Peer to Peer: ILTA's Quarterly Magazine
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/1508143
33 I L T A N E T . O R G A aS (As a service) business models have existed for decades as evidenced by the most well-known and most subscribed service used by all … Energy. On the technology side we have seen the emergence of SaaS (Software as a Service, Security as a Service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and most recently AIaaS (Artificial Intelligence as a Service). As with all "As-a- Service" models, the need for costly, complex, and lengthy implementation cost and timelines are eliminated or at least drastically reduced. Subscription-based technology is designed to reduce upfront IT spend, provide predictable pricing, enhance client flexibility, eliminate infrastructure requirements and maintenance, while providing unfettered, anywhere, anytime access to the service. When it comes to moving applications and services to a cloud ''as-a-service' model, law firms are no exception, as any negative stigma and skepticism associated with cloud computing is now behind us. One of the emerging ''as-a- service' trends in Legal that has not gotten much visibility and that we aim to expose here is PDF-as-a-Service (PDFaaS). PDF-as-a-Service is the delivery of the most popular PDF functionality via an Integrated Cloud Service versus reliance on a 'heavy,' feature (often too rich), rigidly priced, traditional desktop application. We happen to have expertise in the document binding and bundling arena, an area that almost always requires reliance on accessing and using PDF edit /manipulation functionality. Cloud delivery of the PDF functions you need, when and where you need them, already embedded in your other core (bundling or otherwise) applications provides cost effective, use case-specific, and most importantly easy to use and accessible technology. Cloud Driven Context While the statistics around law firm cloud adoption, especially with systems like document and practice management, are trending to 90+ percent within the next several years, a similar comparison on the PDF side tells a far different story. According to ILTA Technology Survey data, within the last five years, there has been no change around PDF editing. The same providers are delivering the same legacy functionality, so the gap between where documents are located (in the cloud) and where they're going to be transformed and manipulated (local desktop) is glaring and adding huge overhead and inefficient workflows to the process. PDF-as-a-Service, as we define it, best represents the current reality of what law firms need delivered where they work. Leading up to ILTACON 2022, Bundledocs asked conference attendees to take a 1-minute survey to help better understand ILTA members' PDF editing and binding practices, as well as most used features. 25% of 33 I L T A N E T . O R G "The same providers are delivering the same legacy functionality."