Open library: Creating a client-facing knowledge portal

 

Key takeaway points:

1. Start with a clear vision to galvanise commitment to the project

2. Create a project oversight group that brings different expertise to the project and can contribute to key decision making

3. Make communications count: well-timed communications are more effective than constant noise

4. Organisational structures help, but don’t create a structure if it’s not needed; accountability and ownership can be more effective

 

Two years ago, we set out to create a professional market-facing information platform for our international alliance. Developing an external-facing knowledge strategy is far from straightforward, however, as there are multiple issues to resolve and decisions to be made.

Our knowledge base Globalhrlaw.com was launched in February 2013 to provide international employers with a user-friendly source of international employment law information. It has a restricted area for clients and a public area with articles, guides, podcasts and news.

The journey to creating a user-friendly site was not linear. Like many projects, the detail was initially quite blurred but, with a clear vision at the beginning, the detail soon followed. The project taught us a great deal about the creative process of developing a well-designed product as well as how to implement a complex project across a ?large international organisation with ?many interested parties.

Why a knowledge base?

Most law firms would consider communicating their expertise to clients ?and the wider business community a key ?part of their firmwide strategy, and Ius ?Laboris is no different in that respect. However, being a large alliance of labour ?and employment firms brings its own ?distinct challenges and opportunities.

In 2011, the alliance reached its ten-year anniversary and, after many years of hard work putting in place internal structures, procedures and establishing a way of working, our thoughts turned to bringing more structure to our external knowledge strategy.

Our online offering had always been a rather dull and static page on our website that was outdated in appearance. It was also apparent that, throughout the 40 countries in which we operated, there was a large body of knowledge. Our international practice groups (IPGs) were focused on creating content, but much of it was just not reaching new audiences and, being mainly in hard copy format, it required a lot of coordination to develop and distribute around the world.

We were aware that most of our existing and potential clients were relying heavily on electronic sources of legal information and that the usage of social media and mobile devices was likely to continue. It was clear to me that ?we needed to develop a creative and flexible strategy that aligned with ?changing client attitudes and ?developments in technology.

Simultaneously, our knowledge managers and IPGs were also discussing a potential new Ius Laboris product. The idea was to create an online product offering a comprehensive reference guide to employment law in all the countries serviced by the alliance. Printed options were considered, but the flexibility of having an electronic version allowing us to update chapters as needed – without being bound by printing costs and timetables – was appealing, as was the potential to create a user-friendly interface.

I was convinced that an online platform for our new product was the right direction. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to combine our plan for a new major product with a method of bringing together our content to reach both existing and prospective clients.

The challenges?

1. Creating a vision

Naturally enough, the first stage of the process was to work out what we would do. The initial idea was really quite broad and theoretically could have included social media, blogging, email communications or an app. Early on, we discounted direct forms of communication as we wanted to create a single platform that would act as the premier source for global HR law information and, crucially, ?be quality controlled.

Considering the large volume of knowledge that the alliance has, other forms of social media or apps just would not have been appropriate. There would have been too much information to download at once, so it was clear that we needed a stable online platform that showcased the breadth and depth of our expertise.

But what would this site look like and how could we justify the time and effort required to create such a site, including the new Global HR Law Guide? The project required a commitment from all 40 member firms to contribute to the new guide, as well as to general articles and other information. Although there could have been resistance to this, on discussing the project with our members, I found there was a huge desire to support more innovative channels for the market to access our content.

The next stage in the project was to turn the vision into a more coherent project plan with a set of requirements. In order to do this, we needed to bring together the expertise of the knowledge managers working across our member firms, the alliance’s central team and some key lawyers from our IPGs. The key catalyst in that process was outlining a visual so that everyone could understand and agree the concept, press ahead with working with a developer and make a start on the detail.

2. Managing the project

As expected, at the beginning of the project there were many different preferences about how the site should work, what content should be included and, to a lesser extent, the purpose of the site. By and large, however, once the project was started, the team had quite a lot of freedom to develop the site.

