How Buyers Evaluate Legal Workflow Software

Look up “legal workflow software” and almost every result you get will be A) selling you a software or B) telling you the reason you need it is to increase billable hours. So is that the point of legal workflow software - to increase billable hours? Turns out it depends on who you ask. We’re not calling this an official case study - we didn’t run a survey and document the data - but in this blog we’re sharing what we’ve been hearing matters to law firms purchasing legal workflow software (hint: it’s not just more billable time) and how you can leverage that when making your own decisions. 

How Legal Tech Buyers Really Evaluate Legal Workflow Software 

It seems like a no-brainer to say that the reason people buy any type of software is to save time on non-money generating tasks, leaving them more time for lucrative tasks. Yet in our team’s thousands of hours on client and prospect calls with legal teams, we’ve unearthed different concerns. For many firms, the questions they want answered around new tech are: 

• How long will it take to implement? 
• How easy will it be to use? 
• And will we actually see a return on our investment? 

While ease of use and implementation may lead to more billable hours, the job to be done, according to these firms, is less about making more money, and more about not wasting the time and money they already have. 

Billable Hours and Legal Workflow Software

Let’s clarify here that we’re not saying an increase in billable hours doesn’t matter at all. Many of our clients tell us, however, that it’s not their primary concern. Industry wide, it’s nuanced. For small firms and solo practitioners, non-billable administrative work can eat up massive amounts of time - anywhere from 20 to 70 percent depending on which source you look at - which makes decreasing admin time the key selling point of legal workflow software for that audience. For mid to large firms, however, we’ve found ease of use, implementation time, and ROI to be the main concerns. 

Implementing Information Governance Software for Legal Teams 

A main component of any legal workflow is governance of the documents and data firms create and retain in the course of serving their clients. So let’s look at how to evaluate information governance software using the questions our clients have told us really matter, starting with implementation. 

Firms often have two choices when it comes to choosing information governance and other legal workflow software. One, go with the “old guard” which has been around forever but hasn’t necessarily kept pace with the technology, or two, go with a startup, which comes with the risk of the new (i.e. does it do what they say it can and can they actually deploy it?). At FiT, we’ve built a platform that doesn’t make you choose. 

The code that underpins our Information Governance software has been battle-tested for over a decade across law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies, while remaining significantly more nimble. This matters because longevity is not the only important piece to the software, it also needs to be agile. 

All software needs to adapt to the other softwares it has to work with, including when those softwares update their code. Luckily FiT’s code is highly adaptable and integrates with leading DMS and cloud systems, reducing rollout friction. It also won’t require an on-site tech to mess with on-premises hardware each time your cloud storage makes an update that affects the existing API. Instead, the updates to the code are handled before your team even notices the change, keeping integrations working long after initial implementation. 

Will anyone use it? Adoption in Legal Workflow Software 

Userpilot, a user insights software company, regularly compiles data on the adoption rate of tech. Their 2024 Benchmark report on the subject finds the average adoption rate of a software’s core features is only about 24% post deployment in an organization. Anecdotal data backs this up - and makes it clear why so many companies and firms are afraid to buy new technology. If no one wants to use it, what’s the point? 

The key to successfully implementing new legal workflow software (or any software for that matter) comes down to several factors: ease of use, need for use, and internal change management. Let’s take them in reverse order. 

Internal change management - more frequently thought of as rollout or deployment when it comes to software - is essentially how you handle the process of switching from one system to another. How much notice and education are those using the new software given before being expected to use it everyday? How are you handling questions, concerns, and re-skilling (if necessary)? 

This leads to the need for use. You might have noticed that humans are oddly change-avoidant given how much we like to complain about problems. When it comes to software, this often means employees will avoid learning a new program if they don’t have to - especially if it’s difficult to use. Or worse, they have to send in a help ticket every time they open it. 

Which leads to the primary driver in tech adoption: ease of use. When all employees, not just highly technical staff, can easily complete tasks in the system, it negates many of the complaints about the switch from one program to another, and reduces the amount of time and energy your organization needs to invest in managing the change. 

This is why Future in Tech emphasizes intuitive, low click workflows and familiar user experience that doesn’t require coding or IT intervention. When non-technical staff can execute retention policies, apply legal holds, or run audits with confidence, adoption follows naturally. And while our software can’t fix that one partner’s obsession with paper files, we can ensure that tracking the paper files within the software is as easy as tracking the digital ones, making it a no-brainer for mixed environments as much as digital-only ones. Perhaps that’s why we boast an 80% internal adoption rate post launch. 

The ROI of Legal Workflow Software   

The traditional ROI pitch of “more billable hours” doesn’t always resonate with mid and large size law firms. Instead, they’re focused on time to value and risk reduction. With those concerns in mind, Future in Tech built its information governance and matter mobility platforms with risk management and streamlined onboarding processes in mind. Which has led our clients to realize value 30 days faster than the industry average. 

And when it comes to risk management, FiT helps you enforce unified retention policies that audit-proof your firm and help it prepare for future compliance regulations. Peace of mind may not have a dollar valuation, but it’s an ROI any leader can understand. 

If your firm doesn’t resonate with the argument that the entire point of any legal workflow software is to reduce administrative tasks and increase billable hours, you’re in good company. Turns out many mid and large size firms find that argument falls flat for them, too. If what you need, however, is information governance or matter mobility software that has a short time to value window, reduces risk, and leads to internal adoption rates 4x the software industry average, Future in Tech can help. Book a demo today.