As the pundits predicted almost a decade ago, the Web has indeed changed the way we live. We can now do virtually any task online from the mundane, such as shopping, banking and stock trading, to the previously unimaginable, like accessing customized legal documents via our browsers.

But web-based technology in and of itself is not a panacea. If it does not fundamentally improve upon previous methods for getting things done, its value is marginal. Take client relationship management (CRM) software as an example.

When first introduced into the legal marketplace back in 1996, Windows-based CRM software gave client-focused law firms a technology infrastructure they sorely needed to support client development, marketing, cross-selling and client retention initiatives. It answered such fundamental but difficult-to-ascertain questions as: Who knows whom? What do we know about this client? What interactions have other firm members had with this contact?

Windows-based CRM software represented a natural evolution that started with individual user-based contact management. Marketing databases soon emerged, enabling client development departments to start amassing contact information and other client data for campaigns and initiatives. Finally, CRM software represented the penultimate - empowering all firm members to contribute to the centralized database and access critical information.

With the advent of web-enabled contact management systems, marketing databases and CRM solutions - it's becoming increasingly difficult for firms to ascertain what additional value these enhanced systems deliver over their Windows-based counterparts. Is a web- based CRM solution better simply because users can access it via their browsers? Certainly not!

Both Windows-based and web-based platforms have their advantages and limitations. While simply web-enabling existing CRM technology will deliver certain benefits to law firms - there must be more to it. Software providers must lead - not follow. Their web- based products must not only take advantage of the latest platform technologies, they must take us beyond where we were and into an entirely new realm of productivity, efficiency and value.

That's where relationship intelligence comes in. It represents the next stage in the evolution of CRM.

Relationship Intelligence: Moving Beyond Client Relationship Management
What is relationship intelligence? Law firms possess vast amounts of information about people, companies, relationships, experience and expertise. It resides in their CRM, contact management, time & billing, HR and other systems. It also resides in the heads of the attorneys. Through the process of aggregating and managing this disparate data, it can be transformed into relationship intelligence - competitive intelligence that then can be pushed out to attorneys in context on their platform of choice.

How are relationship intelligence solutions different from the last generation of CRM solutions? They represent the next logical step in the evolution of this technology. Relationship intelligence focuses on the user of content, not the technology, itself.

Traditional CRM solutions solved enormous problems in most law firms; they also unearthed new challenges: Who's going to enter relationship data into the system? (Attorneys won't.) How can you take advantage of content from other systems (i.e. time & billing) that can provide valuable insight into the client relationship? How can marketing teams take advantage of this content for their own purposes? How can you push relationship intelligence content out to attorneys in a way that they can use it easily, without difficulty or learning curve?

These questions are answered through the four unique processes that next-generation CRM solutions undertake in creating relationship intelligence. Those processes are: relationship discovery; relationship management; marketing automation and knowledge delivery.

Relationship Discovery: Automated processes that uncover hidden relationships in data contained within firms' disparate applications - time and billing systems, financial and human resources software, personal digital assistants (PDA's) and contact managers such as Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes - and bring these relationships into a centralized knowledge base for immediate use. As a result of the relationship discovery process, attorneys derive immediate value from the system by being able to access critical relationship content such as who knows whom, who knows what, and who knows how - even before they've contributed any information into the system.

Relationship Management: The relationship management component focuses on the process of managing internal competitive information. The ability to derive a single instance of a contact within the centralized database enables the software to provide a complete, 360-degree view of the client and all firm relationships relating to that client. This component also handles "ethical-wall" security, which allows professionals to protect client confidentiality by controlling how and with whom information is shared. As a result, attorneys can easily track and understand the complex web work of interrelationships that exist between clients, contacts and other firm members.

Marketing Automation: Law firms must be able to harness relationship intelligence to understand clients and prospects and preserve their sterling image. The marketing automation process incorporates a sophisticated set of business functions to help manage referral sources, create comprehensive client profiles, conduct sophisticated market segmentation and execute 1 to 1 marketing programs. It also offers flexibility for storing, accessing and reporting on relationship intelligence in order to formulate strategic campaigns.

Knowledge Delivery: Once discovered, aggregated and managed, relationship intelligence is then delivered via an XML-based application server to professionals on their platform of choice including the Web, intranets, corporate portals, and wireless devices such as Palm Pilots and Blackberry.

CRM solutions that aggregate, manage and deliver relationship intelligence through these four processes solve the most vexing challenges created by earlier generations of this technology: How does the content get into the system? How is it managed? How is it delivered to the professional wherever, however and whenever it's needed?

Is It Web-Based or Not?
Notice that the focus of this article is not about whether relationship intelligence solutions are web-based or not. The precise answer is that they're web-based, Windows-based, PIM based - indeed, they're based wherever your users are. That's the point.

Now that we're in the thick of the Internet age, do you plan on abandoning Outlook or Lotus Notes? Do you plan on getting rid of Microsoft Word or WordPerfect in place of some Internet-based word processor? Is your shift to a Web-based time & billing system imminent?

Most firms will be operating in heterogeneous platform environments for many years to come. To be effective and deliver value, your CRM solution must be capable of discovering content from all of these environments and delivering relationship intelligence to attorneys wherever they prefer accessing information - whether it's through Outlook, their Palm Pilot, Blackberry, the Web or anywhere else.

Next-generation relationship intelligence solutions do not dictate what platform you should use, or how your attorneys should work. They accommodate. Only through accommodation can the real benefits of CRM ever truly be realized.

The real question is not whether a CRM solution is web-enabled. You should be asking whether it's attorney-enabled.

About our author...

Rick Klau is Vice President of Legal Markets at Interface Software. He can be reached at (630) 288-2254 or by e-mail at rklau@interfacesoftware.com.