Writer Needed: How is CI Developed and Applied in Professional Services Firms?

If you're looking to stretch your writing muscles, we may have an opportunity for you. An upcoming issue of Competitive Intelligence Magazine will be focusing on how CI is developed and applied in professional services firms. If you would like to be a contributor to this issue, please contact Bonnie Hohhof, Director of CI Information and Research at SCIP.

( photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/plindberg/ )

I think this would give law firm CI professionals a good platform to discuss what it is we do, and how professional service firms (like law firms) approach the concept of CI from a different angle than our corporate counterparts. I'm sure I'm not the only person that has been told that "law firms do not do 'real' Competitive Intelligence."

Contact Bonnie if you're interested in writing on the topic. Also use this platform to comment on what you'd like to see in such an article. For example, Emily Cunningham brought up these questions when we talked about this topic:

• What do we (law firms) do differently in CI?
• What could we learn from our peers in other industries?
• What do we do better?
• What do we need to improve?

Chime in using the comments section and let all of us know your thoughts.

Librarians evolve with Competitive Intelligence

Having just returned from AALL (American Association of Law Libraries) annual conference, I thought I would focus on the role law librarians play in a firm’s Competitive Intelligence (CI) efforts. CI in law firms continues to expand and evolve offering tremendous opportunity for law librarians. Transformation from traditional legal research to more analytical and strategic business analysis provides law librarians an opportunity to re-invent and grow as analytical business development takes a more prominent position across firms worldwide. It’s an exciting time in the world of library science, and law librarians are not alone among professionals who are re-inventing due to the vast amount of information available. By planning a course of continuous professional development, law librarians can define and create vital roles in CI for the benefit of their firms and their futures.

For librarians looking to play a bigger role in your firm’s CI efforts, here are a few suggestions on how to get more involved:

1. Understand CI process and structure at your firm. Where does CI sit? Library? Marketing? Business development? A combination of all three? Knowing the rules helps you understand where you can play and add the most value.
2. Be part of the process from the start. Ask questions. What is the purpose of the task? What is the overall objective for the assignment? The skills and intelligence you have gleaned from years in the business provide a firm foundation for your relevant analytical opinions.
3. Use all the tools in your arsenal. Nobody in the law firm knows the information sources available at your firm like you do. Explore the variety of research tools available that contribute to CI; tap them all
4. Deliver analysis, don’t just dump data. You’re being asked to provide business analysis and that includes making recommendations. Don’t be afraid to provide insightful opinions based on research. Step out of these familiar confines and structure; test your comfort meter. With practice you build confidence that complements your intelligence.
5. Insist on an invitation to the party. Knowledge enhances intelligent analysis. By showing continuous interest in your firm’s growth, you ensure yourself a position on the analytical team. Make sure the rest of the firm understands what you can deliver.

-Chris Whitmore

CI in the Small Firm Environment

Nuts and Bolts of Competitive Intelligence:

CI in the Small Firm Environment

AALL PLL-SIS program

Washington, DC

Sunday, July 26, 2009

3:00 - 4:00

Caren Luckie

Julia Hughes

[NOTE: Below is the presentation handouts presented by Julia Hughes at the AALL 2009 Annual Conference in Washington, DC.]

Ci In The Small Firm

Pages w/ Links To CI Resources:

Justia Free 60: 60 Essential Free Law Firm Competitive Intelligence Resources:

1-11 -- http://onward.justia.com/useful-tools-web-sites-50-justia-free-sixty-60-essential-free-competitive-intelligence-resources-for-your-legal-desktop-1-11.html

12-24 -- http://onward.justia.com/useful-tools-web-sites-52-justia-free-sixty-60-essential-free-actionable-intelligence-resources-for-your-law-firm-12-24.html

25-39 -- http://onward.justia.com/useful-tools-web-sites-53-justia-free-sixty-60-essential-free-strategic-intelligence-resources-for-your-law-firm-2539.html

40-44 -- http://onward.justia.com/-55-justia-free-sixty-60-essential-free-law-firm-competitive-intelligence-resources-4044.html

45-60 -- http://onward.justia.com/law-firm-competitive-intelligence-57-justia-free-sixty-60-essential-free-law-firm-competitive-intelligence-resources-4560.html

Birdsong, Lark "Growing on a Shoestring" Searcher March 2008 pgs16-19+; April 2008 14-19+.

