Written by:
Grant Yuill
Head of Marketing & Customer Engagement
As much as the adoption of legal technology continues to transform the profession, many law firms still struggle to accept and utilise new technologies, hindering their ability to leverage productivity. Legal departments often find themselves relying on tried and tested manual processes, unwilling to throw out the old playbook and start over. Perhaps this is why only 38% of legal firms adopt cloud technology, despite its obvious benefits to customers, employees, and the bottom line.
Law firm IT projects often fail to start, stall, or exceed budget. Why does this continue to happen? You may be lacking a vital component that can assist your company cross the finish line when implementing new technology: a project champion. An effective project champion ensures best practice is followed, maximising outcomes and minimising disruption.
Continue reading to see how project champions bring stakeholders together while migrating to new law firm software, facilitating significant change management in legal tech. The outcomes improved efficiency, performance, client satisfaction, and income, as well as resulting in much more successful overall implementations.
What exactly defines a Technology Project Champion?
Project champions are team members in an organisation that passionately advocate for and drives change, such as introducing new legal tech at your firm. This might be you, or it could be another influential team member who is exceptionally enthusiastic and supportive of the project. This is usually an unofficial job, with project champions assisting project managers in executing their best-laid plans.
Project champions usually assist in:
- Determine and explain the project’s ultimate purpose (the promised land).
- Get buy-in and support from the entire team, stakeholders, and maybe even clients.
- Acquire the resources required to achieve the goal.
- Maintain project deadlines and budgets.
- If the project encounters significant challenges, suggest alternate techniques or process improvements that utilise legal tech.
What differentiates a Project Manager from a Project Champion?
Project managers have an official role and are accountable for the project’s success. A project champion, on the other hand, usually plays a more informal role. Champions promote the project, whereas project managers take ownership of it.
Project champions play an essential role in assisting the project manager with his or her tasks. Project managers usually take a bird’s-eye view, reviewing a company’s current operations, identifying acceptable technology solutions, developing an implementation roadmap, and moving the company forward.
In contrast, project champions are on the ground. They monitor how the project affects team members, picking up on whispered complaints or worries that the team may not want to express to the project manager or senior management. Project champions play an important role in identifying and dealing with team objections, especially when leveraging the likes of automation tools and documents production.
Why does your law firm’s technology project require a champion?
Adopting new technology into a law practice is exciting, but it also presents a difficulty. Even if you’re replacing the firm’s present procedures and workflow with more efficient, up-to-date alternatives, changing them is a significant undertaking that requires careful analytics.
Transition is difficult because individuals tend to choose what they have over what they lack, particularly in the context of the legal industry. Unreceptive team members may be slow to master new systems, preferring to focus on their familiar day-to-day responsibilities, which can impede change management. Your project champion comes in handy in this situation, helping to automate processes and enhance productivity. They rally support for the project, assisting reluctant individuals and departments to see the endgame and take one step at a time until the firm fully deploys its new software.
Project Champion Characteristics Required for Success
Within your firm, project champions can emerge from any position. They could be a paralegal, a partner, or a member of your IT staff (if you are fortunate enough to have this resource). Successful project champions, regardless of position, are usually:
- Employees with significant influence who are trusted by their team.
- Compassionate searching out other people’s perspectives and willing to guide them through uncertainties.
- Great communicators.
- Interactive, acting as a liaison to convey the project manager’s goals and/or the team’s concerns.
- Progressive thinkers who trust in the power of legal tech often drive change management initiatives.
- Positive and motivating, keeping teams focused on the eventual goal.
What Are the Responsibilities of a Project Champion in a Law Firm?
Project champions are mainly accountable for ensuring that the firm’s new legal software, particularly in the legal industry, is successfully implemented. When the project first gets traction, it may be necessary to develop a strategic vision, which includes outlining the firm’s current pain points, how the software would help, and assisting in the development of a plan.
When the project gets off to a good start, the project champion ensures that everything runs smoothly. Project managers have face-to-face interactions with solicitors and paralegals, particularly in large firms. Project champions serve as important on-the-ground advocates. They assist in communicating the plan, reinforcing the software’s advantages, and keeping teams motivated.
However, office politics often delay technological progress. Experienced, well-respected team members who have always used the same method may wonder why they need to learn a new tool. These concerns may escalate to direct criticism of the initiative, influencing how junior colleagues feel and behave. Project champions recognise potential bottlenecks early and try to resolve them as soon as possible.
This doesn’t mean dismissing people’s worries; in fact, it is just the opposite. Project champions use a sympathetic approach. They listen to their colleagues’ concerns and try to understand where they’re coming from before gently reinforcing how the project, powered by analytics, would eventually benefit them and the organisation as a whole.
Long Term Innovation and Legal Tech Change Begins Now
Law firms that fail to keep up risk losing opportunities and falling behind the early adopters of growth-oriented competitors. To successfully drive change management, your law firm’s digital project needs both a champion and the appropriate software platform that helps law firms. Contact our team today to learn how Denovo’s all-in-one, cloud-based legal practice management software may help your business stay ahead of the competition.
