Digital White Papers

I L T A W H I T E P A P E R | T E C H S O L U T I O N S 27 The Adventure We knew where we wanted to go. Our new co- pilots were sitting shotgun. This is when the real adventure began. Each week, our team huddled around a webcam to meet with our new partners. For two hours, they would pepper us with questions on everything from common terminolo to the finer points of dealing with directory submissions. We talked in detail about internal data sources and what information is sourced from which system, what data is relatively clean and what needed some work. We described how client relationships are managed— both officially and in reality. We explained the myriad ways the definition of "client" and other key concepts could shift, depending on the context. We discussed the fact that specific types of work might be handled by lawyers from completely different practices and the importance of knowing the industry of the client which may differ from the industry most relevant to a matter. Some weeks, we suggested the topics; other weeks, they elected to dig into areas that seemed a bit far afield. Whatever the topic, their questions were focused and thought-provoking. From one week to the next, it was clear they were absorbing everything they heard and examining the information from every angle. We weren't sure exactly what to expect for those two hours, but we knew it would be a fun ride. Four or five months into these interrogations (my memory is a little hazy on the exact timing), our sessions started to include wireframes—sketches of how various features or elements might play out within an application. Not long after that, we were looking at a rough prototype that allowed us to test different ideas and user experiences. Less than one year after that initial "AHA!" moment in my boss's office, we were pushing sample data into what would become Foundation. As the development effort continued, it was not unusual for our co- pilots to float a new idea or preview a new feature that we had not thought of before but, once we saw it, we couldn't imagine living without it. Fast forward to today…Sidley's implementation of Foundation includes records for more than 31,000 individual clients, 176,000 matters and 14,000 current and former personnel. This information is leveraged by marketing and business development professionals, the pricing team, the diversity team, the professional development team, KM lawyers and many other functions across the firm. Foundation is a cornerstone of the firm's knowledge management strate, feeding the enterprise search platform and fueling other KM initiatives Timekeepers from nearly every practice search this content to understand client relationships and respond to "does anyone know anything about…" requests. Lawyers from among the firm's largest transactional practices contribute deal details directly into the system with more engaging each day. "We weren't sure exactly what to expect for those two hours, but we knew it would be a fun ride."

• Cover