ILTACON is an annual multi-day conference with comprehensive peer-driven programs, educational content, and face-to-face networking. Industry experts and the legal community collaborate to discover and evolve successful legal operation strategies for today’s transforming legal industry.
Held at the Gaylord National in National Harbor, Maryland attendees included technology companies, legal professionals, law firms and corporate and government law departments of all sizes, and academia.
Kicked off by keynote and futurist Patrick Schwerdtfeger of Trend Mastery, the week was a blend of timely insights, presentations, and discussions around legal technology advancements, the cloud, big data, and business partner news, with many of the session rooms being standing-room only.
From our perspective, we know that technology alone cannot solve the challenges of our clients; empowering an organization’s human capital is far more critical.
The outlook and the overall mood? Incredibly promising and very excited!
Where Do We Go From Here?
From the many conversations we had with visitors to our booth and perhaps a couple of reasons why roughly 3000 people attended ILTACON, we learned that the importance of reducing the frustrations among tech users (think slow adoption) and the fragmentation of the tech used were paramount for them.
While legal tech’s embrace has come from remote work prompted by the pandemic, the reliance on tools designed to improve and enhance productivity and the adoption of the cloud will continue, and quickly. The use of technology in the legal sector is no longer considered an experiment; user adoption and confidence are quickly increasing.
Sure, the legal profession can regularly get an unfair assessment for its snail-pace level of change. But the sound and stable growth in innovative tools are showing that the industry is championing advancements and ushering in a new age.
With conferences like ILTACON, using technology to gain legal operational maturity will establish a positive impact across the entire organization.
We also learned:
- Businesses want to move to the cloud and migrate legacy on-premise solutions online.
- Users want to streamline collaboration and find information more quickly.
- Reducing errors and simplifying compliance continue to be top-of-mind.
- The need to prioritize document security and client data safeguarding is a priority.
- Knowledge workers want to be empowered by software that works.
Perhaps nothing new, but when an organization considers adopting new technology, implementing and getting value from it demands time and effort. And the confidence to do so and to adapt sooner rather than later was on full display by everyone we spoke to.
What Are Some of the Solutions We Presented?
Having the right legal technology stack and distancing themselves from the traditional mindset, the numerous legal professionals we met are already familiar with technological platforms. But they are often at odds with where to go with their current tools or how to integrate new ones.
Unlike many technology vendors, we know a solution might not work perfectly without delay and with little implementation required. Each client’s environment is unique and the tools they need require the know-how and experience for aligning them to the performance of an organization’s users and its business goals.
When looking for a software solution, here are some of the ones we presented:
Link2DMS Intercept is a powerful and easy-to-use software tool that enables you to save and open documents created with non-native integrated applications directly within iManage Work, making some of the most popular non-integrated applications into integrated applications. Use to integrate web browsers and web-based applications on the browser level or only on designated pages.
Link2DMS eliminates the frustration of working with applications that don’t natively integrate with iManage Work, and enables firms to increase adoption and compliance by allowing nearly all content to be stored in the DMS. Upload and download any document stored in iManage Work to/from a webpage without needing to sync the content first. Implement uniformly to all or selected users without the need to provide training since it provides the same integration as when working in an integrated application such as Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.
A powerful solution built on the RBRO Solutions’ Nucleus platform and designed to enhance the iManage Work10 ecosystem, Assistant provides effective delegation of key capabilities to IT support teams of varying responsibilities. The solution includes the ability to quickly locate relevant content and execute targeted operations against individual items, client/matter groups, or entire libraries across geographic boundaries based on provided search criteria.
Simplify the generation, management, and governance of iManage Work workspaces and their associated templates. RBRO’s Workspace Management allows for total administrative control of iManage Work workspace structures through an intuitive visual interface and ensures that workspaces maintain the same structure as their associated templates.
Syngrafii iManage Link is a seamless, cloud-based integration of Syngrafii’s iinked Sign™, Video Signing Room™ (VSR™) and iinked Seal™ (remote online notarization) product suite into the iManage platform. With Syngrafii’s iinked Sign™ and Video Signing Room™ integrated video signing capabilities embedded as an iManage Universal App within the iManage experience, users can easily create, view, and monitor the status of documents in signing packages. By having everything in one place, continuous workflows are enabled without the need for context switching.
Accepting Change is a Top-Down Process.
We are creatures of habit. So, it’s no surprise that we tend to gravitate toward using existing tools and processes, no matter how mundane or archaic they may seem. But change shouldn’t be viewed as a negative or a disruption that will create more work. In fact, the opposite is true. Technology advancements and user adoption is creating greater efficiency, increased productivity, and cost savings.
In our experience, successful professional services organizations including legal endorse the use of new tools to improve working conditions (this also means retaining talent). Business leaders often and strongly encourage users to find ways to enhance and empower and to accept a transition to new tools if there are potential benefits.
This is when the C-suite becomes integral to change. An organization’s leaders are the catalyst to evolution. If there are day-to-day benefits that can be demonstrated by the adoption of new tools, buy-in from the top is much easier and adoption will be smoother. People will be more confident using the solution and garner more positive results.
ILTACON was a great opportunity for us to engage with business leaders who are eager to improve their organizations at every level. And by sharing our experience and knowledge and the many iManage-compatible solutions we offer, these leaders are better able to engage their people and ready to set realistic business goals.
Final Thoughts.
ILTACON 2022 was a great opportunity to learn, investigate new solutions, and engage with new and old friends. Digesting the entire experience doesn’t end when the conference is over; it continues long afterward, and that means taking what has been learned and investing the time to find ways to improve an organization’s workplace, tools, and people. ILTACON 2022 definitely delivered.
If you’re interested in continuing the conversation, we can start with a few simple questions:
Is change part of your organization’s conversation for continuous improvement?
Are the potential benefits of new technologies understood?
Isn’t it time you make technology integral to your business goals?