How to introduce new data intelligence tech in a law firm
Contrary to what many firms may think, however, they need not get their “data houses” completely in order with big data-cleanup projects before starting to use advanced analytics. While the health of data sources is no doubt critical, firms should begin with a reverse-engineering mindset, by starting with the end in mind through a focused business question. The team should take a close look at the firm’s current strategic landscape and determine what key business questions are truly in need of answers. The firm may need to find out where the biggest organic client growth opportunities are or which teams are most effective at cross-collaboration in a client network, or predict which clients are most at risk of decline.
Once a firm knows what questions need to be answered, the team should form a list of hypotheses that can be tested with the data to help it focus on what data sources to examine. However, the team should avoid trying to “boil the ocean” by attempting to address too many business questions and hypotheses all at once. Testing out new analytics programs or data technology tools on just one or two focused, impactful business questions will set the stage for both early success and a smoother implementation long-term, by clearly distilling down what’s most important in terms of attention and prioritization of firm data assets.
With key questions and hypotheses well-defined, the firm can quickly start to determine which data sources are most important, whether it be finance data, people data, client engagement data, internal team communications data, or other external sources. A good data assessment looks at the quality of the data, including aspects like the completeness of the data in the source, how many years the data source has been in use, the consistency of the data, and the data’s maturity in terms of firm adoption.
Perhaps the firm is unable to glean accurate data insights into metrics like time spent on certain work tasks or client CRM activity. Factors that might render a data source less useful might include: data belonging to a third-party vendor with limited licensing access; messy internal taxonomies; inconsistent finance data due to mergers and acquisitions; or a software system without modern APIs that makes it tough to extract and aggregate data.
However, firms should not balk at moving forward simply because they do not have perfectly clean data sources across the board. It can be a significant mistake to delay starting data analytics projects by seeking, and failing to achieve, perfection. Firms are often already sitting on ample value within their data, with the potential to extract powerful insights that they can turn into action. The best thing firms can do is begin sooner rather than later by starting to measure whatever they have available in an effort to better understand the drivers of different business outcomes.
A meaningful factor in becoming a data-driven law firm is creating a data-driven culture. And that means winning buy-in from key stakeholders in the organization by demonstrating that the insights are indeed actionable and create tangible business impact. Winning hearts and minds often mean showing people that this new technology will make their work lives better.
Once a firm has determined the most potentially fruitful data sources to aggregate in order to answer its key business question, it must decide to which departments and managers the analytics tool will roll out first. Some enthusiastic analytics champions will presume that there’s no harm in rolling out a new tool or system to many practice areas at once or even the entire firm.
But there’s no sustainable ROI in a splashy solution trying to serve too many masters, too hastily.
