Digital White Papers

16 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Boosting Enterprise Search with Beer Metadata Folksonomies can benefit a firm by giving greater freedom to the people categorizing matters and documents. without considering other metadata fields. As some firms have incorporated features into their enterprise search engines that try to categorize documents by analyzing their content and format (regardless of any metadata), a firm could implement similar soware that tries to categorize documents as they are saved. This additional step could improve metadata without requiring user involvement. The primary benefit of automation is that it encourages, rather than requires, lawyers and staff to enter or enhance metadata. However, automation could be technologically difficult, especially for firms with well-established document management systems and maer intake procedures. The cost of implementing auto-completion functionality might far exceed the potential benefits. Eliminating the guesswork should lead to more uniform categorization, but firm members might develop a habit of adopting the system's suggestions without considering whether another category might be more appropriate. Make sure everyone continues to consider categories beyond the system's suggestions. Simplified Taxonomy: Another way to improve document and maer metadata is to simplify the law firm's taxonomy and reduce the number of choices firm members confront when categorizing documents and maers. For example, a firm might opt for a single industry code for "Farming" rather than using separate industry codes for "Berry (Except Strawberry) Farming," "Corn Farming," "Other Non-Citrus Fruit Farming," "Other Vegetable (Except Potato) Farming" and similar sub-industries. One advantage to simplified taxonomies is that people are more likely to enter accurate metadata. Simple taxonomies also result in more uniform and helpful classification. However, firms must take care not to omit options that would significantly benefit a practice, sector or niche group. Finding the right balance between too much and too lile detail is a delicate process requiring input from multiple stakeholders across the firm. Firms with highly detailed and ingrained taxonomies could find that combining seemingly redundant and unnecessary options not only irks firm members who have relied on them for years, but also confuses them and reduces uniformity. These firms might find keeping their granular taxonomy a beer option, with workarounds built into their enterprise search. Rather than combining different types of farming into one industry code for new maer intake, adding an "All Farming Clients" option to the firm's enterprise search engine (to aggregate those clients for search purposes) may be more prudent.

• Cover