Intelligent Office UK: Four common myths about outsourcing that are stunting law firm growth
As the UK’s leading provider of legal support solutions, we are seeing some SME firms being resistant to the idea of outsourcing. It may or may not be the right decision, but we, at Intelligent Office, think it is important for firms to have the right information to make the right decision – which is why, we are working hard to dispel the 4 most common misconceptions around outsourcing that we encounter:
#1 Outsourcing requires a long-term commitment
The support needs of many SME law firms and sole practitioners are changing rapidly in response to temporary in-house staffing shortages, new skill requirements and fluctuations in caseloads. While some law firms want to completely transform all aspects of their administrative operations, others don’t. These firms would benefit from a flexible outsourcing solution, similar to what Intelligent Office provides, which lets them choose services and skills on an ad-hoc basis, where they only pay for what they use and for the timeframe that they need.
#2 Outsourcing will reduce the quality of support
A natural question then, for law firms, is whether a short-term commitment or lack of, would mean that the quality of support is reduced. The answer is, absolutely no. At Intelligent Office, for example, no matter what the nature of work our clients require, they would only receive support from specialist and proactive teams who are regularly trained by us to deliver a high quality, timely and cost-effective service. With extended hours of operation to accommodate flexibly for peak loads, and ISO 27001 accredited systems that plug into clients’ workflow seamlessly, firms are able to access high quality, cost-effective and secure support exactly when needed and for however long.
#3 Outsourcing is expensive compared to in-house resource
This is perhaps the most common misconception of all. In-house support more often than not directly equates to fixed costs and restricted skillsets. The pandemic and the ‘work-from-anywhere’ environment have brought with it the need for new and rapidly changing skillsets; fee earners are unable to access the right support they need and are spending more time on non-chargeable work. This is non-productive in view of growing firm revenues and profits in the long term. A flexible outsourcing service, such as Intelligent Office’s, matches resources to demand, allowing firms to access from a broad range of support services and only pay for the service they use (even by the hour!). Thus, the model allows fee earners to focus on chargeable work and is more cost-effective and productive than in-house counterparts.
#4 Our firm is too small to outsource our administrative services
Partners at SME firms and sole practitioners sometimes believe that they are “too small” to outsource; due to this false belief, they carry out an increasing proportion of their own administration, which is false economy in the longer term. As a market leader in providing legal support services to boutique law firms and sole practitioners through to the UK’s Top 20 firms, we are here to assure you that the size of the firm is irrelevant to cost-effectively accessing support. Law firms are able to flexibly access from a broad range of services and skills, whenever and however they please – even on the same day that they sign up! Firms are thus able to unburden very quickly and give fee earners’ more time to focus on revenue generation activities without distraction. Read how a key component of profitable growth following the pandemic is enabling fee earners to focus productively on revenue generating activities without distraction, in the findings of our Path to Recovery report.