Vendors Getting it Right
In my last post I wrote about some of the pitfalls vendors experience during demos at law firm clients. In this post (broken into two parts due to its length), I talk about some of the vendors I see doing everything right – and what useful themes emerge from an examination of these, that will allow law firms to identify which vendors they should be targeting for strategic partnerships.
I have written before about the importance of re-imagining the vendor relationship as a true partnership. Doing so allows both parties to get the most out of the natural synergies that can and should exist between law firms and the legaltech companies creating products to service them.
Since the time of that post, I have traveled to London where conversations with a number of peers highlighted an interesting trend. Rather than engaging a different vendor for every need, firms are increasingly moving towards selecting a smaller group of preferred vendors with whom they can truly partner. The shift is predicated on an interest in deepening relationships with the few vendors that firms retain, developing a trust that is not usually present in this type of relationship, even going so far as to open up parts of the business to these vendors to which they would not normally have access. In return, it is envisaged that the vendor’s deeper understanding of a law firm’s business needs will lead to targeted, user-centric development, bringing a strategic advantage to both parties.
This trend towards partner-oriented vendor relations begs the question: if you are consciously limiting your stable of vendors, which ones should you choose to partner with and why?
Examining the current global legaltech market, there are some vendors who are consistently hitting the right notes with customers. In this post and the next, I look in depth at two of those vendors, for the purpose of identifying the themes that characterize organizations ripe for partnership. There are no doubt many more vendors in the legaltech space with similar qualities – feel free to comment with a list of your own favourite vendors.
Case Study 1 - Litera Micrsosytems
For now, though, let’s start with Litera Microsystems. When I first met salespeople from this vendor (then just called “Litera”), I had no idea I would be making true friends. The initial meeting ensued like any other, except for one thing: they seemed to have a keener interest in what our needs were than most other vendors.
The meeting was followed a month later by lunch and soon we were meeting every time Sean Ramsey, (now Director of North American Sales and Operations) and Matt James (now Director, Pre-Sales and Evangelism) were in town, whether or not anything had changed in the status of our respective employers’ commercial relationships. It was my first introduction to a truly relationship-focused approach and it has lasted (and if you’re curious, so have the friendships, evolving into meetings of spouses, babies being born, birthdays being celebrated). Litera Microsystems has a knack for bringing on board the right people, consistently. Everyone they hire comes across as genuine, empathetic, interested in who you are as a person as well as in what your firm needs. They relate as people, instead of salespeople. Whoever does their recruiting is doing something right.
In the last couple of years, under the helm of CMO Julian Morgan and Senior Marketing Manager Karen Sopron, Litera Microsystems has also been kicking goals on the marketing front. The establishment of The Changing Lawyer Awards, for example, was a clever move, recognizing disruptive firms and innovative individuals in legal outside of the usual cycle of innovation awards. It may well be that preference is given to Litera customers, but in my mind this is no less valid than other industry awards that require eligible nominees to pay to attend a ceremony.
The Changing Lawyer magazine, about disruptive change in the legal industry, is a beautifully produced annual publication with genuine journalistic merit. The many interesting and useful webinars hosted by Litera Microsystems throughout the year round out the company’s untraditional marketing focus. Many companies have deep pockets but Litera Microsystems sponsors more than their fair share of industry events and will sent a coterie of their lovely people along to ensure that everyone has a good time. They also organize a large number of events themselves each year. At ILTACON they have started hosting an annual dinner specifically for KM professionals and last year gave out highly sought-after mugs expressing the sentiment “LM loves KM”. Perhaps cheesy for some, but I am not the only person in a similar role who feels a loyalty to Litera Microsystems off the back of these efforts.
All of this, however, is perhaps secondary to the ambitious product goal set forth by Litera Microsystems, which is to act as a drafting companion to lawyers in every stage of a matter lifecycle. The fact that most of their tools are plug-ins or add-ons to Word reveals a deep understanding of lawyer behavior by delivering additional functionality to them instead of forcing lawyers to break their flow and go elsewhere to access it.
On the back end, the team at Litera Microsystems consistently shows itself to be responsive to user feedback, and keen to receive it. In a previous position, I saw Litera Micrsosytems spend significant effort and time to build out French capability for our Quebec office even though in the North American market the number of French use cases is slim. That showed an enormous dedication to our own firm environment, a dedication that I feel is truly representative of the Litera Microsystems ethos – and which sets them up to be ideal business partners for any firm.
Case Study 2 - iManage RAVN
Another organization kicking goals these days is iManageRAVN. iManage, as we all know, has been around for a long time in various states of independence. In 2017 iManage acquired RAVN and became more than a document management shop, offering up a new vision of AI-fueled enterprise search and contract analytics.
Then, a year and a half ago, Nick Thomson joined the company and things changed profoundly. In fact, it’s hard to believe the shift in leadership was such a relatively short time ago, given how much has changed in the interim.
