Early in my career, one of the hallmarks of customer service excellence was the prevalence of periodic “business reviews.” Business reviews are formal meetings that function as a “checkup” on vendor and contract performance. For several decades these reviews were offered by most large vendors throughout the course of a contract to assess past performance
On September 15th I presented the results of my “2022 Dewey B Strategic Start Stop Survey” at an HBR-sponsored LINKS program. I co-
presented the results with HBR Managing Director Kris Martin. The Dewey B Strategic “Start Stop Survey” was launched in 2013 but was suspended during the pandemic. The 2022 survey was intended
After a short break, the Start/Stop survey is back! This survey is intended to gather feedback on both products and projects
which you started or stopped since the start of the pandemic,(March 2020) through the present.
Please take a few minutes to respond to the survey at this link.
The Dewey B Strategic blog has
There is no question that the most exciting place at AALL is the Exhibit Hall. Connect with old friends, schmooze with vendors, learn about exciting new features and products. 2022 is the first live, post pandemic AALL conference. I am anticipating that a highly energized crowd will be streaming through the exhibit hall. I
In preparation for my Vendor Relationship session at the upcoming ARK Law Libraries conference in New York on March 21-22n , I have developed a brief survey on customer service issues in the legal research and technology market. The survey will take 4 minutes and includes 5 question. I invite my readers who regularly
In the 4 decades since its launch, Westlaw created the “gold standard” of research support with a cadre of reference attorneys who were
available any time a lawyer was working – that is, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Thomson Reuters executives are apparently ready to “pass the baton” to one of their competitors. Tonight for the first time in almost four decades, attorneys who call the Westlaw Reference Attorney helpline after 8 PM CST will presumably be greeted with a recording telling them to call back tomorrow.
On December 10th, Law Library Directors and Knowledge Managers around the country received this startling announcement: “Currently, Reference Attorneys provide 24/7 research support to subscribers of Westlaw Edge, Westlaw Classic, Practical Law, CLEAR, and over 30 other Thomson Reuters products. Beginning January 3, 2022, the Reference Attorney Service will move to a core business hours model and will be available Monday through Friday, 7am -8 pm Central for both chats and calls.”
Spectacularly Out of Step with Reality. Let’s think about this – the rest of the world has shifted away from “core business hours” and Thomson Reuters has devised a 1980’s style customer support model. How many recent trends are screaming contrary indicators: the growth of global law firms, the demand for work-life balance and flexible schedules, pervasive mobility, not to mention a little thing called COVID-19 which has up-ended the time-space continuum of work. What do time zones even mean in a connected post-pandemic world?
On December 19th I interviewed Jonathan Meyer, Director, Reference Attorneys at Thomson Reuters. I spent more than 30 minutes on the phone with Meyer trying to understand why there was no alternative to ending 24X7 support. After all, every law firm which entered into a long term Westlaw contract entered that agreement with the expectation that users of the premium priced product would continue
Continue Reading Thomson Reuters Signals to Lawyers “You’re On Your Own” – Ends Evening and Weekend Customer Support Today
In light of the financial pressures the pandemic has put on businesses, Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. will host a webinar to explore the evolving role of legal knowledge management professionals both in private practice and within law schools. The webinar, titled “The Future Ready Lawyer – The Evolving Role of the Library and
Respond to the 2020-21 What’s Hot and What’s Not Survey here. Although the world was shut down by the pandemic, our friends in
legal tech continued their pursuit of innovation and market share. Most of us had a sense of whiplash and disbelief when the world came to a virtual halt in March 2020. Law librarians who had built digital libraries over the years offered their attorneys a fairly seamless transition to their work from home desktop. Within weeks most legal publishers had developed a special COVID offering. These ranged from free alerts, to primary sources and workflow toolkits. Despite all of these efforts law librarians and knowledge managers faced a gap in COVID coverage. Almost overnight a “gray literature” emerged which major legal publishers were not
Continue Reading What’s Hot and What’s Not? Welcome to the Dewey B Strategic 2020-2021 Hits and Misses Survey
I recent months I have repeatedly highlighted the renewed energy and competition in the legal news space. I never anticipated that 
LexisNexis would be joining their competitors in launching a new legal news publication. After all, LexisNexis controls the majority of the US legal news content (Law360, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and a non-exclusive license for American Lawyer Media content.) And yet today LexisNexis is launching a new publication Law360 Pulse which will focus on the “business of law” and target readers in large and mid-sized firms as well as in house counsel.
Law360 Pulse is described in the press release as a “business of Law news service” including “ “the award-winning journalism and research of Law360 with powerful data and analytics from Lexis+ to deliver unparalleled business of law coverage, timely insights and industry intelligence that help law firms and legal departments succeed.”
The service will offer 24/7 breaking news, business of law feature articles, surveys, rankings and reports on law firm practices and trends. The first report, titled Physical Space in a Pandemic: How Law Firms are Adapting, was issued today alongside a broader series on
Continue Reading LexisNexis Launching Law360 Pulse–To Focus on the Business of Law
We were all blindsided as 2020 unfolded, yet the momentum of technological change and innovation assured a steady stream of new 
products. I have identified five trends, which I have divided into three categories: unforeseeable, continuing and surprising.
The trends I believe are worth noting — Unforeseeable: COVID-19 impacts; Predicable: state court analytics and innovative workflow tools; Surprising: legal news re-emerges as a competitive focus among major legal publishers and tech marketplaces emerge.
Unforeseeable: COVID-Related Trends
COVID alone triggered four subtrends:
Continuing Trends: State Court Analytics And Workflow Tools
Workflow Tools
Continue Reading 5 (Unforeseeable, Predicable, And Surprising) Legal Tech Trends In 2020