Category Archives for "White Papers"

Throwback Thursday

By Michael Feit | Vendors , White Papers

Flashback to 1994 when the “customer is always right”. The online legal information market was so much fun to be a part of during the mid-nineties, for both vendors and law firms. Law firms loved their vendors. In the go-go 90’s, everything was great. The market was super-charged everywhere.

By 1994, 95% of large law firms had both Lexis and Westlaw. Usage and revenue was increasing 20-75% annually. Firms enjoyed the “customer is always right” philosophy that both vendors embraced. Customer feedback was respected and encouraged. With costs being passed through to firms’ clients, it was a period of mutual admiration.

The competition between Westlaw and Lexis was fierce on all fronts. Both products were continually and rapidly enhancing with tremendous ongoing innovation. The products became more complete, with deeper and more archival content sets.

Healthy competition spurred each vendor to strive to match and surpass the other in content functionality. Lexis was favored for news and information, while Westlaw was favored for litigation. One vendor would announce a new feature, only to be matched and outdone by the other.

As growth accelerated and prices increased, the vendors worked even harder to ensure costs would not become a concern to law firms. Vendors created very successful programs to instruct firms on how best to develop and maintain strong online cost recovery.

It was a true win-win relationship for the vendors, law firms, and the lawyers.

Feit Consulting’s white paper, Westlaw & Lexis: Path to Commoditization tracks the progression of these two vendors and provides a future outlook. Learn more here.

Timing Is Important

By Michael Feit | Contract Negotiations , White Papers

Obviously, the timeline for negotiating is dictated by contract expirations. With 3+ year contracts, the deadlines can seem to immediately appear without realizing the time left to prepare. Allowing for adequate time to prepare for contract negotiations is necessary to achieve optimal pricing and terms for the correct content needed by the firm.

It is recommended to allow for 2+years to develop and execute a well-planned legal information resource strategy. By doing so, there is time for gaining management buy-in, diffusing potential pushback, developing work-arounds for lost resources, conducting trials of new products, and holding ongoing trainings.

Learn more about preparing for contract negotiations to achieve optimal pricing in Feit Consulting’s latest white paper Optimizing Legal Information Pricing.

Paradigm Shift for Legal Information Professionals

By Michael Feit | Librarians , White Papers

The concept of library modernization is more than downsizing space, cancelling print and right-sizing resources. It is a paradigm shift in the way law librarians and knowledge managers assess and deliver services within their organizations. As clients demand efficiency of services and lower costs, firms have been forced to take a closer look at how they themselves do business.

The role of library services within firms has shifted. No longer passively waiting for requests for assistance, librarians have taken on the role of innovator and change agent as they assist their organizations in assessing and creating information strategies to improve workflow and cut expense. Librarians have become interdepartmental collaborators taking on new roles in competitive intelligence, client intake and knowledge management, to name a few. Staffing models run the gamut from embedded researchers in practice groups to outsourced services. And as library responsibilities continue to evolve, so do the core competencies demanded of library staff.

In Feit Consulting’s future white paper, Beyond Virtualization: Transforming the Modern Library, our team of experts will discuss challenges and opportunities as well as the various approaches to the changing role librarians can play in the context of the modern library.

Click here to learn more about this upcoming resource.

Value does not automatically increase 3-5% annually “just because”!

By Michael Feit | Contract Negotiations , Pricing , White Papers

Value does not automatically increase 3-5% annually for every product “just because”! To pay increases annually, it would be expected that the firm is receiving more value, content or features than the year before. Complacency or lack of diligence in managing information resources can have long-lasting unfavorable implications on both processes and costs, thereby hampering overall efficiency.

Feit Consulting’s Optimizing Legal Information Pricing shares steps for evaluating the value of your firm’s legal information resources, and arms decision makers with the necessary knowledge and leverage for negotiations. Feit Consulting’s benchmarks provide context for assessing the favorability of your contracts compared to the market.

Click here to learn more.

Legacy Contracts: The Challenges New Librarians Face

By Michael Feit | Contract Negotiations , Pricing , White Papers

One of the tougher situations a law librarian can encounter is accepting a new position at a law firm and immediately being faced with tight deadlines for negotiating online contract renewals. Legacy contracts are a conglomerate of past points of view regarding what the firm needed in terms of content and the cost the firm was willing to bear at the time of negotiation. The secretive nature of online pricing just adds to the dilemma faced by librarians in this position, because it is impossible to truly know if what is being offered is best in market pricing.

If your legacy contract pricing is way above market, reaching a reasonable benchmark in your current negotiation cycle can be difficult or impossible without any knowledge of market pricing. In many cases, even with market knowledge, it can take several negotiation cycles to achieve contracts closer to market rates.

Feit Consulting’s latest white paper, Optimizing Legal Information Pricing was designed as a valuable tool to guide and assist information professionals through the online contract negotiating process. By providing insight into market metrics for Lexis and Westlaw, along with other key legal information vendors, the report outlines best practices for a contract audit and provides a handy checklist of dos and don’ts for the negotiation process. With a future forecast of what to expect from online vendors, this white paper is an essential resource for preparing for negotiations and successfully navigating the negotiation process.

Click here for more information on this resource.

Don’t Be a Hostage to Your Vendor

By Kate | Sole Provider , White Papers

Many firms become a hostage to their vendor due to timing. The timeline for negotiating is dictated by contract expirations. Two or more years of dedicated planning allows for adequate time to evaluate the value of legal information resources and consider if vendor elimination or flipping to another vendor is an option. Your firm may get stuck with a vendor simply because there is not enough time to explore other options.

The idea of transitioning to sole-provider can be daunting, considering the many individuals and processes that might be impacted. There are a great number of elements to examine, from contracts to content, not to mention the strong reactions of users to fundamental system changes. Lexis and Westlaw have both successfully infiltrated law firms’ cultures and infrastructures over their many years of service.

An evaluation of the sole-provider option has become necessary for law firm administrators. Whether or not a firm chooses to go sole-provider, the evaluation in itself provides an opportunity for a firm to review, revise and refine its legal information strategy and potentially save significant money. Additionally, understanding the value of choosing either Lexis or Westlaw for your firm can be advantageous in negotiations.

The Sole Provider Playbook has been developed to be an all-encompassing guide, with tools to quickly determine the viability of the sole-provider option and how to actually execute it. If your firm first wants to only evaluate the sole-provider option, then the Sole Provider Viability Decision Guide is a great starting place. Click here to learn more about Feit Consulting’s Sole Provider Playbook.