Nick (who prefers to be known by his first name) changed the way things were run internally, instituting an agile work style in which different teams are organized into squads around specific deliverables, and larger tribes around product and data science. Something about this new style of working has infused new energy into the organization. Similar to Litera Microsystems, since Nick came on board iManageRAVN has focused on its people. In the space of a year, Laura Whitehead has been pulled over into the RAVN team as the Global Product Marketing Director, Alex Smith was hired from Reed Smith as the Global Product Lead, Stephanie Vaughan came over from Allen & Overy as Global Legal Practice Director, and Lucy Melendrez-Diaz was hired from eDiscovery analytics giant Relativity as Legal Practice Lead.
This new swathe of talent at iManageRAVN (and it goes far deeper than those I’ve mentioned by name), combined with the new way of working, has changed the way they do things. First and foremost, more than ever before there is a strong sense that the customer comes first. iManageRAVN has established customer advisory boards in both the UK and the United States, clearly indicating a move towards user centric design by working at a granular level with end users. The boards meet regularly and afford the iManageRAVN team the opportunity to listen to customer feedback and understand the priorities of clients around future development goals. In other words, the organization is committed to developing its roadmap in line with its users’ priorities, a strategy that should cause other vendors to sit up and take notice. I have sat through many roadmap sessions with organizations keen to tell me what they think is the best way to develop their technology without ever having been asked what I might think as a client.
The user centric focus also shines through in the company’s sales approach, which like that of Litera Microsystems feels more like a relationship, and for that matter one that is based on honesty and growth. In stark contrast to some of the cold calls I still get from some vendors, the sales function in iManageRAVN seems to belong everywhere in the company rather than with a particular subset of people. If, as a customer, you want to speak directly to Nick or to Alex Smith, or if you want a regular call with RAVN Product Manager Joe Campbell to discuss the specific needs your firm has around enterprise search, you can do so.
After realizing that law firms did not necessarily have the right expertise off the bat to adequately train up an AI system, iManageRAVN introduced AI University - a free three-day visit to iManage headquarters in Chicago that is available to users of RAVN Extract, and during which a project team will be taught by experts exactly how to train the system to get the most out of it.
iManageRAVN has also shown itself to be committed to change across the industry in a broader way than just its own technology. Earlier this year the group hosted a Leadership and Innovation Technology Summit (LITLS) in Boston, for the first time bringing together global Chief Technology and Information Officers with Chief Knowledge Officers, in an effort to bridge the gap that often exists internally between those two departments. The summit focused on a number of topics around the future of law. Instead of yet another panel-heavy event, a series of design workshops was held to encourage real work by participants in exploring what the future of our industry could and should look like.
The organization has also started working with individual law firms as a partner in their own innovation and knowledge efforts, offering to come in and facilitate service design workshops around KM strategy, information architecture and data. None of these are directly related to the iManageRAVN suite of products. Instead, they are focused on getting customers or potential customers to think more strategically about what is necessary to pave the way for certain types of technology projects, and to help build a mindset within firms that is more open to innovative solutions.
Similar to Litera Microsystems, through these efforts iManageRAVN sets itself apart from other vendors because it appears genuinely invested in the industry itself rather than solely in its own success. It’s a smart move, as the rise of one should necessarily lift up the other.
Finally, iManageRAVN has changed its marketing strategy and is on trend with a new look and feel that is hip and cool in all the right ways. At LegalGeek UK recently, the iManageRAVN booth was less of a vendor stand and more of an immersive experience. It was set up as an old-school cinema, complete with popcorn maker, with events throughout the day billed as feature reels. At their design jams, one of the tools the group uses as a warm-up exercise requires participants to rank their interest in a number of data and knowledge related skills. Depending on the answers provided, each participant’s prominent trait is aligned with a superhero identity, and superhero badges given out accordingly (my superhero identity is Connectron, in case you were wondering, with Captain Curiosity a close second). These badges, with their cool RAVN superhero icons have become so widely coveted that people were stopping by the iManageRAVN booth at ILTA just to swipe extras – and by the time I got there they were down to just two of six superheros available. Much of the new merchandising has a similar vibe to it, and iManageRAVN’s epic party at ILTACON at Epcot in Orlando this year was a stark departure from staid vendor parties of old, replete with a games area, massive balloons, cocktail tables, and a band I would happily have booked for my own wedding.
It’s easy to bank on an organization this energetic and this focused on understanding what the client wants developing some pretty cool new features in the next few years, and iManageRAVN’s broader industry focus makes it an excellent candidate for true partnership.
The two case studies above highlight some consistent themes in what it takes these days to be the kind of vendor with whom law firms will want to develop longterm partnerships. In my next post, I will draw out those themes to develop a yardstick for firms by which to choose the vendors to keep when trimming your stable.
