Digital White Papers

33 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Are You Your Vendor's Captive? How To Optimize Your Research Dollars draws the line between research and analysis at a different point, value comes from leveraging both tools efficiently and in having experienced researchers available. Where Do You Start? The content continuum presents a multi-year path that will differ for each firm but will represent a significant change for all. Assuring alignment with broader firm strategies, not to mention support for your overall research mission, is a critical first step. Once you have that support, define clear annual milestones with the understanding that some of these may take more than one year to accomplish. Leave time for your users to get comfortable with the alternatives. Unless you have the rare privilege of being unconcerned with budget, as you identify new products and services that align with your mission, you also will need to make hard choices about your current research tools. Before you eliminate one of your providers, ask yourself the following questions: » Are we geing the right value? » Is usage low, particularly among lawyers and for secondary sources? » Can content be found elsewhere? » Do top users and practice groups support this decision? » Will the firm support the decision? » Will your other supplier(s) support the transition? » Are external pressures, such as cost recovery or alternative fee agreements, in play? You can also contact us or other colleagues and peers who have gone down similar paths to talk about their successes or pitfalls. Vendors As Partners Despite the challenges and effort involved, our research tools and services optimization project was the right thing for our firm. We hope the analysis and discussion we and many of our colleagues have undertaken will lead our vendors to work with us as partners. Rather than insisting on rigid models that are vestiges of a past that no longer supports our needs, we want our providers to help us find the right solution for our firms as our needs evolve. Customers should never feel hostage to business and pricing models that are not in their and their clients' best interests, especially in times of rapid change and high pressure. ILTA KATHY SKINNER Kathy Skinner is the Director of Research & Information Services at White & Case, LLP. She has broad experience managing all aspects of the research and information services function. Kathy is an effective and engaged leader of a global team of researchers and operations team members who provide service across time zones to support client and business development needs. She determines purchasing strategies and budgets for research tools that support all of the firm's practice areas and has implemented process improvements to expand services and enhance productivity while collaborating broadly across the organization to align research function with overall firm strategy. Contact her at kathyskinner@whitecase.com.

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