Part I: http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-strategy-outsourcing/10591616-1.html

Part II: http://www.allbusiness.com/banking-finance/banking-lending-credit-services-payment/10593192-1.html

Pacifici, Sabrina I., "Competitive Intelligence - a selective resource guide - updated and revised March 2009", http;//www.llrx.com/features/ciguide.htm

Schweyer, Kitty "Competitive Intelligence Resources in Law Firms" Searcher, April 2008 pgs 30-39

http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-strategy/10593224-1.html

Articles:

Cohen, Alan, "Survey: CI n the Rise at Firm Libraries" Lawfirm Inc. August 19, 2008 http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1202423517443

Gibson, Ann Lee, "How to Create and Use Competitive Intelligcence; 45 Tips for Law Firms" http://www.abanet.org/lpm/magazine/articles/v34/is2/pg47.shtml

Kaczorowski, Monice M. "Uniting in Competitive Intelligence" AALL Spectrum V12 March 2008 pg 26 http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_sp0803/pub_sp0803_CI.pdf

Middlemiss, Jim "Firms Look to Intelligence to Gain a Competitive Edge" Law Times http://www.lawtimesnews.com/200703051346/Headline-News/Firms-look-to-intelligence-to-gain-a-competitive-edge

Peros, Janet "Blurring the Lines" AALL Spectrum V10 April 2006 pg http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_sp0604/pub_sp0604_Blurring.pdf

Raashc, Janet Ellen, "Use Competitive Intelligence to Make Better Business Decisions." Law Practice Today June 2007 http://www.abanet.org/lpm/lpt/articles/mgt06071.shtml

Sankstone, Shannon "Law Firm Competitive Intelligence" Marketing the Law Firm Newsletter April 10, 2008 http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1207737845590

Will, Linda "Law Firm Libraries: the Focal Point for Competitive Intelligence Services," Practice Innovatons Vol 8 No. 2 July 2007 pg 1 http://west.thomson.com/pdf/iii/PracticeInnovJuly07.pdf

Internal Audit

A. Resources

1. Staff

a. who?
b. backup for normal job functions?
c. break point for help?
d. joint w/ marketing?

2. Materials (firm size / market size)

i. Lexis/Westlaw

* public records
-corporate
-property
-UCC / Liens
-Personal - address/phone
*news
*cases
*administrative decisions/materials
*rep visits

ii. Public Library?

iii. Internet - use multiple search engines
(use web capturing software Zotero / NetSnippets)

*manta

iv. Administrative agencies
v. PACER
vi. Commercial services (?)
-CourtLink
-Other Subscription resources ??

Creating the Report

A. Format(s)
1. Length
a. Brief w/ out news
b. Brief w/ news
c. Full

d. Length of time to compile each report

2. What is included in report?
a. basic corporate information
b. legal background
c. industry information
d. create a template (brand it)

3. Physical Formatting
a. Report itself / electronic or paper
b. Include any ancillary materials?
i. paper
ii. electronic (eSnips? / bib of

B. "Procedures Manual" (electronic or paper)

1. schedule/process for updating

plan time (20-40 min) at the end of each report to evaluate new materials? patterns?

2. record of resources

Getting it Started and Keeping it Going

A. Ways to get started

1. Responsive
2. Proactive

B. Responsive

1. Marketing
2. Attorney

C. Proactive - who are you comfortable with?

1. Head of PR committee
2. Partner / Sr. Associate
3. Marketing Department
4. Office Administrator

D. Keeping it Going

1. Work w/ the Marketing Department
2. Attend Practice Group Meetings - talk it up
3. Hopefully recipients will talk. If they are helpful they will.
4. All Firm Seminars on CI reports and how they have affected client development.
Or do them by practice group so that you can highlight a report/potential client of
interest to that group.

E. What's going to sell them?

1. Start by giving them "Full" reports only offer other options after first one
2. YOU are a researcher; so be one. Do the best you possibly can on Firsts.
3. If they get the client -- make marketing dept. contact to keep you in the loop so
you can keep track of which clients you helped with.

F. Create a System (work w/ Marketing?)

1. When should you be doing reports?
2. How are deadlines met? - know how much lead time you need for specific kinds of reports and make sure that is
3. Create a system for vetting and filtering report requests.

