A law firm's nucleus of knowledge
A large law firm in Spain is said to be using collaboration and knowledge management software to the benefit of an annual savings of more than $1.3 million.
Cuatrecasas with 600 attorneys at 17 offices worldwide--needed to improve collaboration and information exchange among employees in its different locations. In May 2002, the firm chose Hummingbird Enterprise suite of document and knowledge management, portal and collaboration technologies.
"With the solution, we have standardized information sharing across our global offices, providing a centralized collaboration and document management system," says Francesc Munoz, IT director at Cuatrecasas. "Our employees can easily and quickly search and share information and reuse best-practices content regardless of location, improving productivity of attorneys and administrative assistants ... We were able to implement the software in a short time, while customizing the implementation to our own requirements on an ongoing basis."
The system provides Cuatrecasas users with a single, Web-based desktop system for seamless and secure access to the firm's collective expertise, where and when they need it, according to a press release from Hummingbird. The law firm has created online communities organized around practice areas, geographies and similar categories to facilitate immediate access to best-practices content. The centralized collaboration and document management system standardizes the firm's information assets, ensuring that staff access the most current version of a file, thereby improving information accuracy.
Hummingbird cites an analysis by Nucleus Research, a provider of ROI-focused research and advisory services, that indicated that Cuatrecasas achieved a positive ROI on its Hummingbird deployment because of: increased employee productivity, reduced administrative burden on IT staff in its various locations and redeployment of hardware formerly needed for supporting disparate systems. Nucleus estimated the benefits-- both direct and indirect--to the law firm at an annual savings of more than $1.3 million.