Portal technologies, now a common resource, gather and display information and documents from the many constituencies of corporations, organizations and professional practices. They promise to distribute responsibility for gathering, editing and refreshing the content.
Portal leadership requires a combination of a thorough understanding of the work and roles, documents and information of each part of an organization, together with fluency in the tools, methods and technologies that support the system.
At the law firm, Drinker Biddle and Reath, beginning in 2001 as Program Director and later Director, Practice and Project Services, directed the acquisition and deployment of a firm-wide portal using Plumtree’s portal product. Starting in 2006, directed deployment of the portal in Microsoft SharePoint, first in SharePoint 2003 and later in SharePoint 2007.
Both the initial portal deployment in Plumtree and migration to SharePoint involved work throughout the Firm’s practice groups and administrative departments, as well as close coordination with the information systems engineering staff responsible for installing, configuring, customizing and maintaining the the portals.
As the technology matured and the firm grew, especially with the 2007 merger of Gardner Carton and Douglas into Drinker Biddle & Reath, the portal became the opening page for each user’s desktop. Worked with the communications and marketing leadership to develop a front page organization and presentation, assisted by consultants from XMLaw (now part of Thomas Reuters’ HubbardOne group). The communications and marketing group took responsibility for daily updates of the front page content.
Designed, implemented and trained users for custom document collections, such as court filings for complex cases. These applications connected a constituency of lawyers and support staff with a highly focused interest in the content of the collection and the time, effort and skill required to support it.