5 Innovation Insights

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Originally published on the Microsoft CIO Network.

There are no rules around innovation, except one: CIOs must innovate. Here, the CIO of a global law firm describes how he’s advancing IT, and offers five tips for getting creative while minding the budget.

By Ryan McBride, CIO Custom Solutions Group

Mike Green, CIO of global law firm Nixon Peabody LLP, faces the same dilemma as many other global enterprise CIOs: How to maintain an innovative IT infrastructure that generates value for the business without breaking a tight budget.

Although Nixon Peabody is investing in technologies such as business analytics, social networking tools, application consolidation, and virtualization, Green hasn’t escaped the challenges of the current economy. But he says that the economic slump is no excuse to delay important innovation projects, and that the actions IT leaders take now can help businesses emerge from the downturn able to compete—and grow.

Green offers five insights about innovating during a downturn:

1. Leverage real-time business intelligence.

For the past year, Nixon Peabody has been developing systems to provide its attorneys and leaders with business analytics dashboards that display key performance and profitability metrics. The system is intended to give legal practice leaders, for example, a way to track how well their groups and individual team members are performing in terms of billable hours recorded and other areas. This information enables leaders to take decisive actions to increase productivity or reduce costs.

2. Tailor technology roadmaps.

Economic conditions have a way of changing priorities. Nixon Peabody, Green says, has adjusted its technology roadmap so resources are spent on the most necessary projects, while delaying expensive initiatives that can be postponed. For example, the firm has held off on implementing VoIP technology at those offices where dial-tone systems remain effective from functionality and cost perspectives.

3. Don’t procrastinate.

The firm is planning a major platform upgrade for its IT infrastructure. As part of that, Green is targeting areas that he considers most necessary for innovating in the future, such as upgrading the firm’s enterprise desktop applications suite from Office 2003 to Office 2010. "You can’t procrastinate and not think about upgrading because inevitably you’ll have to," Green says. "If you think about how those key technologies affect our business, it requires a lot of upfront planning to take the steps to upgrade without affecting productivity."

4. Streamline IT.

As part of a green initiative, Nixon Peabody implemented server virtualization. The firm, which operates with one main data center, has 35 physical servers with more than 250 virtual servers to support over 200 applications. It is also implementing application consolidation where appropriate to streamline its portfolio.

5. Tap social networks and collaboration tools.

Nixon Peabody adopted social networking tools out of necessity: it has an interest in communicating with its clients wherever they are. The firm, a major provider of legal service to companies in tech hotspots such as Boston and the Silicon Valley, is expanding its presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. SharePoint has also played a key role in enabling attorney/client collaboration.