A firm that allows easy online access to employee forms and allows changes to be made electronically frees its employees to spend more time on billable work than on administrative tasks. Employee and procedure manuals, corporate resumes, company news, recruitment information, changes in employee benefits, social activities, and other similar information open the lines of communication between the offices so that each feels informed and connected. The more that headquarters frees up resources that are located in-house, the more the satellite offices will turn outward for help. Teaming Providing access to in-house resources is very important and an easy way to build a bridge between offices. More challenging, though, is to provide a means to facilitate communication among individual employees to build partnerships and teaming arrangements for client services.
Successful firms rely on lawyers to network and build teams within the organization.
Networking takes place in the formal structure of practice groups and client teams and in the informal discussions around the water cooler. Networking allows lawyers to share information about cases, to learn what has happened with a new business opportunity, and to discuss changes to the law in a practice area. The key to a successful intranet is harnessing the interactive abilities of the technology to capitalize on traditional networking benefits. An intranet can have online discussion forums that are developed and maintained by the information-generators themselves. For example, a lawyer has learned of a section in the tax code that may dramatically alter a client's tax return.