Redwood Analytics

I don't usually read comic strips - but someone pointed out today's Dilbert cartoon to me and I immediately thought of the finance and business development professionals that we work with, and the challenges they must overcome in communicating the results of their analysis to the decision makers within law firm management.

In the first panel, Dilbert says to a co-worker, "I see my job as giving you the information you need to need to make the right decision."  And in the second panel he is derided by this co-worker for outdated and incomplete data.  It struck a nerve with me because our business intelligence strategy is built around providing intelligence to guide law firm business decisions.  Perhaps that is the problem - Dilbert is giving information when he should be providing intelligence.

Like the IT information that Dilbert passes along, a typical law firm's monthly reports are bound into a stack a mile high.  These reports often provide no actionable information, incentives for the wrong behaviors, and little to no analysis.  Alternately the reports are provided in response to a "fire drill" request for mountains of information that may or may not be referred back to.  It's no wonder Dilbert's co-worker gives him a "pity listen!"

There is an art, not a science, to taking information and making it into intelligence that can guide decision making.  A report of the Top 10 largest outstanding balances provides some direction, but a report that can also tell the consumer of that information the age of that A/R, the time frame in which that client generally pays based on payment history and the number of days outstanding beyond that time frame is actionable information for a lawyer looking to collect on that debt. 

Exception highlighting is another example of how to make a stack of information actionable.  A discounting report with discounts greater than 10% highlighted in red makes a bigger impression on the Practice Group leader whose department is responsible for these writedowns.  Benchmarking against firm standards (using KPI goals, for example), regional norms, or the national or global picture is also an option for presenting information as intelligence to guide decision making.

Dilbert may disagree but around here we believe that streamlining information and presenting it in actionable chunks that drive law firm strategy is what makes analysts "useful" and is a win over a "pity listen."