Smarter Legal Business Management - overview of business intelligence within the legal field. Martyn Wells client of C24 talks about Bi24 - c24 BI solution.

1. FEATURES
~
K THE ale loEA
eeinc is
re ievinc
There are many ways of diving Into data and dishing up charts —but whether you
prefer bar, pie or bubble, experts advise that the best choice usually depends on
who you are and what you want to do with it at the time
Words R che d 5 ni
'/tie%
I
,
goo
3
1
I
~
~ ~:~
~
Ri I' rr 1 li 'i i
'l FEATURES
t was meRotable that the
unraveling ofthe global
financial system m 2008
would push questions
around data reporting
solidly centre stage among busmess
management challenges Ifsomebody,
somewhere had spotted a trend m slightly
over-leveraged lending shghtly earlier,
could growmg nsk have been contmned
and disaster averted? Ifthat trend was
displayed ever so slightly differentl —a
different colour or diagram style —would
somebody, somewhere, have been shghtly
more likely to see it commg at alff
But there's an even better example of
the difference the nght piece ofdata can
make Alan Keahey is a semor data
vtsuahsatton scientist at IBM, currently
leadmg on visuahsation and repoi nng for
IBM Watson Health's mission to
dramancally improve cancei treatment
'This protect, launched with hospitals in
the US and Canada m May 2015, is usmg
the power ofcogmtive computmg to
calculate when a cancer patient's unique
genetic information might make an
alternative to surgery, chemotherapy or
radiation treatment a preferable course
There's 10000ofdata to analyse m each
case —and that's before all the paperwork
on past experience
"We'e trymg to find matches between
a particular pauent's genetic information
and the information out there in the
hterature for cancer treatment and
evidence from chmcal tnals —thousands
ofiournals and trial reports every month,"
says Keahey
"It's a huge amount ofinformation to
boil down mto lust a few pages that could
be used m a chmcal environment to
decide on the best course. Doctors will
typically form a small committee —a
'tumour panel' and may have 10or 15
mmutes to make their deasion. The data
needs to be reported m a form that
suppoi ts actionable deasions —life or
death decisions —in 10mmutes"
The mformation that makes it through
to the summary stage ofthis process is
clearly cntical "There are standard
algonthms, but incorporatrng the highly
speciahsed medical knowledge is a big
challenge We work with bio-
mathemauaans and physicians to encode
~ ~ ~ ~
12 8 ri EAPRIL2026 S eanEAPRiL2016 OT Sen e 13

2. FEAFUREE
FEATUREE
that," explams Keahey
But it's even more
comphcated than that —because
it's a human, ofcourse, who
makes the ultimate decision, and
m collaboration with others
eyou need to present the
informanon in a mannei that
allows the doctor to answer the
questions most critical to them,"
says Keahey
"In addinon, there are
different roles m play The
oncologist may want a different
sort ofview to the pathologist,
but they also need to
commumcate effecuvely, so
we'e also stuCked the specific
questions and answers and
mteractions that the dilferent
professionals m the process
need"
Operational edge
What seems to make the IBM
Watson Health project umque m
its hosuahsathon demands is the
combmation ofthe presence of
highly complex datasets with a
need for a very rapid decision. If
this were abusiness, on the other
hand, those features would
indicate both a strateyc and an
operanonal decision bemg taken
simultaneously —which might
be a bit ofa problem
Boas Bvelson, business
mtelhgence industry analyst at
Forrester, says eStrateyc
decisions are made infrequently,
usually involve large and
complex datasets, require
collaboration between co-
workers, and have far-reaching
apphcanons
eOperational deasions, often
made many ames per day, often
by a single mdnodual, sometimes
just involve lookmg up a few
simple data pomts, and can be
quickly corrected if a mistake is
made"
Outside the world ofcancer
n eatment, these different
decision styles, and the
informational appetite ofthe
people makmg them, might well
lead to different visual choices A
nsk manager or finanaal analyst,
for example, may look rather
more favourably on multiple
trend lines and the opportumty
to 'play'ith data than the sales
team leader who lust wants to
turn some poor performance
data mto immediately improved
dehvery on daily objectives
I.et's take the boardroom-
where there is certmnly a
parallel with Keahey's notion of
disnlhng complex data mto
(ideally) a two- or three-pager
resembhng a reasonable
summary ofa topic The boiud
may have more arne than the
medics to make their strateyc,
hard-to-reverse deasions, but
they really don't want to spend
too much ofthat time readmg
and mterprenng
"Sophisncated mteracnve
tools are preasely the wi ong
tools to be using at board level,"
ay ees Keahey "Butthem might
be several hierarchy-related
dashboard repoi ts examining
different levels ofthe
organisanon. Many msights
could be reached in each ofthese
Ckfferent parts, so the challenge
for the busmess's team of
analysts is somehow to roll all of
these up mto a single and
actionable view"
He adds. "Today's bow de are
open to some dey ee ofadvanced
sosuahs anon in pui suit oftheir
unde& stand mg, but it's not
always mtuinve, so may require
some additional explananon"
The need for speed, on the
other hand, is well dlustrated by
the world ofsupply chain
management —where a delay in
action based on the very latest
information can lead to much
unnecessary cost
For example, the business
Muddy Boots Software feeds
timely infoananon from
supphers offood through to the
retailers fill mg their shelves with
the goods Technical Ckrector
Jeremy Pde says "A retmler
might need to reject a product
because it doesn't meet a
parncuiah specificanon But
without immediate accurate
data about the problem the
supplier could still be packing
that product to the same
standard m two or three days'ime
There's the cost ofpackage,
shippmg, assessment —and then
it's either thrown away or there'
the cost ofrework"
How that data's presented, or
mdeed relayed, to the decision
makers is as important as its
presence "We help food
businesses to monitor site,
suppherand product
"Ml gives you immediate current
information, but Bl can give you an
indication of things you might want
to do so that you can make the most
intelligent decisions."
