By: Dan Costello
It was a balmy 80 degrees, the skies were blue, the air was dry, and the discussions were energized. Although the location was at a resort, I was not on vacation. I was at the CLM Annual Conference where most of the blue sky talk was on business strategy, and the energy came from some of the top executives and attorneys in the corporate, insurance, and legal communities. As I listened to some of the top thought leaders in the country, I was constantly struck with the commonality in their comments. The same thought kept popping into my head . . . "Are we ready for the next big leap?" According to IBM Consulting, over 90% of the world's data has been created in just the last two years. Known as "Big Data" every mouse click, tweet, post, invoice, and settlement for companies is being recorded. What does a company do with all that data? More importantly what value does it provide the business and its partners? These are questions that face large and small organizations alike and ones currently challenging the same thought leaders. In an act of hubris creating a solution to solve these problems, I think that successful organizations will tackle the "value" question only by:
Collaboration
Although its not the first time I have blogged about this, in the era of big data information sharing is paramount. With so much data, more information sharing would seem counter-productive. But, sharing partner specific data is essential. Sharing has been done successfully in corporations, but little has been done on whole to share this externally with litigation partners. In fact, the few leading companies sharing this with their business partners are the minority. Information sharing is not a one way street, as law firm partners should help to "crowd source" or "partner source" difficult information to capture, and provide it back to their clients to help add value. Data on KPIs such as total case outcome, which is reliable, and consistent helps to triangulate and identify problems. This also helps to significantly increase the brain power to collect, analyze and distribute data.
Visibility
What good is the data if its buried in a warehouse? When a coach is deciding which player to put in at the end of the game, he relies on data. He knows who has the best average, most goals, and best shooting percentage. But guess what, the player also knows his/her stats. All the data in the world is not helpful unless its put in context. If reducing cycle time is beneficial to you and your bottom line, let your partners know of your benchmarks, and where they fall on the spectrum. Is a 30% average good or bad? Well it depends if we are talking about a batting average in baseball, or save percentage in soccer.
Reward
Value is created when reward meets opportunity. Only by creating incentives to reach a common goal does value happen. Data lets us know how close we are to success, and drives us forward to get there. By the use of real time dashboards, managers and partners can highlight success, steer business to those at the top of the pyramid, and find more ways to incorporate top performers into their organizations. After all leaders are looking for effective problem solvers, not just those who are efficient on throwing things over the wall. Thomas Edison wisely stated "many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." Only by collaborating with visible benchmarks will partners truly succeed and conquer big data.
