Originally published on March 29, 2010 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.
In my last SmallLaw column, I explored (okay, ranted) about moving past the objections to software as a service (SaaS), and instead shifting the focus to functionality and suitability for daily law practice use. At ABA TECHSHOW last week in Chicago, it was impossible not to get caught up in the buzz that continues to build around cloud computing. With practice management SaaS leaders Clio and Rocket Matter both announcing feature expansions and five full quarters of business operations under their collective belts, the market felt oddly "mature." In short, I detected a paradigm shift. Let me explain.Small Firm Lawyers Receptive To SaaS but Concerns Remain
I had the pleasure of participating in the "Meet the Authors" series with Jim Calloway and Sharon Nelson, co-authors of my ABA book, How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times. We hosted a suiteful of attendees for a free-wheeling, wide-ranging discussion of legal technology topics. The subject of the viability, suitability, and practicality of SaaS dominated the lively and interactive conversation.
What struck my co-authors and me perhaps the most was the acceptance of cloud computing as an accepted, standardized, institutionalized option that merited equal consideration along with Ground Computing (okay, we really do need a phrase to describe traditional, installed applications).
The idea that the holy trinity of legal technology — case/practice information management, document management, and billing/financial management — could entail both traditional locally installed programs such as Tabs3/PracticeMaster, Amicus Attorney, PCLaw, Time Matters, etc. and SaaS products is huge.
The discussion seemed to be a reasonable microcosm of small firm life, with lawyers from across North America actively involved, and spanning the entire range of ages as well. While hardly scientific and not rising to the level of being empirically sound, it felt representative of the buying marketplace. Below I recap the two most interesting discussion points to emerge from this discussion.
1. Hey You, Get Off of My Cloud
Yes, it's the increasingly tiresome and hollow "Connection Objection" — the inevitable objection raised early in a cloud computing discussion is "what happens if I lose my Internet connection and can't access all my stuff?"
Absolutely a critical point, but as attendee and ABA TECHSHOW faculty member, Nicole Garton-Jones of Vancouver's Heritage Law so succinctly put it, "the Internet connection issue is a red herring." She explained that her office has it's own virtual server and is its own cloud computing provider, delivering apps via the Web, controlling access and leveraging a dual failover pair of Internet connections, much in the same manner as a larger corporation would.
Someone else said, "fine, go across the street to a Starbucks for a few minutes" or "take out your wireless broadband card or your MiFi and share a wireless connection until your regular connection is back up again."
The point is that this objection just rings hollow today — you can find a way to nearly always stay connected, which leads us to a different angle on the connectivity issue.
2. Keep Me Working No Matter What
The other takeaway point is that cloud computing vendors need to take the idea of offline access seriously. Multiple attendees echoed this concern. It's not "I can't get online because my Internet connection is down, but more that sometimes I'm not somewhere I can stay connected." For example, when traveling sometimes wireless broadband coverage can be iffy and slower, and even in the middle of Manhattan's concrete jungle, laptop-wireless access can be spotty.
So to the cloud computing folks, give us some real offline access! That means the ability to have a scheduled or real-time time mirror of our practice/document/billing management data to an applet of some sort that will let us actually keep working (not just an exported CSV file that no one can really use immediately in any meaningful way). Then provide some type of smart syncing to return our offline-entered data to the mother ship when we're able to reconnect. Seriously guys, it's time.
Get to Work SaaS Vendors
So in my continued examination of cloud computing for solo and small firms, the answers sort of exist — just finish the puzzle guys, deliver on offline access, educate us about the fallback connection approaches, and of course provide the features law firms need. Then, welcome to the mainstream … but truly, not until then.
Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.
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