IT Strategy and Law Firms

I have read a few articles lately discounting the role of IT in law firms and whether IT's role can even be strategic. Some of these articles have come from vendors obviously wanted to push themselves as the "real" IT experts and others (more disturbingly) from IT managers and CIOs within law firms.
To my way of thinking any law firm with a hope of being succesful must have an overall vision and strategy for attaining that vision. It is then up to the workgroups and departments that comprise a firm to align their strategy with that vision. In our firm each department (marketing, HR, finance and IT) are involved with annual business planning and strategy sessions. This ensures that our corporate service team are able to support the work group within their own strategic plans. In IT I see our role as dual, one to provide the support the workgroups need to achieve their plans and second to look at how IT can provide our firm with a competitive advantage. Some argue that IT cannot be used to gain that competitive advantage because every law firm really operates from the same level playing field -Document Management, Practice Management etc. are fairly standard. However, there are always new and exciting technologies to take advantage of and use to promote any firm. IT is more than just keeping the lights on - although you cannot deny the importance of tactical IT operations. IT is generally a group of people with excellent process skills that are utilised accross the whole firm in a way other team members are not. That's a potent combination that can definitely be used strategically.