P2P

33 I L T A N E T . O R G M obliciti hosted part II of their "Legal in Lockdown" strategy discussion with 10 of the original 13 delegates and with an additional two firms providing representation. The session began with a recap of the previous discussion points, including the success of mass home working, lawyers embracing new technology, the challenges of having to support multiple conferencing platforms and the radical plans of reduction of real estate and the removal of desk phones and printers. For part II, the focus was on changes to current office environments, the home network and returning to the office. It began with delegates sharing their thoughts on lockdown: Where are we? Discussions began to quickly follow on from where the previous one had left off, with attendees jumping right into what IT had achieved over the past 3 months. Whilst general perception is that legal can be slow when it comes to embracing IT, the past 3 months have proved that they can adapt. Some went onto to say that their partners who work for large corporates in different industries have struggled far more with home working tools. "Legal are always touted as being 'behind the times' but the sector seems to have responded so well to the lockdown crisis!" This thought was continued by the other attendees, with one IT Director suggesting that they had achieved more in a few months than they had in the last 10 years. This then developed into a discussion about how to lock in change and the need to do this now. COVID-19 has forced firms to deliver on things that IT have been pushing for many years and delegates agreed that now is the right time to revisit the list of change projects and use this time to drive change. The Home-Business Network Home broadband is a contentious issue, even before COVID-19, many found working from a difficult task. Now, we are at a position where nearly everybody is home, nearly all the time meaning that connectivity issues have increased.

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