Here's IT as an innovation enabler: An innovative IT team moves forward in step with the changing demands of the business—sometimes a little behind, sometimes in front, but for the most part, keeping in sync. That’s how Stephen Agnoli, CIO at global law firm K&L Gates, sees it. This year K&L was honored with a CIO 100 award, which is given to 100 companies whose IT innovations have transformed their businesses.

Innovative IT. Transformative IT. IT that drives the business forward. While that might sound lofty—genius IT folks locked away in a creativity closet—companies such as CIO 100 honorees and other leading companies are marked by IT that works in true partnership with the business. That partnership can provide new areas for growth and set a company apart from its competition.

Agnoli says that the company’s CEO, Peter Kalis, sees IT as a key business driver and considers Agnoli crucial to conversations of strategy and innovation. Agnoli, for his part, says he is working to lead an IT department that is business-oriented (he forbids the use of tech acronyms in the presence of business colleagues), well-oiled (“It’s hard to find time to innovate if your foundation’s not strong”) and agile (“If [the business] keeps looking backward and IT is still in the same place, that’s a problem”).

At K&L, the IT-business partnership resulted in its Legal Information System—an information-sharing application that gives lawyers and staff the ability to share data about legal cases, state and federal statutes, and legal commentary and analysis with its clients. K&L cites the system, which now has 700 users, as a market differentiator that has allowed the law firm to triple its revenue to $5 million per year.

Origins of a Winning Project
Seeds for the K&L project were planted in 2001 when an industry group association was looking for a legal firm to do what its current one could not: quickly deliver high-quality legal content to a distributed base of users. Up to that point, legal information (such as updates on industry-relevant cases) was delivered to its members via CD-ROM. If something changed in the legal arena, the association had to either wait until the next quarter to update the information or send out paper notifications, both of which were cumbersome.

The association (which Agnoli declined to name) turned to K&L. The legal side was confident that it could offer the information the client sought; the question was whether the firm’s IT capabilities were up to the challenge of this center-stage project. Agnoli said this posed a risk and an opportunity for his IT group, adding that it relied on a team that had built a strong infrastructure and a trustworthy track record of performing well. (See “Six Keys for Creating an Innovative IT Team.”) That track record was key to starting the project and building the foundation of the resulting innovation: The IT team worked with K&L lawyers and the client organization around strict project development guidelines and with multiple checkpoints. In 2002, what resulted was a technology platform that combined off-the-shelf Web-based applications with custom-built tools. For example, the system uses packaged software’s document management functionalities but incorporates custom-built online query and search capabilities. This allows users to search legal cases and commentaries by industry, area of law and information access requirements. Content creation, review, approval and posting are managed by a workflow process, which allows K&L lawyers to quickly update the site to help clients understand important, emerging issues.