With over 20 years of experience in the legal sector, including a law firm and as the Scripting Specialist for Solicitors Own Software Limited (SOS), Jules will be supporting our clients to get the most out of inCase and their case management system.
She brings a wealth of knowledge to her new role with us, understanding the unique challenges of a law firm as well as the intricacies of integrating with a case management system.
We spent some time catching up with her to find out a little bit more…
Why did you decide to join inCase?
I had decided at the beginning of the year that I needed a new challenge, my role had changed from what it had been, and I wasn’t involved as much with the clients, which was a big part of why I enjoyed my job. However, I was in no rush to leave and wanted to wait for the right opportunity to come up. It was just in passing that I heard about the vacant role in the integration team at inCase. After finding out a little more about the role, it seemed to be everything I was looking for! I did some homework on inCase, and speaking to mutual clients, asking what inCase was like as a business, what their processes were and what they were like to work with, I realised it was exactly what I wanted, especially the client interaction. It seemed a very natural next step to take, away from case management systems towards the next type of technology in apps.
I also love the inCase onboarding process. The fact that the customer success team is with the client from day 1 for 8 weeks, making sure that the integration is running smoothly and staying on track makes such a difference. I can’t wait to be part of that and add my experience, knowledge and expertise to the process. I am especially good at talking to clients, understanding the language they use and being able to translate that into something developers will understand.
Joining inCase also allows me to be close to the product, have an impact on shaping and progressing it, and come up with solutions that work for clients. That really excites me.
What is the biggest challenge when integrating new technology into a law firm?
The biggest challenge when trying to integrate a law firm is the limitations of their existing technology and getting the right people in the room to make the integration happen.
The people that have been through the sales process, who’ve already bought into this new technology, aren’t always the right people to work through the integration and embed it into the business.
It’s about getting the right people in the room, those key people who know all the processes and procedures, understand what the whole firm is up to, who appreciate the nuances of the firm, and, most importantly, have the time to dedicate to the integration project, it requires a lot of investment to setup and fully test an integration. Which is always tricky as no one is sitting in a law firm twiddling their thumbs with spare time on their hands.
Integration is traditionally thought to be a system-based issue, but in my experience, it’s far more people based. With enough resources, you can work around any system limitation, and with the right people on the project, you’ll find a solution that works for everybody.
What barriers are firms facing that hinder them from adopting new technology?
The lack of support for innovation within a firm. If that support isn’t there, you won’t even get it through the door.
If a law firm is very comfortable with their practices and process and they feel they are working for them, then they will see no reason to change. You’re then facing the mentality of “We’ve got new business coming in. Cash flow is good. We haven’t got a big turnover of staff. We’re doing okay thanks, why do we need to change anything?” They do not see the need for innovation even though it could improve their productivity, profitability and drive down costs.
And I think people often wait for something to be industry proven and widely adopted. Think about Zoom. Before the pandemic, we didn’t see many people in the legal sector using Zoom. Everything was face to face and even paper based. Lawyers and Clients were not using Zoom, or even aware of it. Even though it would have drastically made things quicker and easier for them. Now it is as much as an option as sending a text.
How do you see technology changing the industry in the coming years?
For me, there are two ways I see technology changing in the coming years within the industry.
Firstly, what the last 2 years have taught law firms is that they can have confidence in their staff in a virtual environment and working from home. The pandemic has changed a lot of mindsets that we can do things in different ways, particularly the virtual meeting. There seems to be an industry-wide acceptance of this now as a standard practice for both communications and training, my hope is that this also transitions fully into other areas of the legal system. We know how overburdened the courts currently are, even before Covid they were never speedy and so I hope we will see more advancements and acceptance in the use of virtual platforms here.
Secondly, file sharing encompasses a million different things, whether that is client communication, sharing case related documents, getting signatures on a contract virtually or submitting AP1s. Email is not secure enough to be sufficient for sharing data/files and there must be a more robust way of sharing between parties. So, I think we’re going to see advances in how documents are moved around, shared, and encrypted.
We look forward to working with Jules and seeing the positive impact she will have at inCase for us, our clients, and their customers. If you would like to find out more about our integration expertise or further information about inCase, please visit our website at in-case.co.uk