Me Iy Wells, IT Crrecror, W ghu Hesseg
comphance but in order to be on
top ofthmgs we need to be
informed when something has
gone wrong, or a new check or
certification a now duey Pile
explams "They need to know
the issues that are most
important to address today to
avoid problems tomorrow"
And an appropaate system of
nonfication is as important as
paontisation, he says "An online
dashboard isn't easily
consumable by everyone If
you'e out on the shop fioor, you
might be much better off with a
simple text message or an email.
"It's also about usmg the aght
tool for the lob Tradinonal bar
charts, pica, bnes doughnuts,
scatter graphs —they all have a
role to play
"Now, we provide our
customers with wo id clouds for
the quickest high-level snapshot
oflatest mfoi manon —the
highest number ofall relections
might be from 'Spam', for
example —but that doesn't tell
them what the issues actually
are Ourtoolsallowthemtod»ll
mto that information A smgle,
static dashboard hnew can'
answer everyone's questions
about the status oftheir supply
chmns, so we allow customers to
get into the finer detail too"
Feeling the heat
But knowing the geographic area
to target as a paonty could be
precisely the most important
thmg to know to change a course
ofacnon -even in legal busmess
Law firm Waght Hassall uses a
geo-demoy aphic heatmap to
idennfy areas ofthe country
where people are most hkely to
pay back their debts Dependmg
on data density, postcodes are
labelled 'hot'r 'cool'he debt
recovery team can be Iesourced
and Ckrected to act accordmgly
—although the data is, ofcourse,
anonymised
"Ifwe know that an area is
hquidatmg faster, it means we
can collect moi e money, but we
have to be careful around
comphance and to treat clients
fau lyr says IT Chrector Martyn
Wells eThis is where busmess
intelligence departs a bit from
management infoi mation MI
yves you immechate current
information, but BI can yve you
an mCkc anon ofthmgs you might
want to do so that you can make
the most mtelhgent decisions
"Processmg a large number of
claims means debt is a
commodity proceas and mary ns
are thm, so visuahsmg this way
provides a level ofreassurance
over success But chents will
have different strateyes around
maximising their returns
Depending on that, we can dial
the mmght up or down."
The tool
lorna
key client
dashboards, displaying metrics
hke work in progress and billmgs
to date, which are also shared
with chents as part ofWnght
Hassall Account Management
(or WHAM, chuckles Wells)
The platform also uses a
natural language-based system
ofsearch —"not the traditional
approach to busmess
mtelligence", he says
"It's very simdar
architecturally to the systems
underpinnmg artifiaal
intelhgence such as IBM
Watson You get natural
14 BR fi gAPRIL2016 B 1 gAPRIL2016 ar Shits I lg

3. FEATURES FEATURES
tff S fi e l ~ a
~ f jg ~ EE t '
Eh 5 !.sl al I ' 'I I IIEI 'I
SI 4 It I
ia Ia,ahiagh,a:EI EIS Im I I
I I
5 a slit . et Es 5 5,66 5 I I 1511
'etlsss SIIItaa I allah Elis
5515 Siam, e aaaallalt 5 't II al
5 5 I 5 La Iii I I 5 I I 55 5 IE I ENI IE ~ 5 I I II 2
-~ S.mmalallsa smh ttma giur
N SILE I ul ar 5 I ll&SI
hi. I
6th I I . Ieiu
I I'' 5 Na Ea 5 1 11 I ~ Ii 6 I
EL II I ill at sir I ail'I
IS II"IS '' I'I 15
LIE, LS'1 I i I ".
Sh 5
I I IEILI I ISL Iaaall E.eat
I SIES5555 Li IN55551
'o'o o i
language clusters, which you can
then report on in any ofdozens
ofchart formats —or
mfographics ifyou wish
"Itwill bring all matter
information to the fore —very
powerful ifyou'e lost
something —and it can expose a
document's metadata, and you
can give it back to fee earners
and team leaders to manage
thmgs for themselves self-
servhce"
Somethmg for everyone?
