Thoughts on the implementation of CRM systems.

• Author: Cohen, Lawrence

All firms that offer services by licensed professionals, such as lawyers, accountants, architects and investment managers, live and die by the management of their client relationships. The larger a firm is, the more complex are its client relationship management (CRM) needs.

The topic of "relationship intelligence" (covered with great insight in an article in the Oct. 2010 Strategies by Bruce Alltop, CMO of Holland & Knight) can be defined as the management and leveraging of the multiple levels of connections between a law firm's attorneys and their clients and referral sources. At its core is pure information--knowledge of the client, its principals and other contact persons, and the lawyers at the firm who have connections with them. Drilling further, the firm should have current information readily available about the client's industry, its competitors, its legal needs and the services that the firm currently provides to the client.

As marketing professionals, you are faced with the daunting task of creating systems to manage and share this "relationship intelligence." In addition, in order to get attorneys to "buy in" and share their valuable contacts and information, you must provide concrete examples of the value these systems provide.

In my experience, the impetus to launch a firm-wide CRM database has to come from the top of the organization. It is only with the support of the firm's management that this type of initiative can be successful.

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So, if you have the support of firm management and are ready to take the next step, here are some tips that will help "sell" the idea to everyone else in your firm

1. Sharing the information makes life easier for the lawyers

   According to LexisNexis, 63 percent of AmLaw 200 firms (my firm included) utilize LexisNexis InterAction[R] for their CRM needs. This product is integrated with Microsoft Outlook, which allows attorneys to continue managing their contacts as they have in the past. One of the biggest benefits we have seen is that lawyers no longer need to be responsible for updating the contact information for their clients and prospects because our firm's InterAction Administrator handles this. When mail is returned or e-mails bounce back, the Administrator will update the information in the database and "push" this information back into each attorneys individual contacts. Likewise, when one attorney updates the information for a contact the edits are researched and...