“Cyber Intelligence” and Knowledge Management

Today, reading an article published in LegalTechNews, I realized (one more time) the importance of Knowledge Management in every area and so, I am going to transcribe part of an article written by Zach Warren about the participation of Roy Zur (CEO of the Israeli company Cybint), at the ACDES 2016 E-Discovery Conference and Exhibition.

According to Zur, the problem lies in the increasing amount of information people have, but without the proper access to them. Where access means: getting to handle all the collected information (by all means) and turn them into usable knowledge and ideas.

Zur names the five main steps to get access to the collected information:

1- Data- Generally, most part of which is collected contains “white noise” that blurs or hides what really matters. An expert in the area should be able to “clean” this noise and to place the data in a structured way, also capable of indexing.

2- Information- To turn data into information, “you should be able to identify the different parts and understand what exactly they are related to.”

3- Knowledge- “The next step is, in fact, to connect the dots”, he says. Identifying and understanding the relation among the data, researches can draw solutions or come to conclusions.

4- Indicators- Experts and researches must identify the standards in order to use them in future events in this stage. Even not being able to identify those standards, the mere study of this knowledge makes the future process even faster.

5- Decision- At last, Zur says: “This is the final step of our participation as intelligence officers because, next, the result goes to the operational area”. Decision making can and takes into account other things that are not part of intelligence management.

Although this article is aimed at “cyber-security”, mainly about the prevention of acts of terrorism, it clearly shows the importance of Knowledge Management.

Bringing this present discussion to the universe of Law Offices, the adoption of a Knowledge Management culture has as its main elements:

Data capturing (represented by all financial management structure); unstructured explicit information (represented by the documents contained in GED’s, e-mails, registers and CRM’s) and at last the tacit information (captured in discussions forums, wikis, personals profiles and training) and;

The use of an intelligent search engine, user friendly and settable to the specific need of each office.

Knowledge Management represents a decisive factor for the competitive position of the offices nowadays (and in a near future) and the survival in an increasingly technological, digital and robotic future.

The support by an outsourced and experienced consultant firm, which is also exempt from internal political interactions, may indeed speed up the adoption and implementation of the “philosophy” of Knowledge Management.

The support by an outsourced and experienced consultancy firm which is also exempt from internal political interactions may indeed help in the working out of this challenge as well as in the definition  of the management model and the future strategy.

José Paulo Graciotti, is consultant and founding Partner of GRACIOTTI ASSESSORIA EMPRESARIAL, engeneer by Escola Politécnica Universidade de São Paulo, with Financial MBA at FGV and specialized in Knowledge Mnagement by FGV. ILTA Member since 1998 (International Legal Technology Association) and ALA (Association of Legal Administrators), with more than 27 years managing Law Firms in Brazil – www.graciotti.com.br