Law firm finds hidden value in structured data

After researching a number of enterprise and federated search technology options, the U.K. law firm Farrer & Co. chose Sysero Knowledge Search from UC Logic.

Working with the law firm's intranet platform for collaboration, Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) 2007, SyseroKS provides a single application to search Sharepoint libraries, the firm's document management system and its LexisNexis Interaction customer relationship management (CRM) system. The solution allows staff to search concurrently across documents from the Practical Law Co., LexisNexis Butterworths and Westlaw.

UC Logic reports that Farrer's lawyers can search across all the core systems with a single search from anywhere in MOSS. When searching the document management system, lawyers can filter by client and matter; when searching the CRM system, the technology provides extracts from relevant activities and links to Interaction contacts. A Sharepoint-based knowledge management library has been automatically classified using a legal taxonomy, so lawyers can browse the classifications and search within a classification.

A key feature of the solution is the ability to drill down through large document repositories to find related information.

"The ability to search all areas of the firm's knowledge from one central point is highlighting the hidden value of unstructured data sources," says Anthony Stables, who heads Farrer's IT team.