A portrait of the social
intranet
Steve Perry - Head of Knowledge and
Business Development Systems
September 2009

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Agenda
 Business need
 Solution - Confluence platform
 Example uses
 Results
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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Business need
 We had a number of issues with our traditional static intranet:
 content being out-of-date, difficult to find and complex to
maintain;
 high resource/time costs due to repetitive, labour intensive
processes with long review cycles and limited editors;
 interfaces not consistent or easy to use; and
 low user satisfaction and usage rates.
 The intranet was not resolving problems; it was creating them.
 We needed to move away from the static intranet site to a more
collaborative, participative and dynamic environment.
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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Example – Private Equity Group
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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Example - iFreshfields
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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Solution
 The firm adopted a lightweight flexible approach, implementing a
low-cost enterprise-level Web 2.0 platform: Confluence.
 Following the creation of top-level spaces covering practice
groups, sector groups etc space owners are able to create new
areas enabling a quick response to their business issues and
drivers.
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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Elements of Confluence
 wikis that support collaboration work spaces as well as a
structured intranet
 themes and templates to help with the creation of new wiki
spaces and provide users with a common look and feel
 easy sharing and linking of content
 blogs or news within each wiki space
 labeling (or tagging) that allows users to apply their own
keywords to categorise content to improve its findability and aid
navigation
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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Elements of Confluence
 RSS to deliver
 relevant content into the wiki from external sources or other
data stores in the firm
 updated content from the wiki to subscribers in their feed
readers
 robust search engine that searches across all wiki content,
including document and email attachments
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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Example uses
 People in the firm have traditionally collated information and
exchanged ideas via email.
 People are subscribing to spaces so that they automatically receive
updates of new or amended content.
 Creating a document
 Groups quickly create wiki spaces, which accommodate all
work and information surrounding the preparation of a
thought leadership piece, pitch or know how.
 Globally dispersed teams within the firm are all directed to the
wiki to make their contributions.
 The central team is then able to collate the information and
build the document from all the material collated in one space. 8

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Example uses
Creating articles across different jurisdictions
 The article included country chapters that were written by different
authors in 7 offices worldwide.
 Every author wrote his country-piece under the respective
heading on a wiki page.
 Once the text had been reviewed and signed off, the wiki page
was converted into a word document and sent to the publishers.
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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Example uses
Managing an internal training schedule
 page with the schedule of upcoming London training lunch-time
sessions
 another page that lists recent training lunches
 used to distribute the presentation held at the training lunch and
to link through to best practice guidelines
 better than sending out individual emails and answering email
enquiries for copies of the presentation
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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Example uses
Planning of international conferences
 drafting and amending agendas and invitee lists, organising hotel
rooms and travel, distributing joining instructions to attendees - all
done on a wiki page
US partners discussion forum
 wiki space designed to allow the US partners to discuss, debate
and agree the key issues facing the business in the US
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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Results
 The participative and involving aspects of the wiki have delivered
significant value.
 The wiki is intuitive and most people simply know instinctively how
to use it.
 The benefits include:
 increased intranet usage
 cost-effective capture, maintenance and delivery of a wide
variety of firm and client-related information
 better informed staff, who are able to work more productively
 superior access to timely, relevant legal and business
information
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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Results
 The platform is also helping to break down traditional barriers
between globally dispersed teams.
 Users have now adopted the intranet as their own, and there is a
huge demand for new content areas and functionality.
 Overall, implementing the Confluence-based social intranet has
been a very positive experience for the firm.
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