Having just read John Kirk’s thought-provoking article on “The Egg Theory – What Clients Really Want From Their Lawyers” (available for download from TechnoLawyer by clicking here) I did a bit of soul-searching to turn this around, and speculate a bit on what law firms really want from their technology providers.
Regrettably, it is often not what we want to deliver, which is usually the greatest, most innovative, most “super cool” feature that the software product in question offers. John’s quote from Peter Drucker is particularly apt here:
Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing
the right things….There is nothing so useless as doing
efficiently that which should not be done at all.
Dissecting John’s Three Common Traps for our own technology practice, I think we would all benefit – as would our clients – by practicing the following:
- Strive to identify the simplest solutions for our clients’ problems, without regard for how difficult or complex the solution is for us to design and implement. Paraphrasing Steve Jobs, Kirk correctly points out that “simple solutions to your clients’ problems require sophisticated systems and extraordinary expertise from [us].”
- Recognize “where the client is” with the problem, and start from that point.  Don’t expect the client to define the solution, and don’t accept the client’s solution unchallenged,  if one is offered.  Most likely the client doesn’t know what the solution  might be – which is why clients hire us in the first place. The most valuable skill we bring to the table is the diagnosis, not the solution.
- Miscommunication is always the fault of the technology consultant, not the client. Again paraphrasing Kirk, it is our job to both understand our clients’ needs, and to seamlessly translate the language of technology into our clients’ native dialect. When there is miscommunication, it is our responsibility to fix that.
We at Eastern Legal Systems will strive to internalize these three practice directives, and deliver the best and simplest solutions we can craft with the tools available to us. If you find that we fail in any of these directives, I encourage you to point out those failings to us so that we can continually improve our levels of service.
Please feel free to offer any feedback in the comment area below, email us at [email protected], or give us a call at 800-ELS-0555.
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.