The pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for law firms and legal departments that aren’t working together regularly in the office. Meanwhile, challenges that attorneys faced before COVID-19, like finding ways to maximize billings, have become even more complex in remote and hybrid environments.
As more lawyers expect remote work arrangements, firms are recognizing the need for legal collaboration platforms. By 2027, the market for this technology is poised to grow to more than $3.5 billion – and law firms that put off these investments risk falling behind.
Of course, not all collaboration platforms are created equal. Here are five benefits of choosing an all-in-one collaboration tool to manage your most important matters.
Benefit #1: Boost Billable Hours and Overall Productivity
Although revenue increased an average of 14% for law firms from January to June 2021, hybrid and remote work could end up affecting your profits in the long term. That’s partly because the average employee switches among 13 apps 30 times per day. Known as context switching, this constant jumping between tasks can lead to mental fatigue, increase the risk of errors and slow your team down.
An all-in-one collaboration platform empowers law firms to streamline operations to help boost productivity and revenue. With Workstorm, you can keep everything associated with a specific matter or project – messages, files, meetings, emails and more – organized in one place. The less time your employees spend digging for information in their separate inbox, messaging app or calendar, the more time they can spend on billable client work.
Benefit #2: Collaborate Smoothly Across Distributed Teams
In a remote or hybrid environment, when you may not remember everyone’s time zone or schedule, having access to both synchronous and asynchronous communication is important to keep everyone in the loop. A unified collaboration platform can act as a virtual office for your team, so you can send a message, schedule a meeting or jump on a video chat from a single command center.
With people working varied schedules at the office and at home, teammate statuses can be especially helpful. Without looking at a separate calendar, Workstorm tells you who’s actively working and who’s not available so that you can get the answers you need more efficiently.
Benefit #3: Avoid the Headache of Outgrowing Your Platform
As your firm’s or department’s productivity increases, your collaboration platform should grow with you. You shouldn’t have to worry about being capped at a certain number of collaborators, forcing you to restart the process of researching affordable and effective solutions.
With Workstorm, you can invite an unlimited number of clients and other external colleagues to collaborate with you on active cases. And no matter who you’re communicating with in Workstorm, the information you share will be private by default – making it easier to meet compliance requirements and maintain ethical walls.
Benefit #4: Attract and Retain Top Talent
It’s a workers’ hiring market – what does your current technology say to prospective employees about your firm? To recruit and retain the next generation of attorneys, it’s critical to provide the tools your employees need to do their best work.
With an all-in-one platform like Workstorm, you gain a digital headquarters that enables employees to feel connected, no matter where they’re completing daily work. Workstorm also enables workers to quickly find the information they need to do their jobs, helping to decrease the likelihood of burnout and increase overall job satisfaction.
Benefit #5: Maintain Compliance, Privacy and Security
Compliance and security have always been top of mind for legal professionals, so as your team considers a new platform, your IT department may worry that the risks outweigh the rewards. Securing their support is key to getting buy-in for an all-in-one platform, so be sure to share that Workstorm offers three flexible, secure hosting options:
- Enjoy industry security standards while maximizing efficiency, scalability and cost control with multi-tenant cloud hosting.
- Provide extra protection for your highly sensitive data while harnessing cloud benefits through private cloud hosting.
- Exercise exclusive physical control over your information while maintaining strict IT security requirements with hybrid on-premises deployment.
Workstorm also offers customizations that can further enhance security. For example, do you need messages to disappear after 24 hours? You can configure our platform to meet specific company protocols.
What Could You Accomplish With Workstorm?
Collaboration platforms come in many shapes and sizes. You need a tool that makes you more productive while keeping you secure, and that helps retain your employees while boosting billable hours.
See how quickly Workstorm’s all-in-one solution could position your law firm or legal department for success as we look toward a post-pandemic world. Request a demo today.
