The post, which covers a lot of ground, was full of interesting observations and a lot of food for thought.
Sometimes we take our IT infrastructure for granted—too much so. In the last few weeks I've encountered a succession of stories where client relationships were strongly reinforced by astute deployment of IT assets. Call it the intersection of marketing and IT.
...IT increasingly participates in new business pitches. According to [Neville] Eisenberg, senior IT staff have helped BLP win some critical assignments, while Morley makes the same point in the obverse, noting that law firms are increasingly expected by clients and staff to be at the cutting edge of technology. “If you are not at the leading edge, clients will begin to melt away from you...”
...For all the copious amounts of ink that have been spilled on the topic, it remains true that there's a generational shift underway as each new crop of lawyers arrives more and more familiar with technology...
...it's not just a better or deeper facility with current law firm technology—it's pushing the frontiers into technology that's novel (certainly for law firms). For example, I've been talking about the intrinsic fit between what lawyers do (collaborate on written materials) and wikis for a few years now, but at last it's actually being embraced...
...The increasing embrace of IT, and its true embedding within the essence of what firms do, comes, I hasten to add, with one enormous challenge which no one to my knowledge has yet answered in a satisfactory way that might yield a long-term equilibrium solution: That challenge is commoditization...
...My view is more sanguine, primarily because I believe the phrase "commoditization" is flung around far too loosely and generates free-floating fear divorced from real-world implications. I'm closer to the position articulated by David Jabbari, Allen & Overy's head of knowledge management, who believes that “Clearly, any information that can be commoditised is going to be, and will be free,” but who also pointed out that we've known for a hundred years, since Henry Ford introduced the assembly line, how to efficiently build a car, and yet the auto industry is one of the most hotly competitive and least "commoditized" around...
...The most forward-thinking proponents of Knowledge Management within firms are beginning to move the function from support of the firm's practice to support of the firm's strategy. The first—practice support—involves hygienic expertise in such things as sophisticated document management, "enterprise" (firm-wide) search, and cutting edge technological tools. But the latter—strategic business support—can bolster client-company and industry awareness, business development efforts, and client relations. It turns KM from inward and lawyer-facing to outward and client-facing....
...One powerful way to open up your firm's KM function to clients is to introduce internally accessible and (carefully selected) client-accessible blogs and wikis, as is being done at Allen & Overy...
...Ultimately, the goal is to unlock the expertise, both tacit and explicit, within your firm in transparent ways that clients will come to see as defining your true competitive distinction.
...This is not your father's IT. And it's not a "commodity...."