Working with other Departments

A. Accounting - time record

B. Marketing

1. Feed you reports - access to who target clients are
2. Feed back on success
3. Do you need to meet regularly to discuss?

C. Library - Online expenses

Other Things to keep in mind

A. Organize materials

1. In DMS
2. Hard Copy

B. Keep track:

1. Companies reports were done for
2. When they were done
3. Who they were done for (check DMS to see who access the report - calendar tickler)

C. Follow-up - did they get the client?

1. Update?
2. Monitor?

D. Follow-up with Library Staff (continual evaluation)

1. Keep track of the number of reports that are being done.
2. How is this affecting staff and work completion?
3. Where do you need to make adjustments?

We're All in This Together: Library & Marketing as Partners

An article in this week’s issue (July 20, 2009) of the National Law Journal entitled “Marketing and Research Professionals, Unite!” is creating a lot of buzz in both the Marketing and Research communities. The author, Ms. Wong, is very knowledgeable about the role marketing plays in the business development process. However, she seems a bit unsure about the role of the Library. Marketing/ Business Development and Researchers must indeed unite, but Researchers have a more integral and strategic role to play in the process than only through compiling data for the consumption of others or brainstorming in the way that Ms. Wong described in her article. In order to have a robust and valuable business development process, it is necessary for these groups to truly partner with one another.

The role of the Research group or Library is not limited to gathering data. Researchers can add value in other ways. They are expert at trend analysis, often aware of industry trends as a result of their daily news monitoring or spotting trends in the course of their research. When the research results are reviewed by someone removed from the data collection process, they will often miss trends in the data that the researcher will notice through the research process. Noting these trends is something researchers do daily in the course of their normal process for non-business development applications. Additionally, researchers know that attorneys are used to seeing research presented with the conclusions first. This is directly tied to the fact that the attorneys' time is money and they want to spend as little time as possible determining what is important. The result is that the researcher analyzes and filters the information in order to provide real, actionable intelligence.

It is imperative for both the Marketing/Business Development Department and the Research/Library Department to work together to apply the firm's strategic context to this analysis , creating a frame of reference that makes the end result much more relevant to the attorneys. True partnerships between Marketing/ Business Development and Researchers involve the former group fully understanding and utilizing the in-depth research and analysis abilities of the latter. The best possible work product can only be produced when these two groups collaborate.

- Jan Rivers and Mark Gediman

Business Intelligence + Competitive Intelligence, Perfect Together!

For those of you from New Jersey, you may remember former Governor Tom Kane’s commercials that went…New Jersey and You, Perfect Together! That was the inspiration for my title referring to how Business Intelligence (BI) and Competitive Intelligence (CI) compliment each other in doing law firm BI/CI analysis.

Some common truths:

1. Both BI and CI are important functions in becoming smarter about your firm’s performance as an organization and the markets in which it operates
2. Both BI and CI apply an analytical approach towards refining data into actionable insight
3. BI and CI are not necessarily the same thing but when combined provide a tremendous amount of intelligence than either one can alone.
   

Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence is the collection and analysis of an organizations internal data. Probably the single greatest aspect of BI is that the information is unique to your firm – only you have it. Sources include CRM activities, billing data, the documents, the relationships, etc. There is a gold mine of intelligence waiting to be sifted through (or blasted depending on how far along your firm is with regards to harnessing your internal data). The challenge with BI is getting the rules and tools within your firm to be able to go back and get at your data easily.

Competitive Intelligence
Competitive Intelligence on the other hand is the gathering and analysis of the external marketplace. That includes clients, prospects and in the most traditional sense of the definition – your competitors. Unlike internal data which is unique to each firm, external data is everywhere. There are a multitude of data sources, data providers, tools, etc to help tap into all sorts of information. The rise of Social Media (and in particular Social Search) has opened up a tremendous amount of insight into relationships, connections, trends, etc. The challenge here is to find ways to align all of this data into a format that produces trends, warning flags, opportunity signals, etc.

