Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

Our firm is on the verge of rolling out its SharePoint portal. Akin to renovating one’s home, it is difficult to resist the urge to tackle one more project “while you’re at it”. Project managers warned me about scope creep but that didn’t stop my inclination to completely overhaul the desktop.

This background is intended to give some context to our decision to voluntarily remove the QL “classic” direct connection from our network tonight. From tomorrow onwards, all of our core Canadian online legal research services will be delivered through browser interfaces.

As the head of our portal project, I have to take full responsibility for this state of affairs. There is no one else to blame. I can rationalize the decision in many ways (e.g., it was only a matter of time). That doesn’t change the fact (for me) that the search interface I learned first was the one I preferred. I was probably the most dedicated classic version researcher in the firm. No amount of debate could convince me that the browser version was superior (or even equal) for that matter.

But that is all history – and while I will miss the classic interface, I do see some benefits to keeping current. For one thing, I will have more in common with the many other researchers in the firm who have already adopted the browser interface. More importantly, I suppose, I will now take the time to learn the browser interface properly – and maybe even find some features that are superior to the now departed interface.

When we are all so busy, it is easy to say “I don’t have time for training” or “I can figure it out myself”. While there is some truth to these statements, we do handicap ourselves to some extent with this approach. However, recognizing the need for training and delivering effective training can be two different things. Figuring out how to deliver “just in time” training in a law firm is a very difficult task – but our experience shows that this is by far the most successful type of training, especially for professionals.

There are no easy answers to these challenges. Vendors continue to enhance their products and we continue to struggle with how to equip users with the knowledge they require to use the many tools available to them. While I may still long for the days of DOS, I do recognize there is no going back.