publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/355985
ILTA WHITE PAPER: JULY 2014 WWW.ILTANET.ORG 7 RESOURCES Shifting our attention to organizations' investments in KM, respondents in 2012 appear to have been overly optimistic about whether their departments were likely to grow. In 2012, 73% expected the number of full-time equivalents to remain static and 21% anticipated the number to increase in the coming year. Two years later, the 2014 results do show that 58% of the organizations held onto their number of full-time equivalents in KM and 30% increased, but 12% decreased. On a more positive note, 73% of those responding in 2014 expect their numbers to remain the same, and 21% anticipate an increase in the coming year. Roughly one-third of firms reported one or fewer and another one-third reported between one and one-half to five full-time equivalents in KM, relatively consistent with the past few years. In terms of financial resources, KM budgets seem to have taken a hit in the past two years. In 2012, only 6% of the organizations reported any decrease in budget, while 13% reported decreases in 2014 — a result very similar to the 2010 survey's 12% result. HOT TOPICS Pricing and legal project management (LPM) remain hot topics for law firms; the percentage of firms that have both pricing and LPM tools has increased significantly. KM's role in LPM also seems to be developing given the sizeable increase in the percentage of firms where LPM is part of or reports to KM. Though less than half of the organizations answered the question regarding the kinds of tools used to help with fee estimates, the top tools used by those that did respond are budgeting templates, third-party or custom-built budgeting systems, and mining matter data for historical fee information. Lawyers' use of Web 2.0 tools for collaboration appears to be catching on, with organizations reporting their lawyers' use of blogs, wikis, discussion forums, team sites and internal social networking tools all increasing by 20% or more from 2012's results. Lawyers are reportedly using these tools primarily to aggregate legal knowledge and resources on particular topics. Another big topic in the legal KM community is client-facing KM, and this year's results suggest this is top-of-mind among many firms. With roughly half of the participants responding to the questions associated with KM directed to a firm's clients, a little over 40% are giving clients access to content through secure sites or restricted search tools, and over 30% support or demonstrate technology and KM tools for clients. The results also reveal a marked increase in KM's active participation in pitches and proposals and more substantial presence in pitch materials. LOOKING AHEAD Looking forward to the coming months, respondents listed implementing or upgrading their portal, developing a formal KM strategy and implementing enterprise search as their top three priorities. As for challenges, it wasn't surprising to see change management, budgetary constraints and buy-in top the list. Finally, we received a good number of varied and interesting insights as to where our community sees KM heading in the next several years. Many of those who commented suggest an even greater focus on process improvement and efficiency, as well as innovation and creativity. We will look forward to checking back on this in two years; in the meantime, we leave you to ponder this year's full results. — Ginevra Saylor of Dentons Canada LLP 2014 KM SURVEY RESULTS