Are your law office software systems partly Cloudy or totally immersed in the Cloud? Or are you still completely grounded with on-premises software?

There is no question that the trend is clearly toward a “Cloudy” future for law office software. Developers of on-premises software obviously see the same trend, and are working hard to introduce some Cloud-like features into their existing on-premises products. Some 3^rd party developers of “add-on” software for on-premises products are following a similar path, introducing Cloud-based options for their products.

This approach can either be characterized as postponing the inevitable, or as harnessing “tried and true” applications, already thoroughly developed, to a more mobile form of accessibility. The characterization, of course, depends on one’s viewpoint on the Cloud, and somewhat on the investment already made in on-premises hardware and software. Maybe both viewpoints are true.

All of our core on-premise software vendors now offer some form of Cloud connectivity, or work with 3^rd party developers that provide this functionality, per the chart below:

All of these products have a long and distinguished history in the law office software marketplace, with thousands of licensed users. All of them are also facing fierce competition from “Cloud-only” applications that are rapidly becoming much more robust in their feature sets.

At Crosspointe we have a foot firmly planted on both shores. We have a large portfolio of clients using on-premises software, some of whom we have supported on that software for years. We are also growing our roster of supported Cloud products, and adding those new Cloud users to our client list much more frequently these days.

Increasingly, the biggest driver influencing a move to total immersion in the Cloud is not the software itself, but the on-premises hardware in place at the firm today. Firms facing upgrades to aging servers and workstations are looking much more closely at subscription-based Cloud solutions, either via hosting services for applications already licensed or via a move to pure Cloud-based applications. The “break even” equation for evaluating on-premises vs. Cloud-based software is complicated, and differs widely by firm size, present infrastructure, network connectivity, physical space, and a host of other factors. One size most assuredly does not fit all.

Knowledgeable and competent technology advisors (Crosspointe shamelessly counts itself among those) can help to guide clients through the thicket of choices facing the modern law firm when choosing law office software. You don’t have to go it alone.

Evaluating your options for law office management software? With a foot firmly planted in both the on-premise and the Cloud-based application software markets, we can give you an honest, unbiased opinion on the merits and the caveats of each approach, depending on your firm’s specific needs and requirements, and your present circumstances.  Give us a call at 877-357-0555 or email us at info@crosspointecg.com to see how we can help.

Jack Schaller

Jack Schaller has been active in the field of law office technology since 1989, and has worked with a variety of commercial accounting, legal billing, practice management, and document management software products during his twenty plus years in the software consulting field. During his tenure as a software consultant he has garnered many sales and service awards for his work with legal software products. Jack is a frequent presenter at legal conferences and seminars, and is a regular contributor to TechnoLawyer and other technology publications.