April 14, 2022
By Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions
Page Reading Time: 2 minutesBy Jeffrey Solomon, Senior Director of Product Management, Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions
Corporate legal departments (CLDs) are becoming increasingly technology-driven, and yet most CLDs would probably not consider themselves full of technology experts. After all, who gets into the business of law to become the next Elon Musk?
Still, there’s no doubt technology is an essential component of a successful, well-run CLD. That’s why, according to Gartner, legal departments are expected to increase their spending on legal technology threefold by 2025. Indeed, if you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance you probably have some form of legal bill review software or another type of legal operations application a click or two away.
And while it’s great that you’re likely already using some form of technology to accomplish everyday tasks and (hopefully) make your department more efficient, there are bigger questions at hand beyond just “How can I save time on bill review?” Questions like:
- Which technology investments will help me achieve my departmental and corporate goals?
- Will AI or similar kinds of modern technologies help me reach my goals more quickly or more strategically?
- If so, which solutions are most appropriate for my department today, and which should I plan for in the future?
A technology roadmap is essential to successful legal operations
To answer these and other questions–and to make sure you end up investing in the right technologies– you need to develop a roadmap that will help you get from whatever technology maturity stage you’re in right now to where you want to be. A technology roadmap is a long-term, multi-year plan that allows you to assess your current technology resources and align existing and future investments to both your CLD’s and the company’s goals.
Creating a well-considered and solidly planned roadmap is essential if you want your lawyers to work more productively, intelligently, and efficiently. It will allow you to achieve three things:
- Plan for and invest in the technologies that will add the most value to your organization in the short term and long term
- Keep you from wasting money on “shiny objects” that will not help you achieve your business objectives or simply won’t be adopted
- Ultimately generate greater efficiencies, better business outcomes, and help your teams work smarter and faster
Building your technology roadmap
How can you generate your legal technology roadmap—one that’s unique to your business, is adaptable enough to evolve as your organization’s needs change, and sets you up for current and future success?
That’s the question at the heart of our latest whitepaper, A Practical Guide to Creating a Legal Technology Roadmap. It is a step-by-step guide to creating a technology roadmap to ensure you’re aligning your technology investments with your corporate objectives and your current reality. You’ll learn:
- How to get started
- Which questions to ask
- How to analyze your department’s legal technology maturity level
- How to prioritize technology needs for the stage you are in and the next stage in your development
- How to get buy-in from senior leadership and the day-to-day users in your core processes
- And more
Download the white paper today to learn how to build a roadmap that is aligned with your CLD’s vision for the future.