Think about how each of the other areas in your firm could benefit from the technical knowledge you have in your department, and think about how your increased knowledge of the other areas could sync with the work you are already doing. I know there are only 24 hours in a day, but think about the combined power of the information that currently exists in your firm in different places. This is the unleashed power of technology and you hold part of this power. Unless you can be billed back to a client, you are overhead. And if you are overhead, you better be prepared to solidly contribute to the most effective use of your time.
Law firms are in business to make the partners money.
This is a fair statement of fact. Being a cost center rather than a profit center is not advantageous. Technology will change how these disparate, albeit necessary, cost centers in law firms work. I believe law firm technology will enable these cost centers to offer increased value to the partnerships by enabling each area of support to function as a communication or business development adjunct for the firm. Marketing will no longer be limited to the marketing department, it will become, through technology, an integral part of each department's role and will not be viewed as the nasty M word.