In the early days of the AmLaw Tech survey, one of the big questions was: will Word or Word Perfect win out in the law firm market?  (And in the mid-1990s, some law firms were using a few other now-archaic word processing programs as well.) Well, we all know now who won that war.

The 2007 AmLaw Tech Survey, published in the September issue of Law Firm Inc., is now in its 12th year, and one of the hot topics in this year’s survey was collaborative technologies—web conference software, blogs, intranet and internet wikis, guestbooks—and how they are catching on. (77% use web conferencing software, but many feel that “wikis are too public for most law firms,” as one IT director put it in the LFI report.)

Most amazing has been the growth in budgets. In 2007, responding firms reported operating budgets of $11.2 million, on average. Ten years ago, in 1996, budgets averaged just under $4 million. On a per-lawyer basis, the average operating budget went up by almost 100% just since last year—from just over $17,000 in 2006 to almost $33,000 in 2007.

This annual survey queries CIOs and IT directors from Am Law 200 firms on a variety of issues, including product preferences for hardware and software, planning and investment, capital and operating expenses, IT staffing and compensation, and new areas for technology development. The report explores technology in specific areas including document management, e-billing, e-discovery, time entry, VoIP, CRM, mobile technology, and more.

The current survey report is available in spreadsheet format for non-subscribers through the ALM Research Store. Subscribers have access to all archived data from the AmLaw Tech Survey, as well as the current year’s spreadsheet version. For more information contact almresearch@alm.com.