The Legal Tech Dilemma: Build or Buy?
In legal, a fierce debate rages on: Should law firms create their own software, purchase pre-existing software, or customize existing software? This struggle between innovation and practicality has given birth to a new generation of legal tech companies, including Stellium and Datavative. As the battle lines are drawn, it's time to delve deeper into the heart of this dilemma and uncover the truth behind the build-or-buy conundrum.
The Age of Legal Tech: A Prelude
The legal industry has always been steeped in tradition and formality, but a technological revolution is brewing. With the rise of powerful software platforms and cutting-edge solutions, law firms are beginning to harness the potential of technology to streamline their operations, improve efficiency, and better serve their clients. As the demand for legal tech grows, so does the need for firms to make a critical decision: Should they build their own software explicitly tailored to their unique needs, simply buy an off-the-shelf solution that promises to deliver similar results, or customize existing software?
The Rise of Stellium and Datavative: A New Hope in Legal Tech
Datavative collaborates with their clients to comprehensively understand their desires, requirements, culture, and skills, thereby guiding the firm toward the optimal solution tailored to their unique circumstances. They emphasize that every law firm has distinct requirements and stress the importance of thoroughly understanding their processes and personnel before selecting a technology solution. Armed with this philosophy, Stellium and Datavative have set out to revolutionize the legal industry through innovative software engineering and technology solutions.
Stellium's CEO and founder, Anthony Johnson, boasts a profound understanding of the legal landscape and a broad comprehension of legal technology. He champions technology as a critical driver of efficiency in the industry and advocates for data transparency and accessibility. With his experience as a Partner at Datavative and a past career in SEO/Web development, he possesses solid technical skills critical for integrating technology into legal services and fueling innovation.
Datavative founders Will Denninger and Yehia Said have extensive experience in building and managing tech departments within prominent plaintiff law firms. This background has provided them with a deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by law firm owners. They possess expert knowledge of how cases progress through the legal system and excel at creating efficient, scalable operations that prioritize exceptional customer service.
Denninger and Said have played pivotal roles in designing comprehensive processes, defining employee roles, and developing the necessary technology to optimize these resources. Their leadership has spearheaded digital transformation initiatives in the largest law firms and industry-serving vendors, resulting in enhanced customer service, increased firm revenue, improved efficiency, and heightened net profitability. Datavative and Stellium are determined to show the world that the legal tech dilemma can be solved once and for all.
Your Legal Tech Options:
1. Pre-made Tech:
In recent years, several applications have emerged that represent a significant leap forward in functionality compared to what was previously available in the market. These apps leverage cloud computing, improved workflows, advanced data structures, efficient communication methods, and enhanced document management capabilities. They also offer APIs that facilitate seamless data sharing between different applications. With these advancements, law firms now have access to better reporting tools, providing greater transparency into client cases. Many of these apps are highly robust in terms of intake and case management functionalities.
Choosing an existing solution can be both cost-efficient and quick to set up. Opting for a point solution allows firms to benefit from predetermined expenses, making it a suitable option for those with limited growth plans. However, it's important to note that less customizable applications may limit automation and efficiency. Personalizing these apps beyond their out-of-the-box functions can be challenging and often relies on the vendors' support. While scheduled updates may introduce necessary features, the inability to customize means that manual processes must be created to overcome limitations.
2. A Custom-Constructed Tech Infrastructure:
For some law firms, especially the larger or more sophisticated, building their own case management system can be a good idea. These firms must analyze if they have the resources, methodologies, and skill sets necessary to develop a solution to meet their unique requirements. One way to get custom-built software is to collaborate with a legal tech firm. Another option is to recruit a specialized team of software engineers and programmers to craft it from the ground up.
The advantages of such a move may outweigh the costs, with potential benefits such as:
For more information about Stellium and Datavative click the links below.
The Dark Side of Build-It-Yourself Tech Solutions
While creating your own software may seem appealing, the expenses involved in developing custom software and maintaining a team are high. Hiring data scientists, software developers, and AI engineers can cost over $100,000 each annually. The skills needed for software development are highly sought after, and employees often change jobs. Additionally, the time and resources required for new employees to learn the company's systems can increase costs. Building custom software also requires a significant investment of time and effort, with no guarantee of meeting your needs or being better than off-the-shelf options. Maintaining the software can be challenging, requiring regular updates and bug fixes. Law firms should carefully consider existing software solutions before committing to a costly development process.
3. Process Engineering and Utilizing a Heavily Custom Off-the-shelf Solution:
Considering the factors above, it may be more practical for businesses to use existing software solutions rather than building their own. In the context of software development, process engineering involves the design, optimization, and maintenance of software development processes. Process engineers use their software engineering, project management, and quality assurance expertise to develop and improve software development processes, ensuring they are efficient and effective and can deliver high-quality software products. Good software engineering processes involve requirements gathering, software design, coding, testing, and maintenance, and process engineers may focus on any or all of these areas to improve the overall software development process. Many off-the-shelf options, like Litify, Filevine or Salesforce, can be customized to meet specific requirements, often at a fraction of the cost of building from scratch. This approach can save time while still providing the necessary functionality.
Key Takeaway
While the legal community is finally harnessing the potential of tech, it's also important to remember that legal tech solutions must always be guided by the firm's bylaws, policies, and procedures. To build a successful digital strategy, it's necessary to understand three critical components of implementing and integrating technology. First, business leaders must clearly define their goals and objectives for implementing new tech solutions. Second, they must prioritize which tech solutions are most important to their business and devise a business case for those solutions. Finally, companies can implement the fundamental technologies they need within their firm while maintaining compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. The legal tech dilemma of whether to build or buy is a critical decision that law firms must carefully consider.
