In Conversation with…

Tracey Rodgers

Data, as we know it, is often overwhelming, complex, and unmanageable. Different departments view it based on their own requirements – and lawyers tend to see it as all the same. However, professional services firms now recognise the value and contribution the marketing and business development practitioner can make. We must, though, be providing the analytics that allow decision making to influence strategy, says Harney’s Tracey Rodgers.

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In Conversation with…

Tracey Rodgers

Tracey Rodgers, Head of Client Intelligence, Harneys

tracey.rodgers@harneys.com

Q. The theme of this year’s PSMG annual conference is “business development and data analytics for the professional services marketer’. It is, of course, an on-going journey but – and assuming it’s possible to summarise – where do you currently see professional services sitting with regards to capability, attitude, and insights?

The market changed about 10 years ago when new products hit the market that really challenged the status quo. The technology change was swift but the understanding of how to manage the data has been lagging which is why I think Master Data Management is such an important topic. We can collect copious amounts of data, but we need to map it together to support decision-making.

Which is where I think the biggest change has been. In the past, support departments worked in silos, HR, BD, Compliance, Finance, IT, all re-entering variations of the same data in our own little databases or excel spreadsheets. Even within the MBD teams, each function kept lists of their own never to be layered to provide any insight into our relationship with prospects and clients.

When rolling out a new CRM system eight years ago, there were 800 spreadsheets of MBD data that ranged from event attendances to secret target lists. One of the biggest challenges was getting data into the CRM. We were at the mercy of extremely busy lawyers sharing their contacts and a secretary who would diligently have to add them into the system. It was about ensuring lawyers were adding meeting notes after lunches or their expenses wouldn’t get paid. And then there was the endless data management to keep it relevant.

The first game changers were Gwabbit and ContactNet that gave us access to Outlook exchange data so contacts and meetings could be identified and synced. Now every new CRM has the technology as standard. And seeing how they are all expanding the analytics offering is exciting.

And it is not just the big law firms with large MBD teams that can access the technology. With SAAS it can be scaled to meet the size of the firm. Any law firm can find a solution to suit their budget and head count.

The skills set required in a MBD team are evolving with data management and report building skills more valuable than traditional data steward roles and the BD executives need to embrace technology, understand the data from other systems, upskill on reporting and using the analytics that are being delivered by the new generation of CRM software. From ‘white space’ opportunities to measuring ROI, it is all there in the data.

Q. I was struck your CV makes a point of stressing your work spreads across the firm into the areas of IT, finance and HR. The huge importance of the holistic approach is also on the agenda of others speaking at the conference who make a point of cautioning against engrained silo working practices.

My favourite part of Harneys is how closely the teams work together. And it is not just finance, HR, compliance, and IT but also the project management office which we use to look for opportunities to work together. If a system is capturing data, can it be used in another system? It is a case of enter data once, use it many times.

We would like to do more sharing of data to reduce data entry, and also be able to bring it together for better reporting, dashboards and analytics. Together we practice the ethos of Master Data Management as we know how important it is to every aspect of the firm. But Harneys are not unique; at the M&BD data analytics: What is it and how can we do it better PSMG seminar there were many exciting stories from firms that are on the same journey; firms with data strategies, Data Aanalysts, the same ambitions and challenges, working with teams across the firm.

Each department is capturing the same data but coming at it from our own data requirements based on what we want from the data. For example, office count is owned by HR but used for different purposes by IT, MBD, finance but it is the same data. And if the naming convention is different in every data base, then it is challenging to share data between systems and reporting.

Lawyers see it as the same data – so ask why are you making me enter the same information into a different system at each stage of the journey?

Back to Master Data Management and the need for a firm data strategy with agreed taxonomies that the systems can use to map data together. If I am being hopeful, disciplined data management and teams, working together to ensure the ‘golden record’ is correct. Unfortunately, I am yet to meet a partner who says, “Tell me more about master data management” as the benefit is so far away from what they do and the business has urgent issues to deal with now.

“The skills set required in a MBD team are changing with data management and report building skills more valuable than data steward roles and the BD executives need to embrace technology, understand the data from other systems, upskill on reporting and using the analytics that are being delivered by the new generation of CRM software.”

Q. People talk about “big data” but isn’t that something of a misnomer? Surely, it’s about where, how and why we keep data – and the robustness of that data?

I don’t think the data we work with constitutes ‘big data’ but it does feel in its current state as overwhelming in its unmanageability and its complexity is due to the organic and disjointed nature of recording information.

