I was curious when I saw this question in Deloitte's research in their In-house Insights Report “Trusted navigators in complex and challenging environments” prepared in response to a September 2022 survey of New Zealand's in-house legal community, on what technology systems do you have in place to support efficient/effective legal operations?

The results don't go into detail as to what the underlying technology is that is being used in these areas -it would be great if any future surveys dig a bit deeper - but I would not be surprised to see the most common answers as "SharePoint and Teams (for document management, collaboration, contract management and knowledge management) and electronic signatures (with electronic signatures perhaps integrated back into SharePoint). It would also be interesting to know how well these solutions are, currently, meeting the team's needs - which flows into the next question. 

Regarding what new technology systems would most significantly impact supporting efficient/effective legal operations in your organisation, there appears to be an implication that a whole new system is required.

That could be the case (and I've previously done a lot of investigation in relation to leading solutions such as Agiloft, DocuSign CLM and NetDocuments to understand their particular strengths and suitability for the Australasian market), but we also frequently find that what people are actually focussed on and will use and can afford in the foreseeable future can also be delivered with the same tools (enhanced by some of the Microsoft automation tools like Power Automate and PowerApps) with a few add-ins like Cognito Forms, OnePlace Solutions, and electronic signatures and some decent initial and ongoing support. I've written separate posts about that here Legal Matter Management: Options for the use of Microsoft 365 and SharePoint and here Practical Contract Management: Unlocking the Potential of M365 and SharePoint.

The key is knowing how to first make the most of what you have (fixing the issues currently holding you back), and then plug any gaps. The good news is that teams no longer need to work it all out themselves, or rely on their internal IT team to do it for them. Having identified that many legal teams are having significant and avoidable issues with their existing Microsoft systems, we've worked on a number of projects with The SharePoint Agency to help them to design and jointly support Microsoft based solutions that really do meet the needs of legal teams, so there are now options are all ends of the spectrum.

If you'll be at ILANZ and want to know what technology options would best suit you in the key areas of electronic signatures, document management, collaboration, contract management, matter management and knowledge management, come by for a chat. Otherwise, get in touch and we can set up a video call at a time that suits.