KM: Collaborative Work Systems ("CWS")

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Goal of CWS
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ROI

Measuring the ROI of KM is difficult and law firms have been reluctant to invest in the time and technology to collect, organize and research material particularly since that time would be non-billable. The investment (whether time, manpower or costs) that it takes for the development of KM systems especially in small to medium sized firms can be extremely hard to justify. In his article Features - "Show Me the Money" - Measuring the Return on Knowledge Management, Kinglsey Martin (2002) points out that "advanced knowledge management tools must be justified on a different basis compared to technology used to support the firm's operational needs, such as word processing, communications and even document management. Basic operational software is increasingly required in order to conduct business, and can, therefore, be justified as a cost of doing business. Knowledge management technologies, and other advanced systems, are justified if they reduce expense, improve productivity or enhance value." Martin (2002) suggests that in order for law firms to recover and/or measure the costs of investing in technology, firms should consider the cost recovery through disbursement charges mechanism and the cost justification through overhead expense mechanism. To learn more about these mechanisms, refer to Martin's article by clicking here.
Leveraging the skills and capabilities of firm personnel to enhance efficiencies, productivity and effectiveness throughout an organzation as well as providing better service to clients is a value, in and of itself, of knowledge sharing.

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