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Earlier this year, Legal IT Professionals featured an article co-authored by my colleague James Britt and me that provides a list of cybersecurity best practices global law firms should prioritize in 2017. More specifically, we discussed specific steps law firms can take to address gaps that previously provided hackers with easy access to sensitive data.

Last month, nearly a thousand members of the legal ecosystem from around the world came together at the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas for the second annual Corporate Legal Operations Consortium’s (CLOC) Institute. This year’s four-day conference attracted nearly twice the number of attendees as last year’s conference, and once again featured content-rich sessions and numerous networking opportunities.

With the 2017 Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) Institute just around the corner, leaders in legal operations are gearing up to spend three days sharpening their legal swords and networking among industry thought leaders. HBR is proud to be a Platinum sponsor and I look forward to seeing many of our clients, partners and friends there.

Managing mobility on an enterprise level can be a daunting and complex task. Each major mobile carrier is continually rolling out new plans and features, discontinuing others and also maintaining their own list of “custom offerings” that many organizations are not aware exist. The vast number of plan options and combinations is staggering — over 14 million different combinations for an organization with 1,000 managed devices.  As a result, many organizations are paying 20 to 40 percent more than what others are paying for the exact same service requirements.

High-profile security breaches, the ever-growing volume of corporate data and increasingly complex regulatory and technical environments emphasize the need for enhanced enterprise-wide information governance (IG). The mission of many corporate law departments is to help protect their organizations from unnecessary risk and exposure. Therefore, many corporate law departments are facing increased pressure to help reduce the risk that is inherent in unmanaged and uncontrolled information.

As corporate clients continue the journey toward operational excellence, law firms are being challenged to respond to corporate client requests to improve transparency and efficiencies. With corporate legal spending on outside counsel continuing to decrease – it was down 2 percent in 2016 according to our annual law department survey – we are seeing inside spending as a percentage of revenue exceed outside spending for the first time. This is resulting in law firms seeking ways to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market.

As the legal market continues to evolve, consultants have emerged as a key resource for addressing the challenges faced by law firms. Consultant engagements have also evolved, and law firm executives are not the only ones seeking help from legal consultants. In fact, 30-40 percent of consultant engagements are now initiated by stakeholders outside of the C-suite. This is dramatically different from 10 years ago, when consultants were mainly brought on by the executive team.

Earlier this month, Law360 featured an article by HBR Consulting’s Fahad Zaidi that provides insights into mistakes to avoid when building a law library. More specifically, Fahad explores common missteps that law firms should be aware of when considering data analytics tools and new software for their libraries.

There is no denying the fundamental shift that is underway in the legal industry. Both law firms and corporate law departments are examining new metrics to track outcomes and report on success, leadership roles and responsibilities are expanding to keep pace with fluctuating market demand and law firm service delivery models are evolving to keep pace with corporate client demands. Cutting-edge law firms and law departments understand that in order to keep pace with change, they must actively draw and learn from clients, competitors and other thriving industries.

Much has been reported on the frequency of carrier billing errors, causing telecommunications vendors to inherit a reputation for having ineffective billings departments. And for good reason – it’s been reported that one in five telecom invoices have errors and that 85% of these errors happen to be in the carriers’ favor.