Digital Transformation for Law Firms

In the latest BCN podcast, Wayne Hardaker, an Azure sales specialist, explores opportunities for digital transformation for law firms through cloud adoption and AI integration. He highlights the shift from traditional on-premise systems to cloud solutions for better efficiency, security, and innovation.

Wayne explains how AI, particularly Microsoft’s Copilot, enhances productivity by automating routine tasks, allowing legal professionals to focus on higher-value activities. He also emphasises the importance of robust governance and security measures in cloud adoption and ongoing optimisation for firms that have already migrated. BCN, in partnership with Microsoft, supports law firms throughout this transformative journey of digital transformation for law firms.

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Transcript

Peter: 0:04

Hello and welcome to the BCN Podcast. My name is Peter Phillips, and today I have the pleasure of speaking to Wayne Hardeker, one of our Azure specialists here at BCN. Today we're going to explore in more detail the digital transformation we're seeing in the legal industry. Wayne, thanks so much for joining us. Why don't you start by giving our guests a little introduction in terms of who you are and your experience in the industry?

Wayne: 0:33

Thank you, Beta. Yeah, thank you for the introduction. Wayne Hardacre. I'm at BCN as an Azure sales specialist. As my title suggests, my focus is purely on Azure and helping businesses adopt Azure as well as get the most out of the Azure environment, should they already be in there. Been in the technology industry roughly about 20 years or so with a big focus on Azure over the last eight or nine years.

Peter: 0:56

Thanks so much for joining us on today's conversation. As the title has mentioned, we want to discuss the digital transformation in the legal sector. And you know, most businesses have made that move from traditional on-premise environments to cloud. However, not all have. And really, we want to look at what the benefits are to moving to the cloud. Obviously, a hot topic for everyone in the modern world as we see it is AI. And as we all know, in order to really leverage the capabilities of AI, you need to be on a platform that can support it. And traditional on-premise infrastructure just does not. So making that move to the cloud is definitely the first step. Wayne, drawing on your experience, obviously, as you're one of the biggest public cloud players in that space, what have you seen over recent years businesses need to consider when looking to transition?

Wayne: 2:02

Yeah, thanks, Peter. I think you touched on a very valid point there. A lot of clients have made the transition, yet a lot of law firms are still on-prem, for lack of a better term, for whatever reason it might be. It might be hardware that they are still sweating out and getting to the end of. It might be a sort of fear, for lack of a better term, of moving to the cloud, sort of the unknown, the unexpected. What we're trying to do at uh BCN, for example, and what I've seen is clients, especially if they're still on-prem, probably need a bit of a guidance rather than assistance to move to the cloud. What they can expect, what is the reason for moving to cloud, the potential ROI, the benefits they can achieve from it? The cloud has evolved so much over the last number of years. We're seeing a lot of law firms take the leap into the cloud. And these are law firms of all sizes, from your very small sort of five to ten man business all the way up to uh multinational top law firms in the industry. I think they're starting to see the value that Microsoft Azure offers. Uh, you touched on AI. AI obviously is a hot topic at the moment, not only in the legal industry, but obviously around the globe. But they're starting to really see tangible benefits of AI within their legal industry. The legal industry is interesting. I think it's probably one of the industries that is adopting AI faster than a few others. I think if you think of the legal industry or any industry, time is money, as the saying goes. But in the legal industry, it time does really equate to money. Obviously, charging per hour or per minute or however it might be. Imagine now that you can use technology to really cut down that time that you use to make use of document review or whatever services that you offer.

Peter: 3:44

Yeah, absolutely. And and I think that's where businesses are now seeing value in technology and IT is looking at ways in delivering essentially their services and their products quicker and more efficiently. Now, touching on that digital transformation journey and really getting to that stage where you are at that maturity level where you can look at AI, there is obviously the foundational blocks that one needs to get in place, which is making sure that you are on a platform that is capable of facilitating and running AI. And therefore, you need to look at moving your data into applications such as SharePoint or into data services within Azure. So, too, you need to make sure that you've got the governance and security in place to protect that data and put guardrails in place for when you do decide to embark on that AI journey. Now, Microsoft and BCN are working quite closely in partnership with one another to help guide, as you mentioned, which is a great terminology for it, businesses on this journey because there are a lot of options, there are multiple approaches, and let's be honest, businesses can't afford to get it wrong, right? Because this is the backbone of their businesses, and if they get it wrong, it can have catastrophic circumstances. Talk to us a bit about your engagement with Microsoft and the approach that we're taking with businesses who are looking at embarking on this move to Azure and what that looks like.

