As the owner of a Law Firm, you have probably considered outsourcing some or all aspects of your business functions.

The benefits seem obvious, with experts in the industry promoting outsourcing as a way to cutting costs and increasing your profit margins.

However, is it the right choice for your business?

If you’re considering outsourcing, you need to consider the 3 R’s…

  1. Reasons
  2. Risks
  3. Rewards

The Reasons:

  1. Improve leadership focus
    • Being a jack of all trades is not good for your business, focus on your core skills. You may not have any past experience in managing an IT Team or a Proclaim Developer.
  2. Reduce or control overheads
    • With outsourcing you remove the costs associated with employees, recruitment, training, salary, pension etc.
  3. Resource doesn’t exist in the business
    • You’re considering purchasing Proclaim or you’ve had it a while and don’t think you are making the most of it and don’t want to create a whole new team to support.
  4. Internal function out of control / difficult to manage
    • You may already have an in-house Proclaim development team, but they are lacking innovative leadership to get the most out of the investment you have made in Proclaim.
  5. Reduce Risk
    • Keeping with changes in legal IT and Technology required to run your business is expensive.
    • Professional outsourcing companies work with multiple clients and understand the risk exposure to a law firm.
  6. Gain access to exceptional team members and software.
    • Your return on outsourcing will be so much greater when you outsource to a firm that specialises in Proclaim.
    • Instead of just the knowledge of one person, you benefit from the collective experience of a team of IT consultants.

The Risks:

  1. You don’t pick the right outsourcing partner.
    • Cheapest is not always the best.
    • Due diligence is important, you should be aiming for a long-term relationship with your chosen outsource supplier.
      • References
      • Financial stability
      • Good strategic leadership
  1. Data Protection and the GDPR
    • Concerns around Data Protection and compliance with the GDPR.
    • The outsource company will mis-use or maybe even steal the data.
    • Chose an outsource provider who takes your Information Security serious, who invests heavily in training their staff to understand “InfoSec” risks.

The Rewards:

  1. High quality of staff.
    • Its their core competency, the outsource company needs staff with specific skills. You may not know what you’re looking for if your hiring someone to be full time… you may hire the wrong person for the job.
  1. Cost savings
    • Leaner and fixed overhead.
  1. Access to Innovation
    • Chose a supplier that provides innovative thinking to your legal process, and one that builds their own software when Proclaim doesn’t fit.