Partial Automation vs. Unified Ecosystem: Pros, Cons, and Reasonable Choice

While many lawyers are afraid of technological development of the industry, fearing for their jobs, others are optimistic and see how technology can be useful for the development of their company. In recent years, more and more law firms and private lawyers are introducing automation tools into their daily work routines. These technological tools allow the implementation of partial or complex automation of legal and operational processes. Each type has its own characteristics and can be a good choice under different conditions of doing legal business.

Let’s start with partial automation. Its essence is that it is an automated specific area of work. It is important to understand that such a technological solution is completely independent and not predisposed to integrate with other technological tools. After implementation of one tool for partial automation, the implementation of the second (for another process) can be realized, and so on. This approach to automation is typical in cases where the company’s management begins to take the first steps in this direction after examining reports on the benefits of automation and tries to figure out whether this will work for them.

The advantages of partial automation include:

• Changes in daily work are local, small, and easier for employees to adopt.
• The time of implementation in the working process is short, and the business-effect due to this will be manifested faster.
• Implementation of partial automation costs less than the implementation and maintenance of a united ecosystem.

However, there are some disadvantages:

• It is extremely difficult and expensive to integrate two or more tools, as they are completely separate software products.
• The functionality of a partial solution is pretty small and affects a limited field of activity; the remaining work actions cannot be called technological optimization.
• Only a small business-effect in the long-term prospects of the company’s development will be achieved, due to the lack of possibility for expansion and integration with other solutions that will be involved in other fields of activity.

There is another risk, which is connected with the human factor. The processes are designed, automated and implemented, but when the day of the start of the system comes, then problems begin to arise: not everything works or it does not work as it should, but not for technical reasons — it’s because the staff is not ready. Developers shrug their shoulders and point to the technical task you signed: “Do you have any complaints about the instrument itself? We were responsible for the technical part, not for your business and employees.” The absence of obligation for further support and consulting on how to use the solution most effectively and concretely for your law firm is one of the main drawbacks of partial automation.

Now let’s take a closer look at the second pole of automation: a unified ecosystem. This is software that is designed for maximum integration and interaction with different work fields, thereby ensuring synergy in automating several workflows. Automation of document creation, their secure remote storage, e-billing, etc. combine into one big ecosystem. There is data transfer from one workflow to another, which allows using all the functionality of such a system for the best performance.

If you compare the automation approaches, the partial automation resembles a good single-task robot, while the unified ecosystem is the cybernetic spine and spinal cord of the company, which connects and organizes individual technologies and manages them all in real time.

Advantages of a unified ecosystem:

• Several (sometimes dozens) automation tools are installed as a single package and cover a large number of work processes;
• Automation tools are freely integrated with each other;
• This type of automation will garner significant business-effects in the long-term. The larger the organization, the more processes you have to automate, and the better the optimization results will be.

Among other advantages, further technical and organizational support is an added asset. The services will be provided by companies that implement unified ecosystems. Company representatives teach employees how to optimize their work with the help of new automation tools. For legal businesses, it is also particularly important to create opportunities for contracts with companies that specialize in complex technologies. There are not many such legal tech companies on the market. The solution from Case.one, for now, is one of the most complete and user-friendly unified ecosystem for legal work automation.

Disadvantages of a unified ecosystem:

• Implementation of the program requires the training of workers of many divisions in order to teach them how to work with the new technology. The more workers that need to be trained, the more time this process can take because the rate of learning for people is different;
• Implementation and further consultations for maintaining the optimal operation of a unified ecosystem will cost more than the implementation of a partial solution.

When choosing an automation method for a law firm or private practice, the following should be considered:

1. Analyze requirements and expectations from automation. Understand how many areas of work the solution is supposed to cover;
2. Consider the size of the business and if there are plans for further growth and expansion of the number of departments.

By this simple analysis, it is easy to make a choice between partial and complex automation. If doubts about the self-selected strategy remain, a consultation with experts in the field of business solutions will help to make a reasonable choice and get the right tool that will increase business results.

Valentin Pivovarov, Contributor Forbes, Case.one