Bird & Bird the Leader in Extensive Legal Services Provision - Research Paper Example

Bird & Bird – the Leader in Extensive Legal Services ProvisionIntroduction Bird & Bird (B&) is an international law firm which has an excellent reputation with regard to the giving of extensive legal services across the world (Spencer, 2010). B&B is one of the companies that are highly dependent on technology in doing business. That is why the company’s information system is always at the priority list in order for the business to continue running. Updates and improvements of knowledge management system are necessary for the business for it means profitability and cutting of costs.

The main thrust of this paper is to discuss the case issues involving B&B lawyers and the knowledge management team in line with the development of new system needed for the business operations.Bird & Bird Case Issues It is stated in the case that “B&B lawyers wanted to be able to access case histories and other legal reference materials online from any of the firm’s 14 offices” (Stair & Reynolds, 2010, p. 478). This is one of the highlighted issues that require the attention of the knowledge management (KM) team.

Knowledge management system is very important to the business for it usually plays the role of organizing people and generating software and databases by using business expertise and experience. In response to the issue, a development team is created that includes the effort of KM team, information systems specialists and the personnel of 14 offices. The purpose of developing new system demands a team effort in order to meet the purpose of the information system. Another cited issue is all about the “searching capabilities for finding topic-related content within documents stored in the KM system” (Stair & Reynolds, 2010, p. 478). B&B lawyers are not satisfied with the result provided when using the traditional knowledge search because it generates long lists of results that are not relevant to the answer (Marcinko, n.d.).

To address this concern, KM team adapted conceptSearching which is different and more flexible compared to the traditional keyword search. ConceptSearching has the ability to retrieve relevant information in a way that upon entering the natural sentences the nearest searched information is ranked according to relevancy (Chapline & Jytyla, n.d., p. 2). Through the collaboration of KM team, UCLogic and conceptSearching, a new expert system called “know-how” has been created. The designed user interface is important to make the usage of KM system easier for the users.

The driver for change is B&B’s clients wherein the intention is to share the ways of doing business (White & Flutsch, 2006). Using the internal and external repositories for the new system is risky because there is a possibility that the storage capacity cannot handle the number of documents. Conclusion Although technology plays a relevant role in the society nowadays, it can never replace all the intelligence attributes of human beings. The case of B&B shows that the development of new system for case histories and legal materials online accessed as well as the relevancy rankings of references are the output of the development team.

The system has been effective because of the team effort consists of the KM team, information systems specialists and the various personnel support. ReferencesChaplin, D., & Jytyla, R. (n.d.). Conceptual search technology: Avoid sanctions, preventpriviledge waiver, and understand your data. University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved fromhttp://www.law.pitt.edu/DESI3_Workshop/Papers/DESI_III.DaveChaplin.pdfMarcinko, R. (n.d.). To grok: Cluster, discover, and visualized research. Access.Retrieved from http://www.

aardvarknet.info/access/number64/cover.cfmSpencer, J. (2010). Bird & Bird keeps IT flying high with neverfail. Tech Target. Retrieved from http://searchvirtualdatacentre.techtarget.co.uk/generic/0,295582,sid203_gci1520723,00.htmlStair, R. M., & Reynolds, G. (2010). Principles of information system. Florence, KY: Course Technology.White, A., & Flutsch, C. (2006). KM the guide to success. Two Birds.com. Retrievedfrom http://www.twobirds.com/German/NEWS/ARTICLES/Seiten/KM_the_guide_to_success.aspx