I seem to read a lot of articles at the moment predicting the death of KM.

Personally, as increased competition puts pressure on law firms, I see a bright future for KM in the legal sector, although I have assumed that “KM” includes all the ways that firms create, capture, access, apply, interpret and utilize the combined knowledge of their employees to improve their businesses, rather than just those expensive graveyard databases that were once so popular.

I bet these come back to haunt me, but here goes…

My top 6 predictions for the future are:

1. Increased demand for KM (in the wide sense) from all kinds of law firms, not just the “circles”.
2. More intelligent use of IT – giving up the search for a killer database app and concentrating instead on technology which facilitates communication and conversation between fee earners.
3. Acceptance of the importance of human interaction and an understanding that conversations at/about work add value to the business.
4. Right-sourcing – in-sourcing, out-sourcing and off-shoring, but only where they save cost and improve (or at least do not negatively affect) value to clients, including a reconsideration of business processes previously out-sourced, some of which will be brought back in-house.
5. Social media goes mainstream, although it will take a while before lawyers get beyond broadcasting into conversations and engagement.
6. Intelligent measurement systems to improve the strategic focus of KM systems.

What do you think?  What are your top 5/6 predictions?

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