Empowering your agile workforce with cloud

Although we have worked in partnership with law firms for over 12 years, we had not truly experienced how business-critical our services were to the sector until now: secure and immediate access to data and applications from any device, anywhere, at any time, has been a game changer for our clients.

Law firms are currently reviewing their business models, cost bases and working structures. Post-Covid-19, how will firms automate collaboration, processes and communications while continuing to engage staff and deliver an excellent client service?

Cloud-enabled firms have the advantage of remote access to their desktops and business-critical software, from practice management to dictation, putting them ahead of their less agile competitors, and increasing the likelihood that they will come through this unpredictable period hitting the ground running.

Having the right infrastructure is key to enabling remote working. This is where CTS has seen our cloud-enabled clients make the transition to a remote working model effortlessly.

“Our partnership with CTS has meant that our technology perfectly aligned with our business-continuity plan, resulting in a seamless transition to remote working for nearly 200 staff members,” said CTS client, Napthens Solicitors.

As a cloud and managed IT provider, our primary role is to empower law firms with the right technology and a secure, high-performance platform that drives excellent client service. In addition, the flexibility of a subscription-based cloud model has also enabled firms to be hugely responsive to changing circumstances; something that has never been more important.

Seddons Solicitors’ migration to the cloud, in 2019, improved staff performance, cost savings and flexibility. And leveraging CTS’s Managed Cloud service allowed them to spend more time analysing how people work and finding appropriate solutions to drive efficiency and improve their processes, which has been a huge advantage to their business-continuity plan over the last few weeks.

Working from home has several proven benefits including reduced overheads, higher productivity and boosted morale – under normal circumstances. However, communication between teams and departments throughout the firm can become a challenge.

Cloud collaboration tools, such as Microsoft’s Office 365 and Teams, can eliminate the barriers created by physical distance, enabling users to communicate effectively and work on shared documents in real-time, increasing efficiency and streamlining workflows.

The sector can already take away some very real insights from this crisis; some elements of firms’ technology will have transitioned well to remote working, whereas others have caused significant issues.

As we transition to a ‘business as usual’ state in the new world post Covid-19, we expect IT departments to move their focus away from day-to-day management of their IT infrastructure and towards end-to-end digitisation of processes and operations, taking on a strategic role which adds value for the firm, and outsourcing more of the operational running to a sector-specific cloud provider.

Cloud-enabled law firms will be able to implement new technology faster, enable innovation, and attract and retain talent by providing a superior platform that enables staff to work more flexibly, productively and efficiently.

Whatever the next few months bring; the crisis will undoubtedly further drive the adoption of cloud-based services to enable remote and intelligent working.