LITIGATION AND PRACTICE SUPPORT
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Most vendors would love for you to consolidate with
them. Cross-selling is the best work vendors can get: lowest
overhead, most profit. But what is in it for you as the law
firm? Before consolidating products/services with a vendor,
there are questions to ask yourself and the potential vendors,
and there are things you should look for during your
consolidation search.
Questions for You
Ask yourself the following questions:
Do I need "best-of-breed" for everything?
For many years, law firms have expressed the desire for "best-
of-breed" in products and services, but you need to ask yourself
whether that is true at your firm. Since the economic crisis, you
might find lawyers arguing for "best available at a reasonable
cost." What does "best" mean to you and your environment?
Maybe you can give up a few bells and whistles if security is
great. You need to know where to draw the line.
How many of my support calls are about product
integration and associated conflicts?
If you have not done an analysis on this recently, a vendor
consolidation opportunity could be the impetus you
need. What if you have add-ins stepping on each other or
applications competing for resources on the server or desktop?
Try to objectify this discussion by seeing what your helpdesk
tickets tell you.
by Joy Heath-Rush of Litéra
Vendor Consolidation:
What's in It for Me?
Vendor Consolidation: What's in It for Me?