Philippi Prietocarrizosa Ferrero DU & Uría’s knowledge management department is delivering enhanced capability to over 400 attorneys across the firm’s offices in Chile, Colombia and Peru
Madrid, Spain – 07 July 2022 – Lexsoft Systems, a provider of IT and business process solutions, today announces that the top full-service Latin American law firm – Philippi Prietocarrizosa Ferrero DU & Uría (PPU) – has adopted its Lexsoft T3 solution for enterprise-wide, best practice-led knowledge management (KM). Today, PPU’s KM department, comprising just four people, is making significant efficiency gains, benefiting from a structured, taxonomy-based KM system with streamlined processes. The team is delivering timely, modern KM capability to over 400 attorneys across the firm’s practice areas and four offices in Chile, Colombia and Peru.
T3, which was implemented in just two weeks, replaces PPU’s incumbent in-house developed KM system. Already, since deployment in April this year, T3 stores more than 1,500 knowledge documents and this number is growing on a regular basis.
PPU chose T3 as its firm-wide KM solution, following an exhaustive review of similar systems available on the market. T3 met the needs of PPU’s KM department as well as that of its users. For PPU’s KM department, the solution offers the most advanced functionality to build a sophisticated, multi-level taxonomy structure, it easily integrates with the quality tools the team uses for formatting and templating documents, provides control over KM processes and crucially, ensures the highest level of security. From a user perspective, the solution provides an intuitive and familiar user interface, and integrates seamlessly with iManage Work, the firm’s document and email management system, making it easy for attorneys to use T3.
Isabela Loscher, Head of Knowledge Management at PPU, says, “For a large, multi-office and multi-practice law firm such as ours, a best practice-led knowledge management capability is a business-critical requirement. T3 has completely changed how the KM department functions – already in such a short space of time, we are seeing substantial efficiency benefits through KM processes that are embedded in attorneys’ day to day activity. Moving forward, we will be able to focus on enhancing the firm’s broader KM capability. Up until T3’s deployment, we spent a lot of time manually processing requests for things like definitions, model documents and other firm knowledge – because attorneys could never be sure that the documents in the KM system were the most accurate or the best ones for their requirement.”
Today, the KM system represents a single version of the truth for PPU’s knowledge-related information. Previously, there were multiple versions of the same document, as the incumbent KM system allowed attorneys to edit documents that were already residing in the solution. Also, frequently, a document had to be stored several times, if it was relevant to different practice areas. All this meant that ensuring accuracy and consistency of documentation was extremely difficult and time consuming for the KM department.
The process for capturing knowledge documents for inclusion in the KM system is now streamlined. Any document attorneys highlight for inclusion in T3, automatically goes into a separate inbox assigned to the KM department. This allows the KM team to triage the document, make it compliant with data protection requirements such as the GDPR, and format it based on internal policies and guidelines, before uploading to T3.
Contributions of documents by attorneys for the KM repository have increased as the process is now so simple. Using the “Submit Knowledge” button in iManage Work, attorneys are able to assign documents for inclusion in T3, with a click of a mouse.
Loscher, adds, “T3 has greatly increased attorney buy-in for the KM discipline, enhancing the value of the function to the business. And there can be no greater return on a technology investment than enthusiastic, firm-wide user adoption. Today, our attorneys are actively taking the initiative to work with us to ensure that all their model documents are stored in the KM system. They have experienced the benefits of a best practice KM system first hand.”
Attorneys’ reliance on the KM department for access to documents has reduced, freeing up the team to undertake more strategic activities pertaining to the discipline. With T3 offering multi-level taxonomy alongside powerful search capability, attorneys are able to independently search for and surface the model documents and other information they need, confident and secure in the knowledge that they will indeed access the correct files within the legal context that they are working in.
Carlos García-Egocheaga, CEO of Lexsoft Systems, comments, “We are delighted with the positive impact that T3 has had in PPU. T3 genuinely imbibes the collective KM best practice in the industry – it’s a solution that we are continuously developing and honing to meet the needs of both, the KM leaders as well as the users.”
Today, four of the top 10 global law firms (among others) are already using T3 for KM programmes. The solution can be implemented within days and there are no hidden IT costs. Additionally, the solution is part of an extensive ecosystem and integrates with a wide variety of third-party solutions and technologies. T3 is implemented over pre-existing iManage infrastructure, the leading knowledge work platform in the legal sector globally.