Today's business climate is characterized by rapid change that requires law firms to move quickly in deploying business solutions that maximize the value of information and intellectual assets throughout the organization. The proliferation of information such as documents, briefs, records and electronic information sources, present an ever-increasing challenge to firms that are striving to more effectively manage and leverage electronic- and human-based knowledge. As law firms move forward with e-business initiatives, they are looking for ways to increase competitiveness, simplify information access and better understand the volumes of documents that are part of daily business. Portals - the latest innovation in knowledge management - can be an important enabling technology that addresses these issues by facilitating easy information access, collaboration and knowledge management within the practice.

The term Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) was first used in a report from Merrill Lynch in November 1998. EIPs, also called corporate portals or enterprise portals, provide a way to integrate the many disparate systems, processes and applications that typically are used within an enterprise, creating a single point of access to information.

Although there are many types of portals, they usually are associated with strategic business processes and normally are deployed along the lines of business to employee, business to business or business to consumer. The enterprise information portal is the foundation of any law firm's e-business platform.

Firms on the leading edge of technology already have implemented EIPs to gain the competitive advantage, increase staff efficiency, and facilitate collaboration and knowledge management. Portals also can enable law firms to extend their businesses by forming closer relationships with their clients and other stakeholders. The EIP also can serve as a platform for e-learning, e-training and e-mentoring as attorneys and staff easily can complete training or discussion groups at their own leisure without leaving the office. Some of the most sophisticated firms now are employing advanced search technology and intelligent agents to push relevant information to the desktop.

Convergence may be the wave of the future, but law firms today have to wade through a plethora of vendors to implement even the most basic portal solution.

• Single log-in to all information sources - including legacy applications, document management systems and electronic information sources.
• Federated search - the ability to access both structured (databases) and unstructured information (documents, digital assets e-mail).
• Personalization - your relevant information displayed in a way you like.
• Application integration - seamless access and inter-client communication within a personalized graphical user environment.
• Collaboration - virtual collaborative environments, enabling collaborative document creation, knowledge management and discussion.
• Security - secure browser access via the Internet, intranet or extranet.
• Scalability - a platform that will support business critical access, large numbers of users from anywhere and future applications.
• Openness - support for industry-standard based APIs and XML.

For legal firms to capitalize on the efficiencies offered by EIPs, it is imperative that they not only consider the integrity, scalability and openness of the solution, but also the ability to leverage existing IT infrastructure investments within the new e-business model. The ability to integrate case management solutions, document management solutions, e-mail and other vital systems without extensive programming and architecture changes to legacy applications, is a significant challenge faced by many firms today. Some EIP platforms provide off-the-shelf application handlers that leverage XML to bridge the chasm between the EIP and legacy application.

In addition to providing attorneys with a single point of access to all internal or external information, EIPs can integrate external information sources including generic search engines and legal content from providers.

EIPs offer law firms a solid platform for taking on the challenges of today's knowledge economy, while leveraging existing investments in corporate resources and applications. This means a fully customizable web-based environment to access the information a legal practice requires to carry on its business. Attorneys can find the information they need and then act on that information using related enterprise applications.

If We Build It Will They Come?
This is perhaps the most significant issue facing many law firms today. Although the technology aspect of implementing an EIP is relatively straightforward, the cultural issues are more daunting and challenging. Knowledge management is back in vogue. But remember this time around that KM is 95 percent culture - the people, process and politics -and about 5 percent technology. If the firm's culture is one of not sharing information, then any portal initiative is doomed to failure. What is in it for the users? Why should they change the way they work everyday? How does this technology save time and make the firm more money? How does it make us more competitive in our practice? Many firms start an EIP with a small number of users, or in a specific practice and leverage that success throughout the organization. Empowering the lawyer is more easily said than done.

KM in many law firms is commonly referred to as an expert system, in other industries it may be intellectual capital management, communities of interest or best practices management. David Suskind's book, Transforming the Law, presents an excellent discussion on how technology is impacting law today and how to implement a successful expert system.

Portal solutions allow attorneys and their support staff to find the information they need when they need it, to work with the applications that leverage that information, and to share their findings with their colleagues using a centralized, highly intuitive and collaborative workspace. The EIP can facilitate a greater level of productivity, information sharing and knowledge management, that ultimately leads to innovation while maintaining the firm's competitive edge.

Reprinted with permission from ALA News, June/July 2001, published by the Association of Legal Administrators, Vernon Hills, Illinois.

About our author...

Peter J. Auditore is Vice President of U.S. Marketing at Hummingbird. For more information, please visit www.hummingbird.com.