Redwood Analytics

Redwood's BI solution was recently mentioned in an article on Silicon.com called "Five things CFOs must do in IT after recession."  Mike Giles, financial director at international law firm SJ Berwin, a proficient user of Redwood's BI tools, is quoted as saying about Redwood,

"It allows us to move away from paper-based reporting and put more information onto the desktop of the fee earners. They will have drill-down facilities so that they can dig down deeper into the data that they are receiving."

In addition, the article makes a general point of saying that technology is critical to Finance departments' success in helping to lead firms out of the recession.  The ability to put information in the hands of the people who are empowered and able to do something about it is the true value of business intelligence. 

From Silicon.com:

And by giving this information directly to the end-user, the business is able to become more agile. In essence, much as in IT, the right technology helps align the finance department with business needs.

FDs and CFOs who are relying on paper based reports and do not have a systematic approach to data mining, benchmarking, and opportunity valuation may find their firms falling behind, particularly as analytics are demanded in pricing activities, as in around alternative fee arrangements.   If you can't analyze past performance, or use historical information to value matters, you will have a hard time pricing fixed fees.  In 2010, awareness around business intelligence is heightened in law firms, now we need to work on adoption, and that's a challenge not just for me and my colleagues, but also for law firm leaders.  As I stated last year in my post Business Intelligence Down on the Farm, the farmers are doing it - why aren't you!?

Hat tip to Rupert Collins-White of Legal Support Network, our UK friends, for the Silicon.com link.