The Web is a great resource for law firm competitive intelligence (CI). For years, law firm CI analysts have been watching the Web sites of prospective clients and competing firms for any information that can create a competitive advantage for their own firm. This includes monitoring competitor firms’ attorney rosters and tracking trends within other firms based on the publications, press releases and other information posted on their sites. Clients’ and prospective clients’ Web sites are tracked to identify new products, potential litigation issues, and changes within the companies that might enable a firm to capture new work.
But for the CI analyst, the disadvantage has been that a lot of the information posted on traditional Web sites is so heavily filtered that it’s ultimately of very little value.
The development of Web 2.0 technologies has changed things, however, creating an opportunity to monitor information that doesn’t go through a filter before publication. Resources like social networking sites, “Ning” communities, wikis and blogs encourage the free flow of information, and individuals who were once hidden behind the company’s firewall are conducting all kinds of online conversations outside those walls. For law firm CI analysis, the advent of Web 2.0 has ushered in a whole new era and expanded the abilities to find valuable information that could give the firm a competitive advantage.
1 comments:
Greg, I completely agree. What we are seeing in my opinion is the evolution of what was once deemed industrial espionage. The information that was so closely guarded, filtered and watered down now flows like a raging stream. We in the CI community now spend less time hunting for information than we do processing, condensing and spoon feeding our clients (clients being attorneys in my case) bits of useful information they can quickly digest and reuse.
I have found outlets such as www.glassdoor.com that are basically a disgruntled employee site that is sometimes useful to get a glimpse at those who are not overly satisfied with their current situation. Most of the information is rantings of unhappy workers but on several occasions I have found patterns of mismanagement that helped my firm help our client make a more informed decision. We in the CI field are now a days burdened with almost too much information at times. This is a burden I will gladly bear.
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