Technology is supposed to make work easier. But adding another application doesn’t automatically remove work. Sometimes it adds another place to enter information, another process to learn or another system someone has to check before they can complete a task.
The question isn’t how much technology your firm has. It’s whether that technology is actually reducing the work your team has to do.
More technology doesn’t always mean less work.
Law firms use technology for everything from intake and case management to document management, communication, billing and automation. The right tools can reduce repetitive work and improve efficiency. An article in the ABA’s Law Technology Today, for example, describes tools that automate parts of client intake, document management and billing.
But technology can also create friction when the systems around it aren’t connected. A tool might solve one part of a process while leaving the team responsible for everything that happens before and after it. That’s where the warning signs start to appear.
1. Your team enters the same information more than once.
A client’s new address arrives by email. Someone updates it in the case file, someone else updates it in billing and another person corrects it in a letter that was already drafted. Each step may seem small, but across hundreds or thousands of matters, those steps add up. If technology is supposed to reduce repetitive work, repeated data entry is worth investigating.
2. Your team has to move information between systems manually.
A system can work well on its own and still create friction when it doesn’t connect to the rest of the firm’s workflow. An email contains information that needs to be entered somewhere else. A completed task triggers a message telling someone to update another system. The technology isn’t necessarily failing, but the process around it may be.
The same Law Technology Today article highlights how technology can streamline processes such as client intake and document management, including automated intake workflows and centralized access to documents.
3. Every new tool creates another process to manage.
A new application comes with its own login, notifications, rules, training and way of doing things. That may be worthwhile when the tool solves an important problem. But if your team has to remember which system to use for each step of the same process, the technology itself can become part of the workload.
The question to ask isn’t just, “Does this tool do something useful?” It’s, “Does this tool make the overall process easier?”
4. Your team has created workarounds to make the technology work.
A personal checklist shouldn’t be the only way someone remembers what happens next, and a team shouldn’t need a separate process just to keep the official process moving. Workarounds are often signs that the technology doesn’t fully support the way the firm actually works. When they become part of everyday operations, it’s worth looking at the process as a whole.
5. Automation creates another manual step.
This may be the clearest warning sign of all. A tool completes an automated action, but someone still has to figure out what happens next. A document is generated, but someone has to move it. A task is completed, but someone has to remember to create the next one.
Automation should remove unnecessary steps, not simply move them somewhere else.
Technology should connect the work, not add another layer to it.
The goal isn’t to have fewer applications just for the sake of having fewer applications. A firm may need several specialized tools. What matters is how those tools fit into the way work actually happens.
Neostella’s workflow automation can connect steps across a process, assign responsibility, trigger actions in other systems and provide visibility into workflow status. That means the technology can support the process instead of asking your team to become the connection between every tool.
Before you add another tool, look at the work around it.
Ask whether it eliminates a step or just moves it somewhere else, and whether it makes the overall process easier or only one part of it. Because the best technology isn’t necessarily the technology with the most features. It’s the technology that helps your team get the work done with less unnecessary effort.
Make your technology work harder, not your team.
Connect the steps between your systems so your people can spend less time managing the process and more time moving the work forward.
See how Neostella connects workflows to the way your firm actually works.
