Redwood Analytics

This post is guest authored by Chris Katchuk who worked hard to help organize the 2009 Redwood User Conference in Chicago from September 22-23. 

By the year 2004, Redwood Analytics had been providing Business Intelligence products and services for a few years.  Noticing there was an opportunity to build a cohesive user community by providing networking opportunities, facilitating a peer-to-peer knowledge transfer, and delivering training sessions pertaining to the business of law, Redwood developed the annual event known as the User Conference.

Throughout the year, Redwood remains vigilant in staying on top of the hot topics facing the legal industry.  Using the unprecedented resources available to us, including empirical evidence gathered from countless studies facilitated by the Redwood Think Tank, industry experience from our professional services team, and utilizing Competitive Intelligence tools to learn from scenarios outside of the legal industry, Redwood creates a curriculum for firm management that explores and presents best practice solutions for the topical business of law questions facing the industry. 

Redwood provides a myriad of opportunities for clients to learn from each other through Redwood facilitated Roundtables.  The event also provides the opportunity to meet privately with Redwood professionals one-on-one to examine firm specific data on any topic pertaining to the business of law or the use of Redwood products.  These sessions are constantly voted the most valuable aspect of the conference.  

When planning for the 2009 User Conference in Chicago, we had to pay close attention to the elephant in the room, the economy.  While people are probably sick and tired of hearing about it, we know that strict budgets on travel and expenditures on events such as ours were implemented industry wide.  As a result, we knew we needed to deliver high value and help firms reduce costs.  We condensed the conference to a 2-day event (normally 3 days), making it more affordable and focused on best practices for success in a struggling economy. 

Redwood Client Awards

Every year at the User Conference, Redwood recognizes a firm and an individual for their success using Business Intelligence.

The Business Intelligence Vanguard Award

Best Best & Krieger

This award is earned by the law firm that has taken the most significant strides in managing the business of law through the use of business intelligence (BI).  Best Best & Krieger's deployment has included many of the best practices associated with BI success: partner involvement, gradual rollout, use of information as a management tool at the practice group level, and constant analysis provided by a Redwood-certified analyst.

The Redwood Ambassador Award

Erica Daley

This award is earned by an individual who has advanced the development or deployment of Redwood Analytics' BI solutions and is an important contributor to the Redwood community.  Erica was successful in rolling out 2 modules and deploying Redwood's dashboard to over 70 partners in her firm's first year as a Redwood client. Her success is a great example for clients of what can be accomplished in a relatively short time with clear goals and careful planning. Erica Daley serves as a role model to inspire others to embrace BI, lead business change, and achieve measurable results.

Session Highlights

The Headline: 100% of attendees were able to meet their objective at the User Conference.

We received consistent feedback from our clients that stated there were a lot of interesting topics to choose from and these topics were relevant to what's going on in the marketplace.   A vast majority of our clients also noted that compared to other conferences, the User Conference is the most valuable because of the access to consultants, relevancy of data presented, and the industry leading insight of Redwood professionals. 

The User Conference is a great opportunity to unveil new improvements and upgrades to many products and services we offer.  Clients that attended sessions that explored new capabilities gave each high marks explaining that this event is one of the best ways to stay current with Redwood releases.

A popular feature has always been joint Redwood and client led panels.  2009 featured several client panels that were well received by attendees.  Many people said that topics presented from the point of view of both Redwood and that of a client made the information more compelling. 

Sessions that also received high marks were directly related to topics of interest within the industry including, alternative fee arrangements, prospecting intelligence, leverage, and other business development topics.  Attendance at this years event, while down slightly, faired exceptionally well compared to other conferences in 2009.  Clients' willingness to contribute to the user community and our ability to deliver current and groundbreaking research year after year is a leading factor in the impressive turnout for Redwood in 2009.    

Where to Go From Here

At Redwood, we fully believe that analysis for the sake of analysis will not get you anywhere.  It isn't a productive use of time to generate reports if the information does not facilitate progress within the firm.  As a result, we have always viewed the User Conference as a starting point for the following year.

Firms are encouraged to take the knowledge acquired while at the conference and put it to use.  In terms of business development, we recommend firms measure themselves by looking at their performance within the Redwood benchmarking application.  This process can help identify opportunities for growth.   

Firms should also pay close attention to industry trends in regards to alternative fee arrangements, as well as consider how they are tracking, measuring, and servicing key clients.  Members of the Redwood community also have the ability to take advantage of the studies conducted by the Redwood Think Tank including, client attrition, client growth or the "Acorn" theory, lawyer lifecycle, lateral partner integration, and non-equity partner success.

The best recommendation we can offer is to stay active within the Redwood User Community.  Clients can participate in the quarterly meeting of the Redwood Forum or contribute on a daily basis in the Redwood Forum group on Martindale-Hubbell Connected.

We are pleased by the rave reviews this year's event received.  At Redwood, we take pride in our research and deliver it in a way that is accessible to firms of all sizes.  By working together and implementing cutting edge methodologies vetted within the user community, the legal industry can flourish and remain profitable regardless of the economic climate.