Wayne: 5:29

Yeah, sure. So the first step is obviously deciding to make a move to the cloud. That decision is generally made by the IT department who might not necessarily have the power to actually assign the document to say, yes, we're moving to Azure. So it really starts at the beginning of understanding what the drivers are for wanting to move to the cloud. And this is where BCN and Microsoft work so closely with our clients is helping them build a business case for moving to the cloud. Now, before that even takes place, that normally includes an assessment of the current infrastructure, the current estate, what that looks like, an assessment that will provide a report that looks at what the move to the cloud might uh will entail from a financial, from a time aspect, uh, what the costs of running in the cloud might be, or not might be, actually will be, and really what that migration event will look like. Uh, some obviously are a lot simpler than others. There are others which uh clients might have multiple applications on hundreds or even thousands of servers that need to be moved over. And it really takes, and this is where a partner like BCN can really shows their value. With our experience within not only the legal industry, but migrations in various sectors, it's really understanding the client's drivers for moving to the cloud, helping them look, is the cloud the right move for them, build that business case for whether it be the CEO, CIO, CTO, the CFO for the business, to really show that yes, the cloud is the right move. From then, it's really about building a plan alongside our clients. We're quite fortunate that as a top-tier partner of Microsoft, we will generally work closely with our Microsoft counterparts on the client. Microsoft normally allocates a team of specialists as well as an account exec to a specific client. And then we can touch on things like uh funding, so potential funding available for clients to move to the cloud. As mentioned, as a top-tier partner, we've got access to a number of funding parts that's available from Microsoft just to help ease the burden of that cost of the migration itself, which BCM can assist with.

Peter: 7:32

Fantastic. Yeah, it can be a costly exercise, but it's so good to see that Microsoft is putting their hands in their own pockets and working with businesses really to take advantage of this new technology and platform to help drive that digital innovation that their industries and businesses need. Now, obviously, security is always a concern because a lot of traditional businesses see the fact that, well, if it's no longer within my office or within my direct control, there is a potential challenge around data sovereignty and governance and compliance. But talk to me a bit about Microsoft's approach to that. Because am I right in saying obviously these days you can spin up your Azure instances in geographical locations of your choosing? So you can actually pinpoint exactly where your data will reside, and then you can obviously layer security controls and protection on your data and your applications to maintain a degree of security that is in accordance with industry requirements. What's your experience been on that front?

Wayne: 8:45

Yeah, absolutely. So Microsoft worked hard around the world to make sure that they are compliant with various policies that countries or areas, geographical areas might need to adhere to. So GDPR, for example, in Europe, obviously a big one. So Microsoft makes sure that they comply with all GDPR policies. ISO sort of uh regulations which are adhered to as well. I think you touched on the important point there is obviously where the data resides. Fortunately, Microsoft have data centers around the world, various regions, but in the UK, we've got a we've got a couple of data centers, namely UK South and UK West, which people used for redundancy purposes. But should you need to spread out to Europe, there's a number of data centers throughout Europe where you can host your data. From a security perspective, absolutely. There are a number of features and functionalities in place uh set by Microsoft that you can make use of. I think we've touched on security in a in a previous podcast with uh one of our colleagues, Emma. But yes, look, as far as security features and functionality, they're second to none. I think what is important is understanding the features and functionalities that are available, understanding the business, the business requirements, whether it be actual business security requirements, industry security requirements, or even country security requirements, BCM can sit down and obviously work with you and make sure those are all adhere to something as simple these days as multifactor authentication, making sure that uh all your security components are in place, not only for the business, for the employees of the business, but obviously in Beagle, sharing access to data from external parties or businesses or clients, making sure that security policies are dear to there. Fantastic.

Peter: 10:29

Yeah, so just getting back into the geographical spread of Microsoft. So law firms um can essentially have their Azure tenants or instances, shall we say, in multiple geographic locations, if there are global entities, thereby complying with those clients in those regions' regulatory needs and partnering with us as a specialist in the legal sector, we can help them ensure that from a compliance, governance, and security perspective, that data and services running in those respective regions are locked down, protected, and from what we've seen, more secure than what the more traditional on-prem networks were. Because one of the added benefits of working closely with Microsoft and moving to their platform is that with your subscription, you're entitled to the latest uh security innovations, products and services, ensuring that your estate and your data, as well as your clients and employees, are always protected with the latest security measures that's available to organizations, which is a great place to be. Added to that, we can wrap our support services around those environments to make sure we maintain an evergreen configuration and setup and making sure that the businesses are always on and protected, which is so important. Now, I guess, Wayne, if we're talking to legal firms out there today who are either considering making the move to the cloud or are already in the cloud, what would you say to let's say start with the ones who are thinking about it but haven't made it? What would be your recommendation to them?

