Today LexisNexis is launching a major transformation of their Customer Relationship Management  (CRM) product InterAction for Microsoft Office 365.
InterAction has been the leading CRM solution in the large law market. CRM’s are no longer a stand alone digital rolodex. They are being leveraged by firms to enhance both knowledge management and business intelligence initiatives. Interaction for Office 365 is designed to drive major workflow efficiencies because it connects director tp Outlook, Word, and Excel. It is extracting data from then delivering it back to attornesy at the point of need in their workflow. Out of the gate this product will enhance lawyer workflow. I think the more exciting opportunity is not mentioned in the press release. LexisNexis will no doubt leverage their substantial legal and business intelligence repositories and feeds to drive actionable data into the CRM.

I had the opportunity to see a demo of the new system provided by Scott Winter, Director of Product Management for InterAction, and Scott Wallingford, General Manager for InterAction

New features include:

• Auto data collection: Captures info from email signature files and imports them into your contacts
• Hybrid cloud: Stores the data where each individual customer wants it – on-premise, public/private cloud or mixture of both – for greater flexibility or security
• Greater relationship intelligence: Shows users who else within their org knows a contact and lists recent activities to head off duplicate efforts such as siloed pitch initiatives.
• Unique features are integrated directly into Microsoft apps, including the ability to make VoIP phone calls directly from Outlook and automatically record it as an activity.
• Data visualization tools to illuminate relationship density or gaps so marketing and business development activities can be targeted appropriately and more effectively.

The press release highlights the importance of LexisNexis hvings full control over its technology. This means new features can be rolled out faster and more seamlessly without having to wait for a third-party’s platform updates, or without any disruption caused by unforeseen updates or patches.

The Hidden Strategic Opportunity I think the more important strategic advantage will arise from the integration of LexisNexis content with InterAction. It is not hard to imagine the power of Lexis feeding, news, Lex Machina and Context data, Courtlink dockets and other forms of up-to-the minute intelligence into a contextual report on the contact.