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Increased search return
relevancy by 100%
Reduced research time by
one hour per user in initial
rollout
Delivered fast, under
5-second response times
for searches
Integrated with existing
applications - iManage,
Ringtail and Westlaw
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Fulbright & Jaworski: Leading Law Firm Searches And Shares Knowledge Base Smarter, More Accurately
 Paul Revilla, Director of Development
"Globalbrain's full text search engine returns the relevant documents that
meet the specific search criteria or context. It even returns the right information
if a word entered in the search phrase is misspelled!"
Fulbright & Jaworski (www.fulbright.com) is a full-service law firm with over 800 attorneys
in eight offices throughout the United States, with overseas offices in Europe
(London and Munich) and Asia (Hong Kong). While information is critical to most businesses,
it is particularly important to a law firm. Fulbright´s large, distributed practice
has amassed over 7.5 million documents in iManage, the firm´s document management
system (DMS). In addition, Fulbright´s attorneys extensively use research litigation
support and knowledge management tools including Ringtail, LexisNexis and
Westlaw´s West km. All told, the firm is searching over over 2 terabytes of data!
Fulbright had previously invested in a DMS solution to manage its internal information.
This initial step revealed two concerns that served as the impetus to seek a more effective
search solution. First, iManage did not function as a single source to search all of
Fulbright´s information repositories and tools. Fulbright´s Director of Development, Paul
Revilla, explains: "We wanted to leverage the firm´s collective experience. The goal
was, and still is, for Fulbright´s attorneys to be able to share knowledge regardless of
their location, area of practice or expertise."
Secondly, Fulbright recognized the limitations of keyword-based searches. With its
library of documents electronically imaged and indexed in its DMS solution, Fulbright
researchers perform searches based upon keywords. Indexed legal documents typically
include a list of standard objective field codes, such as the document author´s
name, which serve as keyword triggers. If a keyword does not exist in the index, the
document is unlikely to be found in a search. Similarly, given a standard list of keywords,
pinpointing specific information can be similar to searching for "a needle in a haystack."
And while searches containing Boolean operators-i.e., "AND", "OR", "NOT", serve
to fine-tune a search, the relevancy of the returned results is ultimately hampered by
the fact that the meaning and context of the keywords cannot be controlled.
FULL TEXT SEARCHING REGARDLESS OF REPOSITORY
Given these shortcomings, Fulbright sought a robust, full text search functionality that
extended beyond the capabilities of its DMS solution. "Our DMS search tool didn´t
search all of our information repositories and couldn´t sort results based upon relevancy,"
says Revilla. The solution of choice needed to be able to access and process all
types of information based upon content and context, and not constrict the user to
complicated Boolean search operators.
Fulbright´s Revilla established three sets of criteria for selecting a full text search solution.
First, it had to be extensible, that is, it had to be able to allow for additional features
in the future. It also had to be easy to administer. Finally, Revilla wanted a strong
relationship with the vendor. After an extensive review process, including what Revilla
describes as a head to head "shootout" between Brainware and another vendor´s solution,
Fulbright selected Globalbrain. Driven by Brainware®, an intelligent software
engine that is able to analyze, understand and respond to information with human-like
intelligence, Globalbrain incorporates fuzzy logic in which returned results are sorted
by relevancy.
Revilla was initially impressed with Brainware´s sophisticated algorithm which is the key
to how the software stores and searches data. The algorithm drives the engine´s ability
to index virtually any data source. But what tipped the scale in favor of Globalbrain
was Revilla´s confidence in and comfort with Brainware. "We didn´t know about
Brainware prior to our investigation," shares Revilla. "But Brainware was very upfront
about their commitment to tailor Globalbrain to fully meet our needs."
PROOF OF CONCEPT PUT TO THE TEST
Revilla´s first impressions were confirmed when Fulbright implemented the split test
between Globalbrain and a competing vendor to evaluate how each search engine
worked within a real-world setting. The test included 1.2 million documents consisting
of 25 gigabytes of text. According to Revilla, Brainware´s proof of concept (POC)
demonstrated that Globalbrain simply "did it better." Revilla reported that the implementation
of GlobalBrain in their test environment was significantly smoother than the
competing solution. In addition, Revilla appreciated Brainware´s customization of
GlobalBrain to address his exact specifications. In contrast, he criticized the competing
vendor´s POC as being "canned."
The first phase of rollout consisted of using GlobalBrain to index all of Fulbright´s data,
and acquiring the necessary hardware to support the application. Whereas Fulbright´s
DMS indexed documents based on keywords, GlobalBrain "read" the documents and
indexed them based upon content and meaning.
TWICE THE RELEVANT DATA RETURNED
Fulbright´s sample user group of attorneys and support staff have reported very good
performance, with response time less than five seconds. Revilla comments,
"GlobalBrain has been extremely stable," noting, "it returns twice the relevant data
than the iManage search tool." For instance, researchers can enter an entire paragraph
of a document and the software will return all related documents based upon its content.
"We are currently seeing a savings of one hour per week in the time it takes each user
to conduct research," reports Revilla, adding, "I expect that number to increase as we
integrate Globalbrain with Ringtail and West km, and make the tool available to everyone
in the firm."
Globalbrain has successfully met Revilla´s three sets of criteria. He has found the software
to be extensible. According to Revilla, "Globalbrain can index anything we want
it to." To extend the tool´s search function, Revilla has enlisted Brainware to integrate
it with Ringtail´s litigation support and knowledge management intranet modules.
Finally, Revilla has remained impressed with his relationship with Brainware, whose professional
services team has played a key part in supporting his phased rollout strategy. |
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