P2P

11 I L T A N E T . O R G Trend - Returning to work in a hybrid model. As businesses plan and implement their returns to the office, there is benefits to having employees full-time in the office or full-time remote. Although hybrid models can be preferred, there are tech challenges that firm leaders may not consider - as they are the logistical details often overlooked. Terrible idea - returning to work in a hybrid model without a logistical plan. Without thought and planning with attention to detail, the tech of a return to office is going to be quite a challenge. Employers who wish to offer hybrid remote / office working need to give a lot of thought to the office and home tech setups. When returning to the office less than full-time, employees may submit requests for tech at their desks as they removed their work equipment when they headed home.. As someone who is enamored with her high-definition monitors, if I were to select a hybrid work location– I would have to decide where the good monitors are located. My productivity and well-being is fairly tethered to my docking station. IT budgets are usually pared down, but this additional hardware purchase may not be feasible both from a cost and availability standpoint. Further work to provide additional tech in the office can be rife with desk sharing scheduling and conflicts, office hoteling challenges and cost over runs. Trend - Service provider mergers and acquisition result in software / services consolidation. Legal tech has always been subject to mergers and acquisitions as companies acquire technologies they want to leverage in other areas or otherwise add to a portfolio. Terrible idea - the frustration of unsupported applications. As products are acquired, there is usually a broad sweeping notification that nothing will change in the support of existing products. After a honeymoon period, however, products can become unsupported. The potentially terrible aspect of this situation is that there is unplanned evaluation, implementation, training and supporting products – that can tax already slim IT resources. While the program features that are foisted upon us may actually gain features and better programs, the extra effort can be terrible. As we have seen, trends are not always rife with terrible ideas. Hopefully as we head into summer 2022, we can avoid seeing #TerribleTrend posts !! ILTA Cindy MacBean is Litigation Support Manager at Honigman LLP. Cindy is a highly-experienced Litigation Support professional who has recommended technology solutions to support discovery workflow to provide innovative, appropriate and cost-effective solutions in law firms, their clients and corporate legal staff. Cindy has utilized her business education and diverse experience to demonstrate excellence in solving problems, mitigating risk, providing tactical direction, overseeing operations, planning strategic initiatives, implementing solutions and supporting legal teams with the utmost commitment to customer service. In addition to her MBA in Technology Management, she maintains certifications in eDiscovery (CEDS), Information Governance (IGP) and US/Europe Privacy (CIPP/US, CIPP/E).

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