firm services clients that need HIPAA compliance, a cloud environment like Legal Workspace can make that ordinarily cumbersome process easy.

Finally, you have no need to worry about losing email data. Even if a natural disaster or a theft occurs at your law firm’s physical space, your information is safe.

2)      File storage and virtual servers

All of the advantages of email hosting in the cloud apply to file storage in the cloud. Nothing is hosted on your law firm’s devices, so compliance with regulatory oversight is a snap. The storage is reliable and secure.

Cloud providers use virtual servers. That means law firm management can stop thinking about server maintenance, worrying about technology upgrades, and stressing over potential down time. When you take advantage of cloud services, you will always be using the latest and greatest technology.

It also means attorneys and employees have access to the same files, software, and other data any time and anywhere. They may be in court or mediation. They may be traveling or working odd hours. With a cloud environment like Legal Workspace, attorneys can have the exact same work experience in court that they would in their own offices, for example. It saves time, increases productivity, and makes work more convenient.

3)      Back-ups

You can’t predict the future. And, no matter how well you prepare or work to mitigate risk, it is still possible that your workspace will be struck by natural disaster or burglary. Maybe you’ve thought of that and are already doing regular data back-ups…or maybe you’ve let that fall by the wayside.

When you use a cloud environment, back-ups happen automatically. Instead of natural disaster or theft causing business interruption, you have zero downtime. Legal Workspace keeps two weeks’ worth of back-ups, and they store data in two geographically diverse locations – so even if something happens that affects one of those facilities, the other has you covered.

4)      Simplified routine office tasks

You can think of the cloud as your all-around IT solution because most cloud services ensure that your office technology is working, too. That means phones, networks, printers, and scanners stay up and running, and if something goes south, you know who to call.

Law firms that use a cloud environment can concentrate on what they do best: practicing law. When you make the decision to go with the cloud, email services, file storage, security, reliable back-ups, and a simplified office routine are all yours.

Top 4 Problems The Cloud Solves

Imagine that you could make one decision – adopt one new technology – and four serious issues for your firm are alleviated. You make this decision and suddenly your firm is winning more clients, increasing productivity, managing turnover, and controlling costs.

You don’t have to have a wild imagination to picture this outcome; it’s possible – right now – if your law firm begins using the cloud. Here’s how it works.

 

  1. Winning Clients

This one is a no-brainer. Most law firms want to win more business and employ countless complex strategies to accomplish this goal. Clients can be skittish about testing out a different firm and may have concerns about security. With law firm data breaches making headlines every day, clients naturally focus on making certain their law firms – and all of their corporate data – are safe.

Your law firm can become the go-to practice for safety and security by using a secure cloud platform such as Legal Workspace. The fastest and simplest way to bolster your security is by selecting a cloud solution that was created specifically for law firms. Legal Workspace knows how important it is for law firms to maintain privilege – and their reputations. Every Legal Workspace client’s data is placed in a military-grade cloud built exclusively for lawyers.

You can use your firm’s data security as a selling point. Legal Workspace provides security information that you can use to win deals by proving that you can meet – and usually beat – all of your prospects’ security requirements.

 

  1. Increasing Productivity

No law firm wants its attorneys twiddling their thumbs as they wait for the server to come back online. The cloud means zero downtime for attorneys.

A cloud environment also gives attorneys the ability to work from any device with internet access. It’s after hours, and they get a call? They can immediately record their time. They’re stuck in the airport across the country? They can access the data they need. They’re in court or a satellite office? They have exactly the same access they would have if they were sitting in their offices. Not only that, but the environment from which they’re working is secure.

 

  1. Managing Turnover

Gone are the days when employees would take one job and turn it into a career that lasts until their retirement. Law firms know that it can be difficult to attract and retain good talent. One perk that appeals to talent is flexibility. Your firm can provide attorneys and administrative employees with the ability to work from home (or anywhere, really) when you use a cloud environment such as Legal Workspace. No hauling files to and from different locations, no thumb drives to misplace, no insecure file sharing. When your workers have access to the Legal Workspace cloud environment, they get the same secure access to files, legal applications, and workflows at home as they would in the office.

And, no law firm is static; as your firm grows and changes, Legal Workspace makes it easy to add and remove users.

 

  1. Controlling Costs

Some budgets are variable, no matter how hard you may try to stabilize them. If you rely on servers, then your IT budget falls into that category. Servers frequently need updating and patching – and that’s not something you can assign just anybody to do. Unique skills are required to work on legal applications, too. You never really know when something might go wrong or how severe the problem will be.

Using a cloud environment eliminates IT budget variability. Law firms never again have to worry about the price of repairs or the steep cost of expert knowledge. You pay a monthly fee, and that’s it. No more outages or downtime, no worrying about disaster recovery. It’s all taken care of for you.

It’s rare to be able to solve four problems by making one simple decision. Adopting a secure cloud environment can do that. Using a cloud environment such as Legal Workspace can change the way that you approach managing your firm and allow your attorneys to have both more freedom and more security.

 

Boost Law Firm Productivity & Revenue

Law firms and technology have made some giant leaps in the last decade or so. Now, there are applications made specifically for law firms that track time, facilitate billing, generate and manage documents, and even help you manage your practice.

We know that you want to take full advantage of the efficiencies and transparency that legal applications can provide to a law firm. That’s why, at Legal Workspace, we make it a priority to host and support the most popular and most effective legal apps on our cloud environment.

 

How it works

Because Legal Workspace was created specifically for law firms and their unique challenges, we understand that firms need certain legal applications to be available anytime and anywhere in order to be able to function at full capacity.

Working with Legal Workspace provides law firms with the opportunity to migrate their existing legal applications to the cloud – or to strategize and make new decisions about what technology they want and need to make work and life easier (and more accurate).

Legal Workspace’s engineers are certified in the top legal applications, so they can provide support if and when it’s needed. They can also consult with clients to identify which apps might work best in their particular situations.

And, Legal Workspace can even license certain legal apps, which simplifies billing.

 

What apps does Legal Workspace host?

Legal Workspace hosts a wide variety of legal applications. Law practice management software includes Amicus Attorney ®, Time Matter®, Needles®, Practice Master®, Thomson Reuters ProLaw®, Juris®, and LawBase®.

Legal document management software includes Worldox® and Microsoft SharePoint®.

Time and billing software includes PCLaw®, Timeslips®, Tabs3®, and Quickbooks®.

Legal document generation automation includes Hot Docs®, ProDoc®, and Amicus Attorney®.

You can find out more about how you can customize your Legal Workspace cloud environment with a variety of legal applications and software here. 

And, what if you have your own proprietary software that you use for practice management, for example? That’s no problem. Legal Workspace can host the software law firms develop.

 

Cloud benefits

When you work with a cloud environment that hosts the legal applications you need, you are using technology to your advantage. And, you get so much more from using the cloud.

Your attorneys and staff can access the programs and data they need from any location at any time. Remote access isn’t the only benefit: You’ll save money on hardware – and its set-up and maintenance. Instead of laying down big money to get started, you’ll have one simple monthly bill.

Your data is continuously monitored and protected. Beyond that, working in the cloud means that recovery of data – if a disaster were to occur – would be that much simpler.

Working with a team like Legal Workspace’s enables you to get the most from your technology. The legal applications that it hosts can propel your law firm to new levels of efficiency and accuracy. With Legal Workspace’s engineers’ help, your law firm can take another giant leap by allowing technology to work for you – so you can concentrate on the business of law.