Improving awareness of legal technology solutions at Mills & Reeve

Mills & Reeve had several challenges:

• Not enough bandwidth in the innovation team to answer individual questions coming through from lawyers.
• Low awareness amongst Partners of the technology solutions they have available to help them and their clients.
• Getting time-limited Partners to engage with traditional training methods such as Technology Briefings.
• The information about tech tools and solutions available was not easily and readily accessible for use in pitches and client meetings.
• Information was conveyed through a lengthy FAQ document and traditional technology briefings.

The firm needed to find a way to communicate their legal technology offering to staff in a way that was:

• More effective in spreading knowledge.
• Easier to access and use.
• Less dependent on the resources of the Innovation team.

An app was the obvious solution to them to enable instant access to the information for all staff, whenever and wherever they needed it.

After mapping out the app functionality in a spider diagram on paper, the team created prototypes for the app screens utilizing Fliplet to develop, test and deliver the ‘What The Tech?!’ app in just two weeks. The initial launch was to Partners before rolling out to all staff.

The primary features of the app are:

• Secure access for approved app users.
• Advanced decision tree functionality that aids technology discovery and enables Partners and Lawyers to make informed technology decisions.
• Provides access to ‘Sales Packs’ for improved client conversations.
• An ‘Ask the Team’ button to enable staff to contact the client innovation team directly via email/push notification for further information.
• Admin analytics so that managers can see who is using the app and what features/content they are accessing, then optimize accordingly.
• News feed highlighting the latest tech news with the ability to like and comment to drive conversation.
• Push notifications to keep all staff informed of updates and changes to the tools and solutions available.
• Staff directory providing contact information across the business.

The firm’s iPhone application, “What The Tech?!” was described as a highly innovative, neat, simple and very effective solution to make sure Partners are keeping up-to-date information to help them make informed decisions at the touch of a button.

The team developed an award-winning app, recognized with The Legal Innovation 2020 award for Knowledge Management Innovation.

The key benefits of the app for Mills & Reeve are:

• Positive feedback from launch amongst Partners within the firm.
• Over 500 staff have engaged with the app with over 7,500 screen views.
• A large proportion of Partners have engaged with the app.
• Simple enquiries to the Client Innovation team have reduced.
• A positive increase in the number of enquiries by people who want to use the technology that they have learned about while using What The Tech?!
• Partners able to demonstrate legal technology options in pitches and client meetings.
• Uptake in use of legal tech options by clients.
• Ability to continually update the app with new technology options for clients, optimize functionality and features based on performance analytics, ensuring the app continues to be utilized and engaged with.
• Directory data can be repurposed across other Fliplet apps.

I used the What the Tech app in a client meeting. Felt very savvy.