Imagine being on Apollo 8, on December 24, 1968, with the astronauts who became the first humans to circle the moon. The mission was historic but, the famous “Earthrise” photo that resulted, showing Earth rising above the lunar landscape was even more memorable. Up until that point, no human eyes had ever seen our blue marble from such a distance. The photo has been described by Nature photographer Galen Rowell as, “the most influential environmental photograph ever taken.” Ironically, of all the objectives NASA had set before launch, no one had thought of photographing the Earth from lunar orbit. They did not predict the importance of that moment, and the photo that would forever change our view of the earth. Nonetheless, the moment was upon them and, they were ready.
Most recently, Konica Minolta was awarded the Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI) PaceSetter Award for the Legal Vertical. This is the first-ever PaceSetter award granted in this vertical, recognizing those vendors that offer the most impressive portfolio of devices, solutions, and services for the Legal market. Key areas that were evaluated included: Hardware, Software, Service, Support, Professional Services, Security, All Covered IT Services, Industry Certifications, and Vertical Leadership. This was indeed team collaboration at its finest. Like the Apollo 8 astronauts, the moment was upon us, and we were ready, too. Over the years, our legal teams have taken pride in developing an award-winning portfolio of product, solutions and services to meet the needs of all segments of the legal industry. Keeping our customers abreast of the technology trends and disruptors in the market such as the importance of remaining agile in the midst of continued innovation or, keeping security top of mind, is what our customers have depended on for many decades.
After ending last year with a bang, what’s next? Well, recognizing the importance of the moment is the first step, and you should as well. The legal industry is at a pivotal point of technological changes, digital transformation and, revising strategic 3-5 year plans is what will keep the doors open in the coming years. Legal professionals are forming partnerships to enhance current service offerings, developing new skillsets such as technology affinity, emotional intelligence, project management or developing proprietary software, such as Konica Minolta’s Dispatcher Phoenix Legal to keep pace with advanced workflows to streamline mundane tasks.
However, that is only the tip of the iceberg. Artificial intelligence and machine learning has and will continue to make its way into the legal workflow and operations systems. Big data and analytics will also continue to give the legal industry new insights into how they market their services, litigation strategies, purchasing decisions and tools that will help embrace collaboration for how the smart office will function. New practice areas for lawyers such as artificial intelligence, robots, self-driving cars, block chain technology, internet of things and cybersecurity will entail the need for technical expertise to deal with these innovations. As such, continued partnerships with Konica Minolta, will provide services, support, solutions, product, marketing and IT personnel who bring innovative ideas and new ways of doing business that contribute to the Workplace of the Future™.
Like the Apollo 8 astronauts, seeing the Earth rising above the lunar landscape for the first time, Konica Minolta recognizes the importance of the moment, it’s here, and we’re ready and, most importantly, the future is yours.
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