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39 I L T A N E T . O R G F or obvious reasons, everyone's budget process is different this fall and belts are tight. It may seem overwhelming to commit to a 2021 budget with so much still uncertain. The best advice at this point is to be agile in your approach. Ask questions, lots of questions, pointed questions, and ask them before you start filling in budget spreadsheets. 49% of law firms say they have become significantly more agile in their decision making since March 2020 and another 34% say they are slightly more agile. You can take advantage of that agility to better support your law firm's business for 2021. The alternative is to lag behind and decisions will be made without your input, which will only make your job harder.. Much of my time over the past seven months has been spent in talking with IT Leaders in law firms, facilitating roundtable discussions, webinars and virtual conference sessions around changes and learnings from dealing with the pandemic. Many of the same topics came up in discussions of the ILTA 2020 Technology Survey Committee, of which I was privileged to be a member and at sessions during ILTA>ON. From all that, I've compiled what I believe to be the questions and discussion areas you will need in your 2021 budget preparation. Equipping Home Offices In March, you were forced to make choices and purchases for equipment to send home with your users. You made those choices in the hope it would be a temporary situation. More choices and expenditures had been required as the situation changed and longer term decisions had and have to be made. There was an immediate impact on 2020 spending along with other expense freezes and project deferrals. This may be the area with the biggest impact on your budgeting for 2021. Here are some of the approaches we're hearing about from across the globe, showing various levels of adaptability and flexibility: Lawyers and Managers had laptops already, accessing the network directly from anywhere. Now it's a case of providing extra equipment for them to use so their experience at home is the same as at the office. Legal Assistants and admin staff were sent home with their desktop computer OR older computers were re-imaged and sent home OR people were asked to use their personal computers – all accessing the network through Citrix. Now the choice is to purchase laptops for all those staff, or leave them as is, while adding additional equipment in the office for when they come in. Some are providing extra monitors and other peripherals for all, while others are saying no to all of that. Many are changing technology stipends to allow the user to choose whether to add a second monitor or other equipment at home or improve their home bandwidth. I'm impressed by firms who are being completely flexible in allowing people to choose whether to use firm-provided hardware or connect their own high-end home equipment, even Apple hardware, to their network. "The best advice at this point is to be agile in your approach."

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