Benefits of Microsoft Office 365 for Toronto Law Firms

Continuous innovations in cloud computing and serverless technologies have paved the way for the growth of businesses across various industries. In the years to come, cloud computing will become almost ubiquitous among law firms of all sizes as the practice of law transitions to a modern approach that prizes efficiency, ease, and client-friendly practices. Firms that embrace serverless legal technologies sooner will position themselves ahead of their competitors.

Cloud computing, especially Microsoft Office 365, has gradually become the go-to tool for accomplishing daily tasks for Toronto law firms. It optimizes the day-to-day operations within the law firm and helps legal teams better attend to clients’ needs. It offers secure, remote accessibility with the advantage of more reliable, efficient, and collaborative workflows—often with less cost.

Traditionally, servers have been required to share files and transfer email among multiple users on a local network, but Microsoft Office 365 has come along and replaced these traditional server functions for a low monthly subscription. Microsoft Office 365 is also easier to set up and use than older, on-premise legal software.

What’s Microsoft Office 365?

Microsoft Office 365 is Microsoft’s most powerful suite of software, featuring enhanced capabilities and flexible licensing. Microsoft Office 365 expands upon the original Microsoft Office desktop productivity suite to include full, enterprise-grade cloud applications such as Word, Outlook, OneDrive, Groups. Forms, PowerPoint, OneNote, SharePoint, Bookings, MyAnalytics, Teams, and Flow. It’s continually updated to maintain its usability and relevance, so you can be sure that you’ll always have the right tools to keep your law firm up and running.

How Microsoft 365 Office Can Benefit Your Toronto Law Firm

Microsoft’s suite of business tools is a great way to move away from cumbersome paper files and inefficient processes. When you need your technology to decrease overhead costs, enhance productivity, and ultimately increase billable hours and profitability, Microsoft Office 365 can help you achieve those goals.

1. Enhanced Collaboration and Productivity

Legal professionals have to spend time working outside the office and with the current work-from-home trend, having a tool that enables easy access to relevant information and applications on the go is the key to a productive workforce. Since Microsoft Office 365 runs in Microsoft’s Data Centre, you and your staff will be able to access your files and applications from virtually anywhere, on any devices including PC, Mac, tablets, and most mobile devices, as long as you have an internet connection.

Microsoft Office 365 also enhances collaboration by enabling team members to share data and documents, collaborate on projects and tasks, and coordinate legal matters. With web-based versions of all the main productivity applications, such as Word and Excel, it’s now possible for teams to coauthor the same documents in real-time.

You can also use SharePoint Online to create private team portals, which act as centralized hubs for your team to access information such as case files, client correspondence, and more. What’s more, Microsoft guarantees 99.9% uptime, so you never have to worry about downtime affecting your firm’s productivity.

2. Better Document Management

Your firm requires safe and efficient document storage and management. From emails, contracts, Word documents, Excel workbooks, and more, Microsoft Office 365 can safely secure your documents within the application. Some of the Microsoft Office 365 storage tools you can use include SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange, Outlook, and Power Bi.

3. Increased Security and Compliance

Legal professionals constantly handle sensitive data that attracts hackers and malicious insiders. Every security breach leads to reputational losses, remediation costs, and penalties. Depending on your specialization, your law firm may work with various types of sensitive client information, including personal, financial, and healthcare data.

Microsoft 365 has built-in security features that protect your data against various threats such as malware, phishing, and spam. With security features like versioning control, permissions, and records management, you can ensure that all of your documents are correctly stored and accessed.

With Microsoft Secure Score, you can assess your security posture and get visibility, insights, and guidance to maximize your security. Microsoft Office 365 is also compliant with global privacy laws and various regional regulations, such as PIPEDA here in Canada, GDPR in Europe, ISO 27001, and HIPAA in the US.

4. Reduced Costs

Simply put, cloud computing saves you money. In an on-premise setting, a law firm would incur high costs in acquiring and maintaining in-house software solutions and data centre infrastructure. Besides, as new technologies emerge, the already deployed IT assets can become obsolete, requiring a full upgrade. These costs can add up fast, draining the financial capabilities of most law firms. Since cloud computing doesn’t involve any hardware investment, there’s essentially no overhead.

Additionally, cloud computing usually comes without any long-term contracts. With Microsoft Office 365, you enjoy a subscription-based payment model that allows you to only pay for what you need. Microsoft manages all patches, upgrades, and new feature additions, so you only ever have to migrate once, and because upgrades are included in the cost of your licenses, you won’t have to deal with unexpected or additional costs.

Tektonic’s Microsoft Office 365 Services

At Tektonic, we provide Microsoft Office 365 services to law firms in Toronto designed to help transform your workforce into a high-performing team. Our Microsoft-certified specialists handle everything from setup to migration and training and will help you transition seamlessly to this incredible productivity suite. We work with your scope and requirements to design and execute a thorough, phased Microsoft 365 migration plan that ensures minimal disruption to your business operations and no data loss.

Our Microsoft Office 365 migration approach includes:

Business-aligned cloud migration strategies
Best-in-class architecture employed to ensure a seamless migration
Optimization of the entire application portfolio
Portfolio migration of customer accounts from legacy systems to Microsoft Office 365-based mailboxes

We also provide ongoing support to help you harness the full potential of this powerful cloud computing software and make sure you become as productive and efficient as possible. Our services are scalable, and as your needs change, we can add new users to your plan and assist with configuring and setting up new file systems. Our partnership with Microsoft helps ensure that we stay informed about new Microsoft Office 365 features and enhancements so that you can stay ahead of the curve.

If you need help with the management of your information technology systems at your Toronto law firm, contact us today to schedule a consultation.