Questions a law firm should answer before the next software demo
Eight questions for partners and office managers. None of them require a new system. All of them should be answered before a three-year agreement is signed.
The demo is not the decision
Vendors are good at the hour in the conference room. The firm’s actual problem is usually older than that hour: too many places a document can live, no one sure who can export the file, and a renewal that arrives as a PDF nobody remembers approving.
Answer these before you book the next demo. If you cannot, that is the work. Not a new login.
Ask these out loud
- Where is a closed matter allowed to live, and where does it actually live?
- Who can export a client’s file this afternoon, and is that the list we would defend?
- What happens to mail, documents, and access the week someone leaves — a partner included?
- Which tools are on a contract, which are on a credit card, and which renew in the next six months?
- If our provider disappeared on a Friday, what would we be unable to open on Monday?
- What did we tell the cyber insurer last year, and is it still true?
- Which system is the one the staff actually use, as opposed to the one we announce?
- What are we about to buy because one partner had a bad week with the old tool?
What a good answer looks like
It is specific. “NetDocuments for matters, and nothing else” is a policy. “People use whatever is easiest” is a finding. You do not need a consultant to notice the difference. You may want one to make the partnership sit with it long enough to choose.
The Operating Brief for law firms is that sitting, written down.