Making the Law Accessible on the Web - 10 Questions with LegalZoom CIO Tracy Terrill

10QatAtime
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leadership
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Ten-question interviews
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(*the 2-minute slideshow version)

MAKING THE LAW ACCESSIBLE
Ten questions with
LegalZoom’s CIO
Tracy
Terrill
For 10 years now, LegalZoom has been revolutionizing the way people access the law by providing online legal document services. Since 2007, CIO Tracy Terrill has been responsible for
implementing best practices for software development, recruiting and building a global engineering team, enabling 24-hour development, and redesigning the corporate Web site infrastructure.

“…my team’s main challenge has been balancing our efforts between new product development and improving the customer experience.”
10QatAtimeINTERVIEWS
Q1) What is the primary challenge you face as CIO in managing the technology of LegalZoom?
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“Yes… with our services, the customer identifies the type of document they need … Where LegalZoom differs … is that we also provide a human review…”
Q2) LegalZoom seems similar to other online services like H&R Block and Turbotax. Is that a legitimate comparison?
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“We don’t expect customers to complete questionnaires on their smartphones, but we can see the tablet devices being a significant source of our Web traffic… ”
Q3) Has the proliferation of mobile apps and devices affected the way you do business or do you expect it to?
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“Being an online service is a challenge because we never close… There is also a significant amount of coordination required to perform our regular system maintenance and upgrades…”
Q4) Is guaranteeing uptime on your site an issue, and how do you address it?
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“Our employees review each document for completeness, spelling, grammar… If a customer wants to review things more thoroughly… we always encourage them to do so.”
Q5) Is a legal review needed in finalizing a document… before it is submitted?
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“…speed and revision abilities, and of course archiving. We provide permanent vaulting services… There are also specific definitions and help text online as you go through the… process.”
Q6) What are the benefits of using the technology you provide, as opposed to a purely paper-driven process?
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“…we can immediately amend our questionnaires if there is a change… a customer can make revisions or get another copy… we file the document with the appropriate state or federal agency… ”
Q7) What are the major differences in the end product like a will or incorporation prepared through LegalZoom…?
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“I can’t go into specifics of order volume, but we see strong volumes of limited-liability company formations, last wills, trademarks, and in our Business Advantage Pro membership...”
Q8) Is will preparation the most popular service you provide?
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“…things are starting to come together… Once a week, an attorney takes questions on a first-come basis… We actually have about 10 times more followers on Facebook than on Twitter… up over 50,000...”
Q9) What kind of response have you seen so far from your social media connections, such as with “Free Joe Friday” on your Facebook page?
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“Actually, I am frequently asked if I am the CIO or the CTO… My team manages projects, systems and the infrastructure… I know many CIO’s who function in a service role to the business and have little participation at the executive level.”
Q10) To wrap things up, how would you say your position at LegalZoom differs from the CIO role in other industries?
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MAKING THE LAW ACCESSIBLE
Ten question interviews with top technology leaders
Jeff
Cerny
These slides are excerpted from the full interview with Tracy Terrill in my regular 10Q column. The complete article is available as a PDF download
and your comments and votes on CBS Interactive:
http://www.techrepublic.com/downloads/making-the-law-accessible-10-questions-with-legalzooms-tracy-terrill/2852341?tag=mantle_skin;content
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©2011 10QatAtime

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Making the Law Accessible on the Web - 10 Questions with LegalZoom CIO Tracy Terrill

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Making the Law Accessible on the Web - 10 Questions with LegalZoom CIO Tracy Terrill — Presentation Transcript