Ascertus blog

Recently, Linklaters announced that, following a rigorous review process, undertaken over a couple of years, that the firm is adopting the iManage Work cloud-based document and email management system (DMS). Significantly, they are the final one of the Magic Circle law firms to have made the decision to go with the iManage solution. This now brings the total to 115 of top 200 UK law firms that are utilising iManage Work. Clearly, iManage Work has become the de facto choice for a DMS amongst the larger law firms.

The European Commission’s resolution to adopt the ‘adequacy’ decision for the UK under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), allowing the continued free flow of personal data from the European Union to the UK, has been greeted with much relief by the business community. It means that – at least for the next four years – personal data can continue to flow freely, and firms don’t need to adopt other bespoke and potentially costly measures to comply with data protection rules. Should the UK decide to exit the GDPR, then of course the European Commission will reassess its position.

In the last year, Ascertus has seen a growing emphasis on best practice document management among specialist, mid-sized Intellectual Property (IP) law firms, suggesting that 2020 may have potentially accelerated digital transformation-led approaches in these organisations.

2020 will go down in history for (among other things) as the year when cloud adoption truly came into its own. Metaphorically speaking, with a ‘flick of a switch’, longstanding cyber security, business risk and user-led concerns more or less disappeared, making cloud application adoption a necessity.

In light of Brexit, it’s good news indeed that the EU has acknowledged the UK’s adequacy for data transfers to the nation as a third country, both under the GDPR and the Law Enforcement Directive. Whilst we remain optimistic that this adequacy will be ratified within the coming weeks there are two further hurdles to jump – a non-binding EDPB (European Data Protection Board) advisory and all Member States to agree with the EU’s decision.

In addition to smooth technical project implementation, successful projects painstakingly deliver against the pertinent elements of deep discovery including infrastructure health checks, project requirements and user needs; effective and meaningful communication on the promise of the ‘change’; user acceptance testing; and tailored, ongoing training.    

The importance of technology for business continuity has come to the fore like never before. With uncertainty reigning over the lockdown, many organisations are keenly going ahead with scheduled business-critical IT projects – all made possible by cloud technology.

COVID-19 has proven to be a real test of firms’ agility and ability to stay operational during this unprecedented lockdown. Thus far, for many firms, the focus has been on business continuity and internal re-organisation – ensuring employees have the tools they need to work from home, access to business information and such.

“We have an adoption problem”. I’ve heard these words many times over the years. What they should really be saying is “we have a critical problem – the entire project is failing!”. System adoption is not the only measure of project success, but it’s one of the most important. Retrospectively resolving a system adoption problem can be a huge challenge, and in such instances merely resorting to the original training programme is often not enough.

Effective User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is critical to ensuring that the new software and processes meet the needs, of both the business and individuals. It allows for any issues to be identified and fixed before the system goes live. Problems identified after go-live can have a serious negative impact on the business and user adoption.