Wayne: 12:21

Uh yeah, so one of the benefits about BCN is regardless of where you are on your cloud journey, whether you're still sort of working with the idea or potentially moving to the cloud, or whether you're an old hand and have been in a zero for five years, something that BCN can really assist with, regardless of where they're on your journey. To start with the people that are thinking you're moving to the cloud, I think to start with, have a chat with one of our specialists at BCN. Uh, really sit down, help them understand what the business drivers are potentially for moving to the cloud, what business outcomes, ideally what you as the technology department would like to see in the business or what the business should look like in a couple of years' time, and let's work on a plan to help you get there. As mentioned, there's a number of assessments that uh can take place, many of which are potentially funded by Microsoft themselves, too, just to help you give you a visualization of what that move to the cloud will actually look like, both from a practical standpoint, i.e., how long will it take me to move there, and a financial perspective, what are the costs associated with a move to the cloud?

Peter: 13:23

Fantastic. And I know when we've spoken, there's also obviously phenomenal work that you're doing with existing legal firms that have embraced Microsoft Azure in terms of optimization, because again, things change so rapidly, and internal IT departments find it sometimes challenging to stay on top of it. What are you guys doing in the Azure team around optimization and working with clients to really leverage that investment?

Wayne: 13:54

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, technology is evolving so quickly, as you very well know, especially with the introduction of AI. We find some of our clients have been in Azure, but their environment's been relatively stagnant for the last number of years. Well, it might be because they just don't have the capabilities or capacity to enhance the environment. Maybe they don't have the skills. Bear in mind, these are these are IT departments that are focused on their business. They're not necessarily the Azure specialists, which is why I really recommend partnering up with a Microsoft certified partner like ourselves, like BCN, and helping looking at your data, uh, your infrastructure, your applications. Are all of them uh living as as best as they can within those year environments? Is there modernization? So there's a term modernization in the industry that uh is used for data and applications and infrastructure. Typically, we've come from an IS sort of environment on virtualization. Obviously, the next step up from there is PaaS or Platform as a service, and then one step up seen from there is a SaaS offering. Now, you'll find over the last sort of number of years, this has evolved a lot within the Azure ecosystem, that there's many services that Microsoft offer that can actually replace your traditional IS services. Uh a SQL is a great example of that. Microsoft offering a SQL pair service. Now, what that means for you as the IT department or your IT team is that means that you have less underlying infrastructure to manage. Now, I'm not talking about the hardware, I'm talking about the specific the VM. So the resources, your storage, your RAM, your VCPU. Now you hand all that management over to Microsoft and you focus just on the actual SQL application. Once they buy from that, obviously being a SaaS offering. We've seen that a lot in the legal industry. Document management systems, for example, a lot of the third-party vendors that are well known within the industry and used by a lot of the law firms now have a SaaS offering for their traditional on-prem offering. A lot of times it's actually a bit more cost-effective. But from a management perspective, again, you're only making use of and managing the application. You're not actually managing the environment that's looking after the application, which gives you more time, yourself and your team more time to really innovate and focus on what's important within the business.

Peter: 16:11

Yeah, hit the nail on the head there, giving time back to the internal IT teams to focus on the more strategic elements of their job rather than the more mundane admin-related tasks. Because let's be honest, the industry is growing, it's so broad, so vast, so to have the required capability as well as capacity, which you touched on, it's really tough for a small team of you know half a dozen people. So, no, that's really interesting, Wayne. And it's great to see again that with Microsoft working alongside us, we can help law firms on that sort of digital transformation journey. We can give them a starting point, we can show them where they need to be and take them back to where they are now and really map out that journey in detail and give them the business case to move the business forward with the times. Because, as we all know, the technology, whether you're in the legal sector, finance, it's all rapidly changing, and you need to have a sense of direction in terms of where you're going. You need to have a sense of what your competitors are doing. Because if you're not getting on board with this, your competitors are. Wayne, I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to join us. And just a reminder again to our audience: uh please don't forget to like and subscribe to our podcast. We have another installment coming up, also focused on the legal sector, discussing how AI is making its emergence in that industry and how it's revolutionizing the businesses in that space. I'll be talking to Andy James, our head of productivity, on the next episode. So make sure you tune in for that. And don't forget, go and visit our website bcn.co.uk. There you'll find a wealth of information and content that we are continuously generating to help educate and guide the businesses we work with on this interesting journey that we're all on. Look forward to chatting to you again soon. Cheers.

Wayne: 18:20

Thank you.