In my last few posts I have provided an overview of the three separate streams from the New Zealand Law and Technology Conference.
In this the final summary of the event, I will take a more in-depth look at the Technology Demonstrations & Case Studies Stream.
This year we introduced a new Technology Demonstration & Case Studies stream, to allow software and service providers the opportunity to showcase their products as well as providing case studies of how they have assisted their law firm clients.
With any provider lead session there is always a degree of apprehension by delegates (and us organisers) of the session being solely a “sales pitch”. The impressive aspect from all sessions was the use of case studies and real world examples of how they have all worked with law firms to solve their problems – examples that could really resonate with the delegates. Credit for this must go to Konica Minolta, DocsCorp, Nikec Solutions and FTI Consulting with how they pitched their respective sessions.
Leading the transition to a digital environment
Greg Quirk and Craig Walters from Konica Minolta opened the Technology Demonstration stream with a presentation on The evolution of technology in New Zealand law firms.
In the session Konica Minolta spoke with Daniel Shore of McCaw Lewis, by exploring how they have started the shift to a completely digital environment. They discussed the challenges and benefits they have found in this transition.
It was an excellent session from Konica Minolta as the key was how they let the law firm articulate the journey that they had been through. The justification and challenges expressed by Daniel resonated with many law firms, whilst they were also able to see the solution that Konica Minolta had helped them to implement.
Who are you going to call ?
Alan Iwasaki from DocsCorp presented a session on When business-critical documents go missing, who are you going to call?
The session identified examples of problems facing law firms in finding documents. The task of retrieving and converting these image based documents can be arduous, complex and expensive. Alan demonstrated how products like contentCrawler can solve some of these problems for the law firm, by having all stored documents made searchable.
Alan covered how they had worked with law firms to introduce solutions that are delivering considerable productivity improvements.
Managing information in the digital age
James Kenney and Damian Jeal from Nikec Solutions provided an insight into the Modern law firm: Managing information in the digital age. The session addressed how the sheer volumes of documents and devices from which information can be consumed, documents and workflow processes can quickly turn into a state of disarray if not managed properly.
James and Damian outlined how law firms can ensure that their files are organised, viewed and shared in the most efficient way while increasing collaboration, client engagement and knowledge sharing. To illustrate some of the solutions available to law firms, Nikec Solutions provided a demonstration of their Nikec Hub extranet & collaboration platform.
Speaking to Nikec Solutions post the event, they have received considerable traction from their Technology demonstration session and their participation at the New Zealand Law and Technology Conference generally.
A Guide to Smarter eDiscovery
Scott Gillard from FTI Consulting concluded the Technology Demonstration Stream with a session on Finding Facts Fast – A How To Guide for Smarter eDiscovery. Scott stressed the true goal for conducting e-discovery is finding the facts of the matter, whether detecting fraudulent activity, determining whether or how to dispose of a matter and planning case strategy in the event of a lawsuit.
The session illustrated how today’s ever-increasing data volumes has made a traditional ‘standard review’ far too expensive and time consuming. Scott explored better ways to tackle the problem of finding facts quickly, without relying on going through the ‘standard review’ motions of the entire e-discovery process.
Scott Gillard highlighted how the sophistication of Ringtail may be perfectly suited to the smaller to medium sized law firms in New Zealand that may not have the same resources at their disposal as some of the larger law firms. Using smarter technology like Ringtail can help these firms have an advantage over less sophisticated tools that may still be expensive and labour intensive.
The FTI Consulting session was one of the most well attended of all of the Technology Demonstration sessions. This can probably either be attributed to the interest in Ringtail as an eDiscovery solution, or the free barista coffee that FTI were providing visitors to their exhibit stand !
Read more about the New Zealand Law and Technology Conference here –
Overview of the New Zealand Law and Technology Conference
Highlights of the Legal & eDiscovery Stream
Highlights of the Legal Technology Stream