Part of the Legal IT crowd

31 July 2014

Brian Inkster was in London recently, at the offices of the Law Society of England & Wales, to take part in a round table discussion on the use of IT by law firms. It was mostly very large law firms that were represented at the table so Brian brought a perspective from a smaller more boutique practice. Joanna Goodman has reported the discussion for the Law Society Gazette: the IT crowd.

In the report Joanna mentions what Brian had to say:-

Brian Inkster, founding partner of Inksters Solicitors, comments that strategy is not confined to growth and financials: ‘It is also about innovation. People want a cheaper, more efficient service, but they also want something different. What are you offering that’s different from your competitors and how does the way you use IT act as a differentiator?’

...

'Inksters uses cloud-based systems to deliver services to clients in remote locations,’ explains founding partner Brian Inkster. ‘Our solicitors operate in remote areas, but all our back-office support is in Glasgow. Clients benefit because they get a lot more than they would get from local high-street competitors.

This is not because we asked clients what they wanted, but because we applied technology to the challenge of delivering legal services to remote parts of Scotland.’

...

Inkster encapsulates his approach to efficiency and client service thus: ‘Ultimately clients will see the benefit. You don’t need to give them the detail of the technology or tell them that you’ve got something special that no one else does. You need to make the technology work as efficiently as you can, and the clients will see their work being done more efficiently, and they will remain your clients.’

Cloud applications are increasingly popular among law firms. Aird used a hybrid cloud model in his previous role outside the legal sector. Although he plans to move DAC Beachcroft to a similar hybrid cloud model in order to reap the advantages of agility, cost and scalability, he is currently dealing with numerous legacy systems and servers. Inkster paints a very different picture: ‘We have no servers in our offices and no software on our computers. Everything is cloud-based and in a data centre in Gloucester.’