Such democrausation ofreport-
mg Is an emerging trend —and
really quite appropriate for a
time when the subjects being
reported may mclude, for
example, the hurly burly ran-
domness offresh social media
posts to mull over every second
Gartner analyst Joao
Tapadinhas says "Many BI
slf different datasets
haven't been marshalled
together into something
verifiable that can be
applied companywide,
there may be issues with
reproducibility.r
Alan Keahey se o data snahsetton sue tst, IBM
leaders thmk that they need to
curate informanon unnl it has
prtstme quality. Otherwise, they
consider It to be virtually useless
However, m the case oftrend
analysis or pattern detection,
noise or maccuracles are often
tolerable.
He adds: "Don't assume that
users can't produce their own
mslghts because the orgamsanon
needs to estabhsh and nurture a
'smgle version oftruth'.
Although a smgle version of
truth is required m certain areas,
such as finanaal reporting, it
doesn't necessanly help m every
stuanon"
Rob Radburn, team leader of
research and mslght at
Leicestershire County Counal,
says one ofthe advantages of
opening up reportmg
opportunities to more people is,
m fact, an ability to drive up
data's overall quahty
"We have I55 wards across
seven distrtcts and thousands of
people using our services. That'
a lot ofstones and potential
questions already But ifpeople
can ask more questions ofour
data, they also start dkscovenng
where there are errors. And they
can directly see the benefit of
fix
mgthmg
ifuseful data Is
missmgy Although hhs speaahst
team anil builds most ofthe
visuahsanons for others to
utilise, he can manage that based
on requests much faster —and
even has 'super users'ho are a
bit more proactive
Radburn's team uses Tableau
Software (he is, m fact, a so-
called 'zen master' the craft)
to boost data inquisltiveness-
and responsiveness —across the
council's wide range ofacnvithes
eI can budd dashboards that
are really interacnve Ifwe have
a map ofLeicestershire, you can
filter and immediately update a
bar chart, for example, based on
each map point Ifyou reported
that more traditionally, you'
need a report for every location
—maybe 500,000 pages
"When the census data, or an
unemployment bulletm, come
out we can dice the relevant
data, and have something up on
our website much quicker for
people to seey
It can also make the work of
those on the road more effiaent
"Take GPS data when we'e
cleaning the gulhesy says
Radburn. "We can plan the
routes ofthe operanves more
effectively based on where the
water goes" Back In the office,
meanwhde, It yves people a
much faster picture ofwhen an
action was last taken ifa member
ofthe public phones up.
He adds, however, that the
councd Is a "people business", so
the ideal repornng is always a
balance between quantitative
and quahtative mformation.
"Numbers alone won't help us
We still have to talk to people-
to measure what we call 'social
return on investment'ome
thmgs are affected by pubic
services uh ways you might not
tiunk, and you need a picture of
those connections too"
Radburn's team will then try
to put the qualitative (such as
hterature reviews, as well as
surveys) and quantitative
mformation together
eIfa survey has an open text
box for people to comment
freely, instead of dust turmng that
mto a word cloud, we could
attempt to categorise the data
into subsets Is a comment
positive or neganvei Where do
people thmk we should be
spendmg more or less moneyP
You can put a quantitative
framework around text without
sacrificingthe real nchness"
IBM's Reahey says self-
service reporting is certamly a
trend to watch —but also sounds
a note ofcaution over how much
freedom is granted
"It's a bit ofa double-edged
sword, because there's an
educational component You
need to famlhanse bne of
business users with good
visuahsation practices so they
can use these tools effectively
"And if different datasets
haven't been marshalled
together mto something
venfiable that can be applied
company-wide, there may be
issues with reproducibllity, or
perhaps accuracy" Some
companies will feel they still
need secure access mechamsms
and versionmg to make the
investment a fully company-
wide benefit, he says
Similarly, huge amounts of
mteractlon might not always be
appropnate "Exploratory
visualsation Is for situations
where you don't know exactly
what you want to show or find
However, for the most Important
decision-makmg, some
vhsuahsations really shouldn't be
interacnve
n
You need them to be
explanatory rather than
exploratory —where everyone is
certam ofseeing the same
picture all the time" One trend
emerging Is a style ofseml-
guided interactnnty to find a
middle ground, he says-
Idennfymg patterns or outhers
and suggesung them to the user
Rs a staltlng pol lit
Like the mcreasmg
apphcations for artifiaal
mtelligence, it's a hopefully
happy partnership between
data's incleasinglypmpoint
accuracy and the human's
natural need to have a greater
level ofcontrol ovel whatever It
manages to see R
r ~
~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~
16 5 I ti gAPRIL2016 5 I ti gAPRIL2016 OT ae I I I 17