The value of the user experience in strategic IT planning

When we think about strategic IT planning, we often use the term 'strategic alignment'. This is the concept of aligning your technology strategy with the firm's business strategy. In a sophisticated strategic model, the two entities are tied together in a sort of Mobius-style arrangement, with one feeding the other continuously; the constant feed mechanism should be used to produce optimum results.

Technology is mostly a function of business, but it also helps to drive its direction. It is therefore important that key technology people are involved in the strategic processes that drive a business - and that includes law firms.

But, in establishing the importance
of the technology strategy, you must not, as many do, ignore the influence of the end user on the ultimate strategic goals. This may sound a little farfetched,
but there are numerous reasons for ensuring that the user experience is
taken into consideration when looking
at technology strategies.

Value of user input

Law firms go to great lengths to recruit good staff, but once that has taken
place, the user experience - especially around technology - is often ignored. Given that most employees in law firms will spend most of their time using the firm's systems, it would be reasonable
to assume that their input is important
in developing current and future
iterations of the firm's technology.

Users can offer a vast array of useful information on systems that can help to refine current practices and define future ones. Ease of use, ease of access and general intuitiveness need to be designed into core technology at all levels to ensure it is as efficient as possible.

Harnessing the user experiences of systems can help to fine-tune current systems and refine the selection of future ones. The collective knowledge of those using technology in anger every day
can be used to make systems more fluid, more friendly to use and, ultimately, more efficient. Users are ideally placed to provide feedback on common problems with systems, difficulties in processing work and what generally consumes too much time.

When firms think of looking after staff, the technology experience is often a long way down the list. Of course, it is not likely to be at the top, but it is still somewhat important. Over the years, I have lost count of the times I have heard a new starter in a firm talk about how poor the technology was in their previous firm and how it drove them to distraction.

Not being able to access the right information at the right time, having technology failures, using less functional equipment or more cumbersome software all contribute to workplace frustrations. Indeed, who hasn't been frustrated by technology failings or idiosyncrasies at a time-critical moment? And it's not just the failings and frustrations that firms need to take into account. Allowing users a voice helps them to understand that they are an important part in the success of the firm.

Harnessing user input

There are various mechanisms for garnering information from the user strata. I have always advocated that each firm should have a user group which is separate from the planning and strategy groups. A user group should consist of a variety of staff across both the horizontal and vertical hierarchies in a firm. It should have inputs from the technical department and have a clear mandate to improve the user experience and the general efficiency of the systems in use.

There is of course a limit to the amount of user input that can usefully be harnessed. Ultimately, it is not a granular democracy, so you need to bear in mind the collective input of users, rather than the individual ones. As with all steering groups, the combination of a clear mandate and an experienced chairperson will help separate the useful from the whimsical. A word of advice for partners here: when your secretary complains about their technology, this is the point at which you try to elect them to the user group rather than reporting an individual frustration to the IT director.

Strategic alignment

If you are someone with a degree of input into your firm's strategic planning process, you should be asking yourself the question 'how can we make the technology better for the end users?' Clearly, technology exists to help drive efficiency, but the user experience is an intrinsic part of that, and one that should not be ignored.

Damian Blackburn is founder of Legal IT consultancy SLFtech (www.slftech.com) and was the IT director at a London law firm for 11 years