Go (En)fish for information
User stories from the knowledge front
Lawyers in one of the nation's largest law firms will gain a single point of access to legal and corporate information through a new software tool.
Pillsbury Winthrop will integrate Enfish Professional for Workgroups from Enfish into its new advanced client relationship management system. The deployment will enable lawyers to securely display data, including documents, e-mail and other information regardless of where it is stored.
The law firm's new Relationship Manager was developed by Pillsbury Winthrop as part of an initiative to create advanced client service technologies. When the phased rollout is completed this fall, lawyers will have a single access point to all the information about people, companies and matters with which the firm works.
The software was chosen because of its search capabilities and its ability to browse diverse sets of information, according to Warren Jones, IT director at the law firm. "In many ways, Enfish resembles a traditional Web browser," says Jones, "enabling Pillsbury Winthrop lawyers to surf the Internet and use Internet Explorer favorites. But unlike the traditional browser, Pillsbury lawyers can type a client name in the 'GoTo' bar and simultaneously retrieve e-mail messages, tasks, documents, docket items, appointments and other information vital to the client relationship. Our lawyers can find in seconds more information than can be found in minutes with Outlook alone."
Enfish Professional for Workgroups has a default ability to find, index and put into context information in Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, the Internet and local or networked drives, according to a recent press release from Enfish. The software was customized for Pillsbury Winthrop to integrate with the Web component of Relationship Manager, as well as its knowledge management portal called "Universe."
The solution enables the firm to put contact information in context with related documents. Each time a contact is created or updated, the software indexes all the information related to that contact. Typing the name or company of the contact in the Enfish "GoTo" bar retrieves the contact record and messages, appointments, documents and Web news about the contact, and puts that information into context with related information for Pillsbury Winthrop's Relationship Manager