Peer to Peer Magazine

34 " I wish I could get a seat at the table" is a phrase that I often hear from many IT managers, directors and CIOs. They often wish that the management team would take their technolo ideas more seriously or that they had more of role in the business. Ok...so how can you get to there? How do you get that seat? What steps must be taken to make this a reality? An important step to getting a seat at the table is a willingness to change what you have been doing. It took me a while to really figure this out but getting a seat at the table revolves around what you are doing as an IT leader. What I will share are the two key concepts that allowed me to get a seat at the table. These are "Perceived Business Value" and "Perceived Accessibility". The key word in both is the word "perceived" as in "perception". If you don't have a seat at the table now, you will have to change how attorneys, administrators, and staff perceive you and the IT department in your organization. Specifically, your department's business value and your department's accessibility. Changing your perceived business value in the eyes of attorneys and administrators is a very important first step. As we all know, technolo is a critical component in law Getting a Seat at the Table B Y I S I D O R E O K O R O firms and usually has the largest budget of any department. However, don't let this fool you into thinking that its business value is cemented in the eyes of the attorneys and administrators. You must keep in mind that sometimes IT is viewed in terms of technologies such as computers, websites, servers, and software. This is where we want to start changing the perception. You want the attorneys to view IT's business value in terms of making the practice of law easier for them or helping them serve their clients better. For the administrators, you want them to view IT's business value in terms of making it easier for them to run the law firm. So what can we do to create business value that they can see? IT leaders should start putting in place multiple projects per year focusing on the business of law. Specifically, projects that focus on helping attorneys perform their work and helping them better serve their clients. Also, there should be projects that help the legal admin team better manage the law firm. Now before you get up and run to get the latest version of whatever legal software that's out there, new technolo upgrades are not the answer. You will need to talk to the attorneys and administrators first. This is a great way to find out what they really need. Sometimes these solutions are not technolo but are process changes using existing technolo that is in the firm. A good percentage of the time, these potential projects are practice group or admin department specific and should be done every year no matter how small you think the impact. Having conversations with these individuals are a good starting point and leads us to our next topic. "Perceived Accessibility". What does that mean? This simply means that if someone has an issue with how they do their work, can they come to you for a solution? Now, this is much different than a help desk call. The most important aspect of this is that the attorneys, administrators, and staff must feel safe coming to you to ask these questions. In order for this to happen, you Photo © Sam Cooper Photography

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