New Management Challenges By Kenneth Jones Chief Technologist, Tanenbaum Keale

THOMSON REUTERS LEGAL EXECUTIVE INSTITUTE

Anyone who keeps abreast of developments in the legal technology field knows the offerings and services that have the buzz these days: artificial intelligence (AI); the cloud and the private cloud; SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS; Azure; Amazon® Web Services; unified platforms; and, of course, let us never forget the wonderful worlds of blockchain and big data!

These technologies are all great. Each, in their own way, plays a role in the power train propelling forth new legal service models while squeezing more efficiency out of existing workflows. Indeed, many law firms (including my own) use these technologies daily. However, it has to be said that these new offerings present a divergent set of management challenges. To succeed with these leading-edge tools, today’s legal technology leader must be adaptive and flexible.

Here are some lessons learned and rules of the road.

INDIRECT MANAGEMENT

Here’s the first sea change. The more data and functionality an organization migrates to the cloud, the more they partner with companies and professionals who don’t work within that organization. And as advanced technologies are implemented, the greater the likelihood you’ll be reaching out to specialists in certain tools or platforms. It’s simply impossible in today’s ever-changing world to have a deep engineering grasp on everything that has come down or is coming down the pike.

Therefore, it’s vital to develop relationships so that the best-of-the-best players in the field want to work with you. Talented experts don’t have to join your team – they have plenty of demand for their services. The old “chain of command” management style so effective in the military and at times in corporate America doesn’t work here. Retire it – immediately!

Does this mean you should not continue to set the bar high for your team or have lofty expectations of others? Of course not. Just do it with a smile and appreciation and you’ll be fine.

SMALL FISH IN A BIG POND

Long ago, I frequently traveled overseas for business. The executive-level boss with whom I traversed the globe was fairly obsessed (to put it mildly) with getting through customs and immigration checkpoints quickly. His typical modus operandi in a foreign airport was sprinting down the airport terminal to “get in the queue.” He was a bit nuts about it, but, to be fair, he certainly had a keen grasp of the concept that – in the eyes of federal officers in places like Panama, the Netherlands, and Trinidad – he, like all U.S. citizens, did not enjoy the gravitas of the “big fish” status that he enjoyed within the company.

Working with outside technology companies might be considered somewhat similar. Even the biggest law firms are not Fortune 500 companies, the federal government, nor a tech company’s largest account, not by far. You simply can’t muscle vendors around when working with them. A light-handed touch of finesse augmented with a modicum of tact is sometimes what it takes to move projects along.

“I KNOW WHAT A RESERVATION IS”

Most of us of a certain age remember the “Seinfeld” episode when Jerry goes to the rental car agency, discovers that his reservation is lost, and complains to the agent, who tells him, “I know what a reservation is.” To that, Jerry famously exclaims, “I don’t think you do,” and then proceeds to deliver one of his more noteworthy soliloquies on the show.

Well, that can also happen in the legal technology field. We all talk about how SaaS applications or cloud vendors and platforms are highly advanced technology entities. Most of the time they are. But there are instances where your partner might not be particularly savvy. As an example, we recently had a vendor where simple searches for data took upwards of 30 seconds. Amazingly, despite the poor system performance, our software partner took umbrage at virtually every suggestion we made about table indexes, deferring processing until needed, optimizing code, and memory caching (Tanenbaum Keale operates a subsidiary software company, so we do have a bit of expertise in this area).

Technology is, and always will be, a field teeming with debutants and promising ideas. As great as that is, an underrated aspect of the changing computing landscape is the shift in oversight philosophy necessary in this ever-changing world.

The more data and functionality an organization migrates to the cloud, the more they partner with companies and professionals who don’t work within that organization.

In the end however, even though I know we were right, we decided to stand down. Taking the point forward would have been confrontational, and we wished to maintain a good working relationship with this partner. It was one of those situations – perhaps not unlike sacrificing a pawn in chess to gain a tactical positional advantage – where it is better to just cut your losses. But it does take a certain amount of perspective and maturity to arrive at that conclusion.

KEEPING IT REAL

A small part of my job is consulting with clients to assist them in evaluating and selecting electronic-discovery SaaS offerings. In essence, the role is to coordinate sales presentations and help align the capabilities of different software offerings to the business requirements of a particular legal matter.

I can’t tell you how many times someone mentions AI and the meeting immediately gets off track as the various participants go on a tangent about what AI means to them and the like.

To quote another famous “A.I.,” Allen Iverson, in times like this, it is paramount that people “keep it real.” A good manager will work to inject themselves into the conversation to, politely and tactfully, refocus a discussion back to the task at hand (e.g., the business issue). Roundtables about advanced technology are thought provoking, have value, and are one way by which professionals learn about new technologies; but, like everything, there is a time and a place for such interactions, and a project meeting probably is not one of those times.

It’s easy to get off track talking about new and exciting things – just be sure you keep your projects moving along as well.

CONTRACT MANAGEMENT

This is absolutely critical: For any of the tools or services an entity uses, be mindful of the fact the vendors or the products’ service personnel may or may not have warned you about product expirations. And, even if they do, the notifications could get caught up in a spam filter or go to a former employee.

Here are some solid practices to help with this: i) Set up a group IT admin email address that delivers notifications to multiple members of the IT department; and ii) Strongly consider creating your own internal tracking system so you can manage and monitor your renewal deadlines.

The consequences of messing this up can be severe – such as services no longer working or data being deleted. The more a business works with outside services, the more this needs to be a top management priority.

THE DELI COUNTER

Last but not least, be mindful of the new “deli counter” mentality for support. Vendors almost unilaterally ask customers to create support tickets. The days of calling engineers you know and trust to work on problems are but a memory in the cloud-based computing environment in which we now reside. You will see that different vendors have wildly different service levels. For example, we believe Amazon Web Services support services are great. Others are not. Some companies pick up the phone. Others don’t. That’s the way it is. If possible, try to evaluate support services before committing to a vendor.

And, one other observation: Given the choice between providing service and closing tickets, some technology companies are more interested in the latter than the former. Analysts are sometimes evaluated based on how quickly they resolve tickets. It is not uncommon for a company to close a ticket based on sketchy information (for example, reaching out to someone and inserting a ticket comment like, “Called Harry to discuss and awaiting response”). A careful review of both current and past tickets – as well as taking time to provide feedback on historical support scenarios – will help everyone stay focused on resolving problems from the perspective of our end users.

SUMMING UP

I certainly don’t mean to be a “Negative Nelly” with this article. By and large, new technologies and vendors allow us all to work more efficiently and allow technology groups to focus more on innovation and process improvement than the blocking and tackling (backups, maintenance, etc.) that the function formerly required.

However, one needs to be absolutely sure to keep their finger on the pulse of all their technology partners in this new world – turning over processes and data to skilled partners does not automatically guarantee success. Management and oversight are still a requisite element of the individuals at those posts within the legal technology management function.

It’s easy to get off track talking about new and exciting things – just be sure you keep your projects moving along as well.

© 2018 Thomson Reuters S067286/5-18

AUTHOR’S BIO Kenneth Jones, Chief Technologist, Tanenbaum Keale LLP (TK)

Kenneth Jones is Chief Technologist at the law firm of Tanenbaum Keale LLP (TK), where he leads efforts to support TK’s computing environment and infrastructure, one that features a strategy of professionally protecting and processing client data in the cloud with highly skilled and respected leading-edge business partners in the technology space.

Additionally, Mr. Jones helps lead and support various TK programs in the areas of security, compliance, business continuity, and firm administration.