Perfect Together
Bringing BI and CI together creates insights greater than either can do alone and can help direct a firm’s business development efforts profoundly. Here are 3 examples:

1. Cross-Selling – Identify clients who are under penetrated by looking at hours worked across the various work types (BI) and then identify other types of legal work being done with those clients that your firm excels at along with the law firms that are performing that work (CI).
2. Prospecting – Find existing clients who are profitable, have very little revenue loss and are in line with the firm margin level (BI). Use characteristics that those clients share such as industry, geography, and type of work to profile to find potential prospects with the same similar traits (CI).
3. Geographic Analysis – One of your offices has been consistently decreasing in hours worked over the past 5 years (BI). Analyze that geography to determine if the legal work of the entire market is shrinking or just your slice of it. If the market is strong, you may want to target medium-sized firms in that area to identify lateral hire targets or as potential merger candidates to bolster that office location (CI).

So when doing BI or CI work, remember how bringing them together can add a different dimension and perspective to your intelligence efforts.

Check It Out: Hoover's Spotlights Emily Rushing

Check out the Hoover's Spotlight on one of our own. Emily Rushing is the featured person in the latest spotlight. Congrats Emily!!

FYI -- this is not Emily's first rodeo. Ann Lee Gibson also ran an interview with Emily and posted it on her blog a couple months ago. We'll all look back some day and say "I remember her when...."

Martindale-Hubbell Connected - Pinpointing Social Media for Lawyers, or Just More Noise?

I had the opportunity to listen to Darryl Cross from LexisNexis yesterday talk about Social Networking for Lawyers and how Martindale-Hubbell Connected plays a part in the whole scene. The presentation was held at the House of Blues in Houston -- and to be honest, I'd attend a quilting bee as long as it is held at the HOB -- and was pretty basic, but Darryl did have some good information to share. One thing that I did find odd, was that he stressed that Connected was a "lawyers-only" resource. Although Connected started off as a "lawyers-only" service, there was enough grumbling by non-lawyers within law firms about be excluded, that there are now 'exceptions' to the rule. So, law firm librarians, CI professionals, marketing, IT, and KM folks are now welcome into the Connected world.

Here is the generic "about" information that Connected writes about itself:

Martindale-Hubbell Connected is an online community for legal professionals that thrives on user participation. Every community is only as great and beneficial as the community involvement of its members.

Here are some of your options for getting involved with the Martindale-Hubbell Connected community:

• Blogs. Read perspectives from legal professionals on current issues and add your own views in comments.
• Forums. Answer questions or share your thoughts on topics ranging from legal management and practice-specific issues to business travel.
• Build your network. Connect with other legal professionals.
• Enhance your profile. Give others the chance to know more about you and your experience. Don't forget to add a photo.
• Share your ideas for the Community. Post questions and feedback.

You may contact the Community Manager through Martindale-Hubbell Connected's private messaging, or email directly at communitymanager@martindale.com.

I think there is a lot of potential in the Connected product. Time will tell if Lexis can leverage its existing resources and make Connected a "go to" resource for lawyers wanting to connect with others using pinpointed social media tools. At last count, Connected was approaching 12,000 members. With the fact that all of these are specifically legal industry people, Connected seems well positioned to be the big player in Lawyer Social Media resources.

You do still have to be 'invited' to join Connected. [Note: You do not have to be invited. Thanks to Ohad from MH for letting us know that you only need to go to http://www.martindale.com/connected and sign up.] And, I'm assuming that since you're still reading this post, I've at least piqued your interest in looking at Connected. Email me if you want to join the network. Then comment back here -- preferably by becoming a CIBlawg Contributor and writing a follow-up blog post.

Web Notes Demo

I was recently turned on to a new research tool from a company called Web Notes, which is definitely worth a look. The application is downloaded as a toolbar that enables users to use highlighting and sticky note functions on web pages as they are researching, and then save these annotated page links in easily organizable folders.

I've demo'd the free version here, using a simple search on some Portland law firms.


Using Google, I found the firm web sites just as I normally would, and then used the Web Notes tool to highlight the relevant areas of the page(s) and added sticky notes where applicable. The result looks something like this:

http://webnotes.net/?OYZEyO

One of the cool features of the tool is that the recipient doesn't have to have the application installed to be able to receive the page with annotations.


Also available is a report generator that allows the user to compile a report of several sites they've researched and annotated (generated by the folder in which they are organized) and produce either a PDF or HTML version for distribution.

