I was asked in my profession as a court management consultant to forecast where technology is headed in the courts and justice markets. It got me thinking about whether these trends are universal or somehow driven by different market sectors. The answer lies somewhere in the middle, and here is what I spotted as the crossover trends that affect nearly all markets and businesses.

It’s the economy, stupid

There is no doubt that acquiring and applying technology has focused a lot on efficiencies and helping businesses to do more with less. The big “less” in this equation is staff, which has shrunk in most market sectors. Here are some examples of what I’ve seen in the justice arena, and my guess is that many of these trends spread elsewhere:

Using filters to block Internet surfing to social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Utube. This is an odd juxtaposition of technology helping and hindering productivity.

Move as much commerce and interaction with customers online as possible. Website makeovers and reorganizations rank high on the tech trends list.

Increased use of videoconference for training and meetings.

Increased use of Voice over IP (Internet phone) to reduce long distance telephone charges.

Use of open source software instead of costly name brand products (e.g., Open Office vs Microsoft Office).

Use and encouragement of electronic versus paper processing, including improved use of data transfers. The most intriguing is a trend toward “Paper-on-Demand” in which an organization may not be totally paperless, but do so as much as possible by producing paper only when it is absolutely necessary.

Adding “auto-populate” features to computer applications to cut down on the need for excess key stroke data entry.

Cut costs or increase revenue?

In a cut-back economy, the choice is whether to cut costs or increase revenue. The answer most often is to do both. The trends in revenue enhancement include:

Acquisition of accounts receivable software to help track and accelerate incoming revenue.

Improved use of e-commerce so that your website earns its keep. One successful strategy is to give discounts for online transactions (including free shipping).

Outsourcing of overdue accounts to collection agencies.

It ain’t easy being green

Despite intense pressure to cut costs and raise revenue, many tech trends show an increased appreciation for “going green.” This includes tracking of solid waste and energy use, as well as reduced transactions with paper. When improving sustainability also saves cost, everyone wins. One such way is the use of virtualization instead of purchasing and installing servers to run your business network. The theory is that a server will use up enough energy in three years to exceed its cost, so why not pool your network with an outside service to save energy?

What the experts say

So do my predictions track with the experts? According to the renown Gartner Group’s July 2009 piece on Technology Trends You Can’t Afford to Ignore, I missed the harnessing of social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., as marketing, communication and production tools. I also missed the wireless revolution and its potential to transform how we use technology at work and at home. The final area I neglected to cover is a concept called cloud computing, which I encourage you to research on your own to learn more about it. The short version, according to Wikipedia.com, is cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. This means that an always on Internet connection will become critical to many businesses that will rely more and more on software and applications that do not reside on a local hard drive or server.

So what does this mean to you? We all struggle to stay current with an increasingly technical world. In order to stay on top of technology trends, it’s a good idea to join and become active in the Redwood Technology Consortium where you can learn how other local individuals and business cope with tech.

Crawford is president of Justice Served, a court management and technology consulting firm working with courts and justice agencies worldwide. He is an active member of the Redwood Technology Consortium and is Chairman of the Board for the Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce

Copyright 2009, Eureka Times-Standard Newspaper. The print version of this article first appeared in the 12/31/09 edition of the Times-Standard..