The Nice and Naughty List: How to Pick New Software

Selecting new law firm software can be a daunting prospect.  There are so many options, that attorneys are often waylaid by a paralysis of analysis, and then don’t end up making any positive changes at all.  This is why a lot of law firms end up relying on old and obsolete technologies, rather than updating to modern tools.  Once again, inertia becomes the single worst enemy of law firms. 



But, when lawyers do end up selecting specific softwares, they often do so in a hasty manner, just to ensure the painful process ends quickly.  In that case, the selected software is often not a good fit for the law firm, so that attorneys and staff end up wasting time building inefficient workarounds, that dress up the problem, and make the software just a little more palatable for the law firm’s use case. 

 

Neither option is particularly compelling. 

 

And, the truth of the matter is that the process of selecting the right software for a law firm is not an easy one, and it takes more effort than most attorneys have traditionally been willing to put in. 

 

But, there’s a simple tactic you can use, to make better software choices, and to make sure that your software’s not using you.  The strategy is as follows: Make two lists.  One list is the ‘nice list’ = software features that you really want in a particular category, e.g. – law practice management software.  The other list is the ‘naughty list’ = things you hate about your current software application.  So, when you’re looking for a new tool, see if it offers the required features (from the nice list), and find out whether it fixes the things you hate about your old software (from the naughty list).  That way (and, even if you do nothing else), you’ll stand a much better chance of picking software that will actually fit your law firm, versus software that’s gonna act like a square peg, that you’ll need to ram into a round hole. 

 

. . .

Need an assist in choosing software tools that fit your law firm, we can help! 

Through a unique partnership between the bar association and Jared Correia's Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, National Creditors' Bar Association members now have access to experienced law practice management consultants at a special discount rate. To get started, visit Red Cave's NCBA landing page, and start running your law practice like a business.

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