Key Takeaways: Microsoft for Legal Community Event 

An introduction to Microsoft 

Panoram were delighted to host our first Microsoft for Legal Community breakfast event in London. We were joined by a number of in-house legal delegates from a variety of industries including hi-tech, banking, insurance and property. 

Here are our key takeaways from the event: 

The Rise of Microsoft 365 

It was clear to see the adoption of Microsoft 365 in corporate legal is accelerating. There are very few organisations that are not using the platform. 

Microsoft Teams is becoming the go-to desktop application but is still widely misunderstood. Most organisations are still only using Microsoft Teams for conference calls and chat when it has been designed by Microsoft to be so much more.  

Our delegates agreed that we are beginning to see many law firms running their matters inside of Microsoft Teams and corporate legal departments are beginning to adopt this approach. 

What is Microsoft 365?  

(Image 1: Jump365’s Microsoft 365 Periodic Table)

Microsoft describes their 365 platform as ‘Designed to help you achieve more with innovative Office apps, intelligent cloud services, and world-class security’. 

Our delegates were familiar with a number of out-of-the-box Microsoft 365 applications. The office suite, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint were all widely used. 

More advanced functionality such as Microsoft Viva is becoming popular. It learns how your business works and provides additional data insights to help employees stay on top of their workload.  

Our presenters explained that for every ‘box’ shown in the periodic table there would be other technologies who would provide this functionality, but delegates saw the huge benefits in having all this functionality inside a single platform and the value of legal using the same applications as the wider business. 

Microsoft 365 for Legal 

After discussing an overview of Microsoft 365, we explored its capabilities for legal in more detail. 

(Image 2: Panoram’s Microsoft 365 for Legal Wheel)

Panoram’s visual above shows how out-of-the-box Microsoft 365 applications can be harnessed to provide legal departments with custom solutions that meet their specific needs. 

Many of our delegates had not used applications such as Microsoft PowerApps, PowerAutomate and Dynamics. 

There is great demand from senior management for data-led reporting, allowing them to make informed decisions. Microsoft PowerBI can provide such advanced reporting, but delegates stressed there was a steep learning curve to get this up and running without professional assistance. 

Closer Collaboration with IT 

Our delegates indicated there is a critical need for legal departments to work closely with their IT teams. They had limited access to a number of Microsoft 365 applications and required additional training and support to get more from their Microsoft subscription. 

The group highlighted the pressure on legal operations professionals to understand the world of Microsoft but most of these professionals need support and training from their IT teams or expert providers. 

This is just one of a regular cadence of Microsoft for Legal roundtable events Panoram will be running. Please register on our community page to receive further updates.