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.
