Legacy software — i.e outdated technology that is still crucial for day-to-day operations — are quite common even now in corporate legal departments. Like many legal ops professionals, you probably assume that your current systems and software is working just fine, so there’s no need to fix what isn’t broken. But, in reality, those antiquated systems are holding your department back. In spite of the fact that most legal departments know that their systems and technology is outdated / even obsolete, many legal departments will argue that they simply don’t have the budget to upgrade their technology. But the truth is, outdated setups cost more to maintain. Old-school setups also open your department up to more security risks. Are your current systems really worth the possibility of a data breach that could lead to expensive lawsuits down the line?
Maintaining legacy software is more expensive
Obviously, dedicating the majority of your budget to maintenance is not ideal, but then the negative effects of obsolete software also compound over time. Avoiding digital transformation for cost-savings makes you less competitive in your industry. If you’re allocating say, more than half of your allocated budget to maintenance, you won’t have much left for innovation. Again, outside firms don’t want to work with clunky, outdated systems. As your tech becomes more and more frustrating to work with, you can also miss out on valuable partnerships and consequently lose revenue.
Employees get frustrated with outdated tech
Worldwide, 75% of legal department employees think that their workplace technology is unnecessarily complicated. What’s worse — more than one-third of those employees feel that legacy technology makes their job harder. Workplace technology used to be cutting edge, but now, consumer tech is more intuitive. Wouldn’t you love to preview documents like you can preview shows on Netflix? Your staff sure would. In fact, 48% of employees wish their office technology worked like their personal technology.
Legacy systems limit access to (in)valuable data
Legal departments often need to explain and justify their spends to finance and accounting. If all your data is spread out across multiple systems or buried in complex spreadsheets, you’ll have a really hard time making your case. Workers working on old systems spend almost 20% of their workweek searching for and gathering data. Chances are, your legacy system forces your team to move between multiple applications to round up information — wasting even more time in the process.
Obsolete systems force you to waste time on low value work
Antiquated systems often lead to highly-paid legal employees getting bogged down with mundane administrative tasks. Legacy systems just don’t have many of the time-saving and smart features that allow your team to avoid basic admin work.
So, it can be safely concluded that….
It’s always recommended to stop wasting time and money on legacy systems in your legal department. Investing in upgraded legal enterprise software like Beveron’s Smart Legal Counsel, for instance, can help you become more competitive, keep your employees more engaged, and give you better visibility into and control of your budget.
