Buying new technology is a minefield for smaller firms

Let's face it, the vast majority of solicitors' practices have fewer than four partners and very few can afford the luxury of an "in-house" IT consultant. Most, like me, rely on outsourced IT solutions with a company sorting out software and hardware problems, advising on new products and assisting with the purchase and set-up of new systems.

That company in my case keeps my various servers up and running; ensures all my computers are working and constructs frighteningly expensive firewalls and malware detection devices to prevent rogues hacking into my system or selling inappropriate products to my staff. I have had a good relationship with that company for many years but they still seem to enjoy telling me that this server or that hard drive is redundant and I must replace it at (seemingly) ever greater cost.

Somewhere in the mists of time I had heard that the cost of computers was coming down. But there seems to be a constant figure which never appears to vary much.

Of greater importance is knowing what strategy to adopt. Should I now be abandoning those clunky great servers and run with a cloud-based solution? If I do, will I be in breach of SRA regulations? What happens when the cloud provider goes bust and I can't access my data? Who are the good providers and who are the ones whom perhaps I should be giving a wide berth?

All these matters are of considerable importance to any small firm of solicitors. I find it increasingly difficult to find an honest broker; someone who does not have their own axe to grind. A person who is not just selling me products so that they get the best possible commission.

Getting a good mortgage is relatively straightforward: a broker can point you in the correct direction. But there is ?very little out there currently to advise you independently on ?IT issues. It would be so helpful if the profession's representative body got involved with fulfilling this honest broker role in relation ?to IT.

Lawyers are good at what they do but few are good businessmen and even fewer have a wide knowledge of technology. I was surprised, for example, when looking to purchase new hard drives to be told that I had to purchase new screens as the old screens would not work with the new hardware.

Equally, should I go with Microsoft 365 as an operating system or Windows 7 or 8? These are big decisions; get them wrong and you could be throwing away a shed-load of money and possibly upsetting some of your better fee earners and support staff.

And it's not just the computers. What about the printers and the photocopiers? Which are the best buys? Is a Xerox better than a Canon? What about the whole subject of digital archiving? Should we abandon those huge sheds in Southend packed full of files and instead put everything we have on a few disks?

Thankfully for him, Cosmo ?the office dog seems to be blissfully unaware of these issues. SJ