Managing Expectations

A recent article on CIO magazine provides very useful advice for any IT development program (including legal extranets). It does a good job highlighting some of the key aspects of any IT project and organization -- being sure your organization can deliver projects as promised, understanding requirements, begin recognized by the business as a key driver of process improvement and change within the organization, and how to effectively communicate with your project sponsors and their organization.

Click here to review the article.

Legal Extranet Technology Tips

We suggest the following when considering a legal extranet implementation:

• Be sure to select a system with a strong database engine (Oracle, SQL Server, etc.) to support robust requirements and storage needs.
• Be sure the site is encrypted using a SSL certificate.
• Strive for "location", not "per site", licensing. It is probably much cheaper.
• Be sure to ask the software vendor to show you some of the flexibility of the system -- can you add/remove/relocate fields, etc.
• Be sure you understand the primary reason(s) you are implementing the system (case management, document management, calendaring, contact management, etc.) so you can develop an appropriate ROI for an investment in a legal extranet system.
• Be sure to understand the main features and functionality of the legal extranet system you are considering implementing and be sure these are in alignment with your business needs.