P2P

10 P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | W I N T E R 2 0 2 2 When it comes to culture, this is something almost all law firm leaders agree on: working in person has huge benefits to building culture. The 2022 Citi Hildebrandt Client Advisory found that many firms believe the remote environment has damaged personal relationships at work and the sense of belonging amongst many lawyers--and may be a contributor to the ease with which lawyers, from partners to associates, are moving firms. Culture happens in the office. Another big challenge of hybrid is its dynamism. We have to remember that we are in the midst of a great experiment with a completely new mode of operation. Things change—often and sometimes fast. Space planning professionals need access to manipulate office plans in new ways as they accelerate change from minor to major. The old way of printing static floor plans and using pencil is not going to do it. Finally, we need to know how much all of it is costing firms—which brings us to the last great challenge: real estate. How long will firms in 'Hybrid 0' (see above) tolerate the expense of a largely unused space? Where will these firms derive the analytics necessary to propose future change? Technology, of course. Now for the Good Part: Technology What is needed is technology specifically built to solve the hybrid challenges of law firms, and that's Maptician, the legal industry's end-to-end solution for hybrid. We went to market in 2020 right in synch with the mandated WFH and have continuously built out our platform alongside our law firm clients as they evolve their hybrid needs. Here's how it works. Maptician is a cloud-based software available on desktop and mobile with an incredibly easy implementation. We start by converting the firm's existing floorplans from static drawings into dynamic floorplans using our proprietary mapping engine with exact renderings to exact spec. Next step is engaging clients in a seating and hybrid strategy discussion to learn about the various needs of the firm, office by office, practice group by practice group, partner by partner. Because we specialize in law firms, we've learned a few things along the way of how to do seating strategies and we can advise on how to set up their office plans. The key is, with our mapping engine, the discussions are visual. One of the key features of Maptician, Scenario Planning, is an unprecedented office space visualization tool powered by our mapping engine and what it does is it enables us to easily create sand-boxed versions of complex seating assignments, furniture layouts, schedules and architecture so firms can optimize their office space and RTO strategies. Even better, once the initial strategy is set, the firm can leverage scenario planning ongoing to continuously evolve their hybrid space, helping firms address the dynamism which is fundamental to a successful hybrid operation. These visual tools are absolutely key. But we didn't forget about the attorneys who—when they come into the office—want to collaborate and network. Attorneys need to know when their peers are in the office. And not just 'in the office' but which office, on what floor, even at what desk (depending on the level of hybrid). Attorneys also do not want to do extra work to acquire this information. It needs to be easy. That's why we built in Presence. Presence delivers unprecedented visibility into attorneys' in-office presence through an automated and proprietary internet protocol (IP) based integration—enabling attorneys to make quick decisions to align their own in-office time with this information – or not. Presence data utilizes several software tools, including Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, and Office to determine who is in the office and who is working remotely without the need to install any hardware devices. Maptician Presence produces highly accurate F E A T U R E S

• Cover