Peer to Peer Magazine

40 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | SPRING 2017 FEATURES The Changing Landscape of IT Operations Practices incentives for lawyers to aend training, so firms are adopting a combination of deskside, classroom, "genius bar" and self-service training (virtual or recorded). Technology Risk Management: Technology risk management relates to compliance, cybersecurity, business continuity and disaster recovery, and overall business risk management. Law firms have experienced a disruptive focus on risk management practices over the past eight years. Firms have been forced to develop strong practices in many places where none formerly existed, and more firms are recognizing the strong link between technology risk management and the firm's overall risk management function. Firms are building a matrix structure where operational practices are jointly owned by both IT and risk management (or the office of the general counsel). IT Business Management: Business management covers shared business services within the IT function, including but not limited to procurement, fulfillment, financial reporting and vendor management. These operations practices have been owned by the IT leader, but many are recognizing that structured policies, processes and tools are required. IT Project/Program Management Office: The project/program management office is involved in the solution delivery life cycle. This includes business analysis practices required to align the firm's user community needs with IT. Corporate America has long recognized the value of having good program/project practices to ensure project success and to manage resources, costs and time lines. Law firms have toyed with these models, with few recognizing their full potential. Strong pressure from both clients and internal shareholders is creating a renewed focus on these operations practices. Law firms are experimenting with similar practices (i.e., legal 4 5 6 The following chart provides a glimpse of the responsibilities associated with each IT operations practice. Applications • Solution development and life cycle management methods and tools • Inventory of applications • Application architecture blueprint • Application packaging and deployment specifications and tools • Maintenance procedures and schedule • Change control committee, procedures and tools • Metrics Infrastructure/ Computing Operations • Technical architecture blueprint • Inventory of hardware and software • Capacity and performance management, processes and tools • Backup and maintenance procedures and schedules • Change control committee procedures and tools • Monitoring processes and tools • Network monitoring tools • Metrics Client Support • New hire orientation processes • Training inventory and responsibilities • User training and change management plan • Service desk processes, metrics and tools • Local and remote support processes, metrics and tools Technology Risk Management • Risk management policies • Regulatory and client compliance program • Cybersecurity program • Cyber prevention/detection program and tools • Recovery strategy • Business continuity plan IT Business Management • Procurement policies and processes • Budget-to-actual tracking processes and tools • Vendor management processes and tools IT Project/Program Management Office • Program management and tracking • Project management processes and tools Other Elective Administrative Functions • Knowledge management • Library or legal research • Litigation and practice support • Records and filing • New business intake and conflicts

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