The document provides an overview of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and its advantages for law firms compared to traditional on-premise software. SaaS applications are hosted in the cloud and accessed via the internet, eliminating the need for law firms to manage their own infrastructure. This reduces costs while improving access, availability, and ease of updates. SaaS vendors also focus on providing a superior user experience. Key benefits include lower upfront costs, less downtime for upgrades, scalability, device-independent access from anywhere, and ongoing support from vendors. Security, privacy, and costs are also addressed as factors law firms consider when evaluating SaaS.

1. Making the world a more productive place Article prepared for TLOMA

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An overview of Software-as-a-Service
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for law firms.
Since the day personal computers were first introduced to lawyers, technology
has played an increasingly important role in the legal profession. Software for
email management, case and practice management, time and billing, document
management and customer relationship management forms an integral
framework behind the successful operations of any law firm
firm.
As new waves of technology surface, the traditional software model is beginning
to be challenged. One contending model is known as Software‐as‐a‐Service, or
SaaS (pronounced ‘sass’). In the last few years, SaaS has received widespread
attention from both industry and media SaaS challenges the traditional model
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in a few key areas: high upfront licensing costs, long setup and integration
times, expensive maintenance and support agreements and less‐than‐intuitive
user interfaces. As the name implies, SaaS applications are not sold through
traditional means, but rather accessed through the Internet on a pay‐per‐use
basis. Typically,
basis Typically SaaS vendors will buy server and storage space from vendors
vendors,
such as Amazon and Google, to host the applications, eliminating the need for
law firms to buy and maintain infrastructure to support the software. Cloud
computing, under which SaaS is categorized, allows software vendors to focus
on building software by providing them access to server farms (also called the
‘cloud’) on a need basis This article provides a brief overview of SaaS in the
cloud ) basis.
legal space.

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Functionality and User Experience
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Traditional software (also known as on‐premise software) applications often
offer a comprehensive set of features that, on average, go above and beyond
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the particular business needs of a law firm. Depending on how established a
vendor is, current SaaS applications (also known as hosted solutions) offer fewer
but an essential set of features that can be delivered through a comparable, and
often times better, experience through the Internet. Since SaaS applications are
built from the ground‐up, they strive to offer an exceptional user experience
ground up,
which generally cannot be found in traditional legal software. As the technology
to deliver applications over the Internet improves, we can expect to see little
difference between desktop applications and SaaS applications.
With SaaS applications, users experience little to no downtime or interruption
when software is updated or upgraded. This is unlike the traditional software
model where new versions of the application have to be purchased from
vendors and implemented regularly, depending on both business needs and
priorities. The IT team often undertakes long and expensive implementation
schedules to upgrade the application which can interrupt the daily workflow of
application,
users within the firm. SaaS vendors help to alleviate the IT headaches associated
with usability, technical support, and integration ‐ resulting in significant cost
benefits for the firm.

4. 3/6
Access and Availability
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The inherent advantage that SaaS applications provide is their delivery model.
SaaS applications are accessed over the internet through popular browsers such
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as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safari. Operating System compatibility
for traditional software can often be a major development challenge for IT
departments, but SaaS applications are designed to work on all major operating
systems. SaaS applications can be accessed anywhere outside the law firm’s
firewall, and are generally available 24/7 throughout the year.
User accounts can be easily added on SaaS applications, and vendors usually
provide different pricing and feature tiers for partners, lawyers and paralegals.
Law firms needing an advanced security setup will find that SaaS vendors either
match or exceed the security levels provided by traditional software vendors.
SaaS vendors will also provide detailed terms and conditions to list the actions
taken for offline availability and if data centers go down. Service level
agreements (SLAs) and disaster recovery policies help guarantee application
uptime, customer service and accessibility.

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Backup, Privacy and Security
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Backup of data is an important consideration for SaaS applications and vendors
will provide detailed policies on how, where, when and how many times they
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backup data. Backup redundancy in different geographic locations is often
considered a best practice, but vendors will also address the implications of
client data being stored in different jurisdictions or even countries by adhering
to the appropriate laws.
The security, privacy and confidentiality of client data is the most important
duty of a legal practitioner, and these concerns are usually the reason why law
firms are hesitant to adopt SaaS. Different vendors will provide varying levels of
security, ranging from enhanced password security, comprehensive bank‐grade
SSL security (which is used for personal online banking and other highly
sensitive web transactions), and daily external security audits. Many perceive
that the level of security for data stored on the “cloud” is lower than data stored
within the firewalls of a law firm. This misconception is, however, inaccurate.
SaaS vendors and evangelists, in professional service industries, are
continuously educating IT decision makers on this important topic
topic.

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Cost
One of the most attractive advantages of using SaaS software is the cost savings
it offers over traditional legal software. Legal SaaS vendors charge on a user and
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monthly basis, and will usually provide different tiers of pricing and features for
lawyers and their assistants. This allows firms to pick and choose software,
removing the lock‐in that traditional software often forces law firms to. This also
frees up the burden of buying and maintaining infrastructure to support
software, along with the development time that can run into the thousands of
dollars. It allows the IT team to focus on helping the law firm innovate and grow,
instead of spending close to 80‐95% of their time ‘keeping the ship upright.’
Over time, the cost of SaaS software in subscriptions may eventually match the
initial up‐front investment that is made with traditional software, but SaaS
up front
applications are always updated with new features whereas traditional software
may require an expensive upgrade every few years to remain relevant.

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Closing Remarks
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There is a general consensus that SaaS is considered the future of enterprise
software, and large software vendors are quickly taking notice by developing
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their own SaaS solutions. They offer significant benefits to users, and law firms
should investigate this further to determine if they are appropriate for their
needs.
About the Author
Aditya Shah is the
Adit Sh h i th VP of P d t D l
f Product Development & M k ti at Ei ht T
t Marketing t EightyTwenty t
Group (www.eightytwentygroup.com), an enterprise software company offering
SaaS solutions for professional service firms. He can be reached at
ashah@eightytwentygroup.com.