Nevertheless, earning and keeping this freedom required a lot of careful communication, and dealing with 40 law firms around the world is no easy task. Ask any project manager and they will say that communication is key to a successful project. However, when dealing with busy stakeholders across dozens of countries, the truth is that constant communication is not always feasible and often not required.

In order to get around this difficulty early on in the process, I identified individuals across the member firms that had their own natural interest in the project and would provide valuable input in guiding the project team.

I then created a layered approach to the project management. It was clear that the day-to-day management of the project had to be conducted by the alliance’s central team, as we were the closest to the detail. However, there were many complex decisions to be made in areas such as access, design and content, where outside input would be invaluable.

The first oversight layer came from member firm knowledge managers, who worked closely with the project team in making design and content decisions. The second layer was with partners from member firms, who met on a less frequent basis but provided key decision making on strategic aspects ?of the project.

Managing this project required a day-to-day hands-on approach and complete focus to deliver it to the ?desired timescales. The layered structure allowed sufficient freedom and flexibility for the project team to deliver to budget and timescale and, crucially, enabled advice to be provided at key points in ?the project.

3. Designing the site

Conveniently, we had already revamped our corporate website and it seemed a natural step to commission a digital marketing agency to help us to design and build our proposed knowledge portal.

Having spoken with several partners, we decided to engage Pancentric, a London-based agency with design and development experience for major corporates and multinationals. We were impressed by its track record of creating sophisticated interactive sites and the team’s collaborative approach. In addition, the agency’s content management system appeared straightforward and easy to use – a significant asset for a website that ?would inevitably require extensive maintenance and updating.

A key step in their process was the prototyping of the knowledge portal on an interactive wireframe – a rapid way of getting a working model of the site in front of the project team and working groups. It meant that everyone could ‘feel’ how the site was going to work before it was built and it helped us to ensure that the proposed site would satisfy the demands of our target audience.

The wireframe also enabled us to see how we could present clear, intuitive navigation while at the same time deliver powerful search options for our users to filter the information on offer. With the huge volume of information available in the knowledge base, a filter function encompassing areas of interest, geographical locations and types of resources on offer was required so that users could access information relevant to their respective needs.

The site’s content management system was entirely crafted around our business language, information sources and anticipated audience needs. Built with expansion in mind, it allows us to create new content types, topics and jurisdictions.

Although we resolved that the site should be called the Ius Laboris Knowledge Base, we felt it should not be too heavily alliance-branded. We wanted to create the most comprehensive and sophisticated legal HR resource online for international employers; this led us to select a more definitive, authoritative main banner of ‘global human resources law’ for the homepage. The creative design of the site reflects this branding, while giving the site the international flavour it warrants.

The result

In the end, we decided that access to information on the knowledge base ?should be layered as follows:?

• a significant body of material would ?be freely accessible to anyone using the website;

• some categories of content would require users to complete a simple registration process; and

• certain types of high-value guidance, advice and information would be ?held in a gated area (the ‘client portal’) and available only to selected clients and contacts.

It was originally envisaged that the Global HR Law Guide would be made publicly available on the website but, as that product took shape, we began to see the quality of the material being produced by member firms. In light of this, we decided that it was too valuable to give away for free and that it should be located within the restricted-access area of the site.

A fascinating journey

We are extremely satisfied with the final website in terms of its look and functionality. It remains to be seen to what extent it achieves our original objectives, though we are certainly very satisfied with the response we have received so far. The feedback from member firms and clients alike has been very positive. Some of the features we are particularly pleased with include:

• the design and layout of the website as whole;

• the interactive presentation of our internal HR law guides, where users can select the section and countries they are interested in and then receive bespoke PDFs of their chosen content by email; and

• the design of the Global HR Law Guide (accessible via the client portal), in which users can select the topic they are interested in and then click on a map of the world to select the countries they want; the information for each jurisdiction then pops up on screen.

Developing our knowledge base has ?been a challenging yet fascinating journey. It has required careful planning, creative thinking and careful communication. It ?has been a rewarding process for all of ?us involved and I am positive the alliance will reap the benefits in months and years to come.

Sam Everatt is executive director at international employment law firm alliance Ius Laboris (www.iuslaboris.com)

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