A comparison with the development of relevant competitors also shows the competitive advantage that Microsoft has as a provider of a wide range of products with a large "already there" customer base. Anyone who already uses Microsoft will probably also use other applications, especially since these are usually seamlessly integrated into the existing IT infrastructure.

But Teams is more than just a videoconferencing platform: Microsoft made it clear at Ignite 2021, the annual conference, that Teams will be expanded into a central communication and collaboration platform that will integrate many other Microsoft applications in the medium to long term.

Of particular importance in this context is the MS Power Platform, Microsoft's answer to the megatrend of workflow automation and Robotic Process Automation (RPA):

1. Power Automate – for automating workflows

2. Power Apps – for creating applications without programming knowledge

3. Power BI – for creating comprehensive and detailed reports

There are many other useful applications from Microsoft, many of which are already included in the license packages that companies purchase. And just as important: Microsoft has recognized that they need to reflect the specific requirements of the global legal market (especially data protection) more quickly and better in their solutions.

MS365 & Teams for Legal

In autumn 2020, Microsoft put together a team that is explicitly responsible for implementing these requirements.

The team has created a plan to enable “compliant” use of MS365 including Teams over a period of approximately 16 months (October 2020 to Jan 2022).

This is not about developing specific industry solutions for the legal market. The sole aim is to expand the existing platform (MS365) so that law firms and legal departments can use the Microsoft product range in accordance with applicable legal standards.

What does this mean for the legal market?

The range of MS365-based solutions for legal departments and law firms is growing slowly but steadily.

Repstor, a Belfast-based provider acquired by Intapp in 2021, has developed a complete end-to-end solution for document and matter management on MS365, fully integrated into Outlook and Teams, and already in use in legal departments in Germany.

At the same time, more and more providers are “connecting” Outlook and Teams with their applications, including the legal spend and matter management providers Brightflag and Simple Legal, the practice management solution Clio, the DMS providers iManage, NetDocuments and HighQ and many more; an early, yet clear signal that Teams will also establish itself permanently in the legal market.

Why MS365 for the legal market?

Regardless of the study, the answers to the question about the priorities of legal departments are similar, although sometimes in a different order:

1. Improvement of contract lifecycle management

2. Document automation and management

3. Automation of processes

4. Reduction of costs

Each of these priorities requires the use of technology, to date mainly from different providers with all the well-known consequences:

• Sometimes high effort and costs for integration into or adaptation to existing infrastructures and applications;
• Increase in complexity due to system breaks, different system support and user interfaces;
• High effort and costs for ensuring a “seamless” data exchange between the systems;
• Extensive, costly and time-consuming change management processes to increase user acceptance;
• Often ongoing maintenance and adaptation effort when changes are made to an application that affect other systems;
• Often “new” systems that are not known in the IT departments of companies and mean additional effort and resources;
• Many point solutions = many external contacts = increased communication and coordination effort.




All of the above points reinforce the trend towards platform solutions , a central element of Microsoft's strategy. With a market share of 80% in Germany for Office products, the presence among users is also a significant competitive advantage. An already impressive and rapidly growing number of apps (Microsoft and 3rd party) as well as a large number of connectors to third-party applications are certainly not a disadvantage.

Microsoft is also investing significant sums in the development of AI-based products with Project Cortex with the aim of making these technologies available to Microsoft 365 users. The first product, SharePoint Syntex, aims to classify and analyze mass documents through "Transformation of Content into Knowledge."




Why is this important?




Technology is the key driver for the modernization of legal departments and law firms.

Gartner expects legal departments' investments in legal tech to triple by 2025. Currently, they account for around 3.9% of the total budget, and an increase to 12% is forecast for 2025.




The lessons learned from the pandemic that remote work is a viable concept require an IT infrastructure that enables this concept in the long term. The trend towards platforms, ideally those that are already established and accepted in companies, will further fuel consolidation.




Anyone who is currently or in the near future faced with the decision to optimize the work in the legal department (or law firm) through the use of IT would seem well advised to analyze the development from a radar perspective:




• Which processes and activities should be covered by the scope of the IT solution?
• Matter Intake
• Client Relationship Management
• Risk Management
• Outside Counsel Management
• Matter Management
• Document Management
• Contract Lifecycle Management
• Project Management
• Knowledge Management
• workflow management
• Employee Self Service
• Document Automation
• Document/Contract Analytics
• Reporting and Analytics
• billing
• Workforce Management
• Legal Operations




• - What roles, tasks and organizational models exist or are foreseeable in the context of the current/future design of the legal function (operating model)?
• Which systems are used in the company?
• What IT strategy does the entire company pursue?
• What services do the various IT providers offer?
• How can these be integrated into your own IT infrastructure?
• What product lifecycle do the individual solutions have?
• What is the medium to long-term strategy of the individual providers (long-term hedging of investments in their solutions)?
• How are the solutions of the individual providers located in the overall market (use of standards, integration into other legal tech systems, market shares, local support, international/global use, etc.)
• What is the effort, duration and cost of change and acceptance management?




The topic is complex and requires the cooperation of many experts, including representatives from the legal department and, more than ever, the involvement of experts from the areas of IT, business process and project management.




Conclusion




If Microsoft satisfactorily resolves the data protection issues, established and new providers will quickly jump on the bandwagon and offer a variety of solutions in the context of end-to-end document, contract and matter management, including process automation, for use within the legal department, within companies and for collaboration with third parties.




In particular, companies with a strict Microsoft policy (and here the IT managers) will welcome this development, as it reduces effort and costs in many ways.

And on the subject of dependency: In almost every company, there are dependencies on a provider for business-critical applications, be it in the area of ERP, CRM or even in the area of office technology.




A bold thesis

In 2026, there will be 5-10 providers globally who will largely cover the needs of legal departments and law firms with their respective product ranges, integrated on a platform and with connectors to important “point solutions”.

One of these platforms will be Microsoft, on which an ecosystem (“App Store”) with many different providers and their solutions will be established, always with Outlook or optionally Teams as the leading frontend and equipped with extensive, cross-departmental and cross-company collaboration options.

But maybe I'm (not entirely) wrong.