Digital White Papers

BIG DATA, PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS AND SOCIAL CONSUMERIZATION KEEPING YOU CONNECTED How do these consumer KM systems perform so successfully? They invest heavily in artificial intelligence and predictive coding, and they leverage big data analytics — all with the single focus of tracking targeted online preferences, behavior and activity over time. From a privacy standpoint, this can be an alarming prospect, with the very real specter of "Big Data, Big Brother" looming large. But when translated to business and relationship-building in the legal industry, the potential benefits are quite astounding. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES The predictive data analytics running behind the scenes are part of what makes social platforms evolve, and that should be true for law firms as we continue to integrate predictive data analytics into practice. We have three primary challenges in this endeavor: Targeted analytics in social platforms help drive ad revenue, so Apple wants users to stay in their Safari and iCloud environments, Microsoft wants users to stay in Microsoft Live and Skype, etc. So what are they offering users in order to achieve this? Utilizing KM, they're making their platforms as user-friendly as possible. Each successful platform offers many communication and collaboration options, including instant messaging, wall posts, likes, group and closed forums, video chats, document collaboration, email and more. All make it easy for the consumer to settle in and stay awhile. •Data must move seamlessly among multiple environments — both structured and unstructured — minimizing dark data and creating seamless data analytics models built to bridge all environments. Law firms focused on finding similar success with their KM systems should build their knowledge strategies to move in sync with these social consumer platforms. •Staffing, workflow, and business and project models must be restructured to flow freely to reduce barriers to collaboration, to simplify processes and to remove any guesswork from account managers, client specialists, attorney/ project teams and client/attorney teams. •Billing models must be created to accommodate a predictive big data analytics environment. Billing models evolve as the transparency and accuracy of predictive outcomes increase and are tied through social collaboration systems harnessed as primary communications platforms. Predictive analytics models should be tied to litigation, settlements and all levels of attorney performance and then shared strategically with clients as part of alternative fee arrangements. Bradford & Barthel started a consultancy arm geared toward helping clients address business model innovation that touches on all these points.

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