By Legal Futures’ Associates CTS
The current and complete reliance on technology, due to the Coronavirus outbreak, has seen internal IT teams stretched to their full extent as they struggle to keep their law firm functioning seamlessly while the entire workforce works from home.
During the first few weeks of the government-enforced lockdown and shift to remote working, CTS saw our Service Desk Team dealing with up to a 200% increase of normal client-initiated ticket volumes.
This severe increase in tickets raised to our Service Desk is indicative that in-house IT departments are being stretched beyond their capabilities and are truly feeling the pressure of the challenges posed by supporting a fully remote team.
High Demand for End User Support
Outside of the legal sector, many businesses are well accustomed to and well prepared for remote working, but law firms might not be so well positioned when their business continuity plan requires both fee earners and back office teams to work from home.
As law firms learn to adapt to working from home and it becomes the new ‘normal’, firms with a limited IT team may not be well-resourced enough to handle everything required to effectively enable remote working, meaning both staff and users need assistance through this period.
The sudden rush to an agile working model has caused a surge in IT support ticket volumes as workforces across the country try to replicate their office working space in the safety of their own home. Consequently, many end users are experiencing remote access issues, connectivity problems and incompatibility between their devices and are turning to their already out-stretched IT department for help.
Additionally, the current unpredictability the world is facing may result in the absence of IT team members who are relied upon to keep business functions ticking over, adding an even greater pressure on remaining staff.
Maintaining High Cyber Security Levels
The influx of helpdesk support tickets results in much of an IT department’s time being taken up by offering support and guidance to remote end users. Being faced with such demanding time constraints can have a serious impact on a firm’s cyber security.
The increase in cyber-attacks since the news of the COVID-19 outbreak, paired with the threat of remote working with unsecured networks and devices, has greatly heightened the risk of attack on both law firms and their clients. In addition, as IT teams work tirelessly to address user support requests, they can be distracted from dealing with security alerts or carrying out critical patching.
In a growing and increasingly hostile digital landscape, having the capability to rapidly detect and respond to threats is critical. Many security solutions generate a high volume of alerts that require investigation and, amongst all the noise, it’s easy for IT departments to get buried.
Receiving Extended Support
Partnering with a specialist Managed Service Provider such as CTS can relieve these pressures that in-house IT teams face. Firms need to find a partner who can onboard them quickly, ensuring that they fully understand the firm’s processes and IT infrastructure. This enables the MSP to work as a natural extension of a firm’s existing IT department, acting as an extra pair of hands, to guarantee their infrastructure, systems and business continue to perform seamlessly, no matter the circumstances.
Find out more about CTS’ Managed Support services here.