Each piece of data collected and managed has a cost attached to it and businesses must prioritise how lawyers use their time. For example, the true duplicate client in the finance system, created from mergers, client ownership or typos, are all inherited problems that make mapping across data sets challenging so, when we bring the different data sets together, the net result is that we can give trends, indicators or estimates. And I hesitate giving lawyers estimates or stating “for the subset of the data that I have…” as it almost allows the reporting to be discounted.

Which reflects back to your point of data quality. Data privacy legislation has given structure to how to declutter our contact data. How long can we legally keep data that has not been touched for years? Don’t go to the expense of cleaning it, delete it.

When does it lose its usefulness? Do we care an ex-colleague added the contact in 2005? We care about the relationships we have now, and we have the tools to surface those relationships. We do not need to store information if we get it from a better, external source on demand via an API.

CRM hosts the BD data that isn’t held elsewhere (client insights, panel lists) and hides in the BD excel files so that it can be part of a bigger holistic profile. Then using a reporting tool, layer with data from other sources in a set of dashboards that meet the different information requirements of the firm.

Q. Your career has been mostly spent in law firms. Turning away from data analytics to a more general topic, how has the role of the marketer and business development professional in the sector changed?

It has become more specialised as new ways of marketing and technology have evolved. I remember stuffing envelopes for newsletter mailshots, never knowing if anyone even read them. Now we have all the statistics on readership and response rates.

And print advertising was the cornerstone of my job at Knight Frank - and I remember proofing ad copy via faxes (do I need to explain what a fax is?) and web ads were given away for free. Now our print advertising budget is tiny, and we know the exact ROI on our SEO spend. Which brings us back to data analytics and ROI – we can make decisions on how to spend our marketing budget to maximise impact.

There’s also speed and quantity of work that can be achieved which impacts everyone, not just MBD professionals. I remember my first blackberry and being able to respond to emails while away from the office, and we began to be perceived as important enough to have a Blackberry.

I think that has been a fundamental change, where at the beginning of my career, marketing was considered admin support who carried out tasks, but now professional services firms recognise the value and contribution that a MBD professional makes to a firm. So, we need to be providing the analytics that allow decision making to influence strategy. Sorry, back to data analytics.

I have seen the silos break down between IT, finance, HR, and marketing. It has gone from fighting over who was the most important to being collaborative and working together to bring the separate data sets together to give holistic client intelligence.

Q. It seems to me professional services has, in many ways, much to applaud itself for in the area of marketing and business development. Would you agree?

Most definitely. The major push has been from marketing and business development professionals. We have been working hard to be taken seriously, to deliver value to the firms we work for.

There are the forums, such as PSMG, that set up so that we can support and learn from each other. I remember sitting in a pub basement at a PSMG seminar 20 years ago listening to MBD professionals share their experiences and knowledge, being in awe how they made it sound so pragmatic. We have also had post graduate courses dedicated to professional services marketing to ensure as a group we are skilled up.

Then, on the other side, we have been encouraged and nurtured by the firms themselves, recognising the benefits MBD can bring and collaborating. Fuller Pieser, became part of ATIS Real, and put the MBD team in the centre of the open plan office to demonstrate how the leadership team saw MBD’s place within the firm.

At Bird & Bird, I found myself in the lift with the managing partner and took the opportunity to give him the ‘elevator pitch’ on the new CRM system. I have never seen anyone so desperate to leave a lift but, to his credit, he asked me to set up a meeting so I could demonstrate it to him. And during the roll-out to the offices, every partner made time to see me so I could show them what it could do for them.

And talking to peers in other firms, their fee earners believe in the benefits that MBD can deliver beyond sending a newsletter and arranging client drinks but crafting these activities as part of the holistic MBD strategy.

Q. So, we have the challenges of data, shifting client expectations and – according to some – a talent shortage. Are you confident about the sector after these seismic few years?

I am hoping these are the growing pains of a new mature service offering of the traditional CRM team. We can move on from the reputation data clean-up and list creators to a function of the MBD team that offers a very valuable product – decision-making intelligence

“I have seen the silos break down between IT, finance, HR, and marketing. It has gone from fighting over who was the most important to being collaborative and working together to bring the separate data sets together to give holistic client intelligence.”

Q. You’re running one of the workshops at the conference on April 26. What can people expect from your session?

A discussion on data led MBD and how do we get there. What is the CRM systems role in today’s professional services firm? What technology should we have and what skill sets do we need to get the most out of it? What are the reports and dashboards should we be working towards and what do we do once we have them?

I want to share the challenges and solutions we have all found on this journey. You are not alone.

And I hope others will share what they have been doing.

I was speaking to a MBD director at another law firm, and we have the same set of challenges and due to their different factors are handling in a very different way and it made absolute sense. There are so many interesting paths, that I hope we can create a space to share ideas and help each other.