publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/355985
ILTA WHITE PAPER: JULY 2014 WWW.ILTANET.ORG 29 SIGNAL TO NOISE: LOCATE AND FOCUS ON VALUE AMID COMPLEXITY While uneven uptake across all knowledge categories might be a source of irritation to a tidy- minded KM leader, it is actually entirely predictable — and acceptable. Some types of knowledge-sharing will come more easily in different cultures and firms, or practice groups for that matter. Sometimes this is because things are already working effectively enough. These areas simply do not need a formal knowledge function; the best thing for knowledge leaders to do with these groups is understand, acknowledge, let go of the need to control and get out of the way. Similarly, comprehensive subject-matter and practice-area taxonomies underpinning knowledge system design often end up being populated (and used) in a very uneven manner. This, too, is accceptable — in fact, it gives you critical intelligence about what the firm actually needs and what it doesn't. This allows you to trim redundancies and focus resources where they are most needed. Building out from strengths and investing where demand is greatest makes good sense. After all, there is no magic blueprint for a perfect knowledge strategy in a given legal organization. Much as with the use of precedents, there are plenty of templates out there, but they must be adapted to be effective in context. IDENTIFYING WHAT KM WILL AND WON'T DO What we don't do is as business-critical as what we do— investment choices therefore must be transparent. Good KM support requires intensive application of intellect and energy. This is a serious investment for a firm, and it should be targeted to where it will make the biggest difference. In an environment of increasing pressure to deliver more value with steadily dwindling resources, making the correct investment choices is paramount. One path — or area of focus — can only be chosen at the expense of something else. Case Study: Metrics Drive Resource Allocation One of the key strengths of Mayer Brown JSM's Knowledge Centre is its detailed and flexible usage reporting. This reporting allows us to analyze who is making the most use of which resources, which resources are most popular (and which are not) and much more. Recent major changes to corporate law in Hong Kong posed a resourcing challenge for the knowledge team. Potentially, important resources could soon be out of date, posing a risk to the firm. Time and resources were short. Knowing from the analytics which precedents were used most heavily and by whom, we were able to develop a strong sense of the areas of greatest priority and risk. This made internal discussions about resource allocation proceed much more smoothly, since these discussions were based on evidence rather than intuition or conjecture. A well-targeted work plan was developed and key resources were updated in a timely manner. Low-usage resources were given a lower priority and, in some cases, were migrated out of the "fully curated" category and simply became another piece of prior work product. Building on this exercise, we are now working through the highly used resources to simplify and streamline access. Given what we know about usage frequency, any reduction in time to access these resources can be converted into a number and translated into opportunity cost. In this way, the time to achieve an ROI can be calculated easily.