I've requested Smokeball's "How Technology is Changing the Legal Industry in 2023" survey, but as of this wiring, I haven't received it yet. I'm hard pressed to imagine how even a 50 person law firm is using five or less applications. Now Bob Ambrogi does use the term "unique software products" and I don't know if that is his verbiage or Smokeballs. Is Windows considered a product? Is anti-virus? According to the products most likely to be used, 53% use MS Office. Again, depending on how it is defined, Microsoft's Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneDrive) could consume all five slots by itself. (I discount Publisher, Access, SharePoint and Teams and for my purposes Outlook and Exchange would be the same). Then you have to add some form of legal research, conferencing tool, timekeeping and financial package, so you're still over five even if you never used a spreadsheet or a presentation tool in your life. I think once I have the survey, I'm going to be quibbling over the definition of "unique software products." But as of now, I'm not a believer. Read more at LawSites: Most Law Firms Use Just Five or Fewer Unique Software Products, Smokeball Study Says
Published May 19, 2023.