The upgrade product, currently running $9.99 per month per user, allows for uploading of your own PDF files (via a super secure server) and then the ability to annotate those as well. Group solutions are also available providing a customized/branded firm site for multiple users within your organization to collaborate.

Web Notes is only recently beginning to market to law firms, but my prediction is that this will be a well-received addition to our intel arsenal.

Competitive Intelligence in a Web 2.0 World - Part 1: Finding Company Employees on Twitter

I got the idea for this multi-part post because Melissa Sachs has taken on the project of trying to find as many people as she can that work in AmLaw law firms that have Twitter accounts (#AMLAWTweeple). It's a great work in progress, and you should go check out the list (and contribute if you know of anyone.)

Scenario: Boss comes in and says (in a voice that sounds a lot like Tommy Lee Jones in the Fugitive) - "I want to know everyone from 'X' law firm that is on Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, Flikr, YouTube, Bloghouse, Roadhouse, Doghouse, and Outhouse." Okay, that last part probably didn't happen in this scenario, but I got all into the Tommy Lee Jones theme.

In “Part 1” we’re going to focus on finding employees within a law firm that have Twitter accounts.

There are a few 'tricks' I've learned on how to identify people on the Social Web (social media, web 2.0, etc.) that I wanted to share with you. Some are basic, and some require you to have a Law Degree and a Masters in Library Science in order to truly understand them (Hey! Let me justify my dual degree!!). The steps are also generic enough that you can probably alter the scenario to fit any type of company. Just for fun, let's start off big and for our scenario, "X" = "Skadden Arps".

Step 1: Steal what others have already compiled. (In academia I think they call this "research")

Take a leap of faith here with me and trust me when I say that some of this work has already been compiled by others. For starters, I already told you that Ms. Sachs has a list of people from AmLaw firms on Twitter, so let's start there.

• I see that she's found only one: Skadden - @ChrisLDickerson

Also don’t forget to search Twitter’s “Find People” option for the name of the firm. Most firms missed the boat when it came to reserving their Twitter names, but it doesn’t hurt to look. In this case, we found that there is a @SkaddenArps account (with zero tweets, but with 175 followers that might come in handy later.)

Step 2: Keyword Search Twellow for the firm’s name in the Twitter Bio

Although I’m pretty sure that Melissa has already done this step, I’m going to double-check the Twitter Profiles using Twellow by searching for the word “Skadden” in the Twitter profile, or for the a link to Skadden’s website. This does give me two new names, but when I read their profiles, I see that they are former Skadden employees (I still keep them on my list because they might prove worthwhile later.)

Step 3: Find Twitter Through LinkedIn, FaceBook and MySpace

This step is the one that has worked best for me in finding additional Twitter accounts. We all know that LinkedIn is one of the most used social networking sites by attorneys. But, what you didn’t know is that you can extract information out of LinkedIn (using a search engine like Google) to find things you may not have thought about. The search is pretty simple:

site:linkedin.com Skadden Twitter

I suggest searching this same string in Google, Bing, and Yahoo (just to be safe.) Then redo the search using FaceBook and MySpace (and any other social media site you think would be useful. In this case, the LinkedIn and FaceBook searches uncovered some additional Skadden Alumni, and the MySpace search disclosed two Skadden employees - one secretary and one legal assistant.

Step 4: Search the Twitter Accounts You Found Using TweepSearch.

TweepSearch allows you to enter the Twitter name of someone and then index the bios all of the users they are following or are following them. Once you have them indexed, you can do a keyword search (I tend to use ‘attorney OR lawyer OR “law firm”). Scan the resulting list to see if any of the bios lead you to additional members of the firm.

Step 5: [If You Can] Ask!

Getting on Twitter and sending a Tweet to the names you found asking them if there are others in their firm that are on Twitter can be an extremely easy way of finding additional people. Of course, if you’re doing this confidentially, then this step doesn’t apply.

Following these steps, I found a couple of non-attorney accounts, and about 5 or 6 alumni accounts for Skadden. All of this took about 15 minutes or so to conduct. If I were to really dive into the project and had a few hours to spend, I’m sure I could come up with a few more. At least now I have something to present back to Tommy Lee Jones (er.. my Boss, that is), and you now know a few tricks on how to find people on the Social Web. If you have any additional tips and tricks, let me know.

I’ll start working on “Part 2” where I’ll begin looking at finding people on LinkedIn.