ILTA White Papers

www.iltanet.org Make sure that sector know-how is embedded in all teams actively engaged in winning new work. Targeting the Work These days, firms start planning to win new work by looking very closely at what their management information tells them about their existing clients, the profitability of their work and the experience of their staff. They are then targeting their investment efforts to specific industry sectors and potential new business based on the depth of their existing relationships and reputation within that sector. So how is KM supporting this activity? Initiatives that allow better access to and analysis of management information (MI) are critical. For too long MI has been buried in various silos in the CRM and financial systems, and extracting the right information was a seemingly dark art practiced by the finance teams. As our systems have become more flexible and integrated, it is now much easier (although still not a given) to integrate these data resources to allow for easier access to the right information. I have been involved in two portal projects in the past year where the development of real-time integrated management information has been one of the main motivators behind the investment. Portal technology is at its most powerful when it allows decision makers to have access to this type of information. It can allow users to analyze what sectors they are working in, instead of simply with which clients; it can give overviews of profitability and also of the experience and the capacity in teams for more work. None of this is easy, as it requires 30 ILTA White Paper a lot of background planning and thought in order to identify the measures that are to be brought together. And even more effort is needed to make sure that the right information is linked and displayed in a meaningful way; however, when it works, it is like shining a light into the engine room of the business. At Speechly Bircham, Hubbard One's OneView Connect has been used for just such a purpose. The firm's new portal (which is currently in pilot) brings together key information from Aderant, their CRM data in Cicero, their proposal generator, iManage and the HR information in Snowdrop to provide new individual, team and sector views of clients and prospects. It shows in real time what expertise is being developed by staff by analyzing work-type activity, and it gives overviews of capacity and team performance to managers and business developers. Developing this type of client and sector knowledge is vital to winning new business, which then allows the firm to make much better use of their resources when targeting new work. It also makes it easier to start sharing the right information with clients through the effective strategic use of extranets. Bidding and Proposal Development Other new initiatives that I have been involved in recently include rethinking the approach to bidding and

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