Most firms use at least three tools every day: email, a calendar and a case management system. Connecting them promises that details are typed once.
A connection also moves mistakes, private details and duplicates. This article is about choosing connections on purpose.
The problem
When the tools are separate, people copy details between them by hand. The copies drift: a date is changed in the calendar and not in the case record.
When the tools are connected without a plan, the opposite happens. Everything flows everywhere, and nobody is sure which copy is correct.
What is known
We found no independent study that compares firms with connected and separate tools, so we give no figure. Studies by software vendors exist, and our article on vendor research explains their limits.
What is certain is how a connection works. It copies or syncs information in one direction or in both, on a schedule or when something changes. Everything else depends on how it is set up.
What to do
Start by deciding where each kind of information lives. Then connect in the direction the information naturally flows.
- The case management system is usually the home of the matter, the calendar the home of dates and the inbox the home of messages
- Connect one pair of tools at a time and check it for a few weeks before adding another
- Prefer one-way connections to two-way ones until the firm trusts the result
- Connect the calendar and the case management system first when missed dates are the problem
- Connect email to the case management system when messages go missing from the file
When not to connect
- The process is not written down yet
- Two tools hold different versions of the same information and nobody has decided which one wins
- The connection would show privileged or sensitive messages to people who should not see them
- The vendor cannot say where the information is stored or who can read it
- The task is rare and a person can do it in a few minutes
What to look for when you implement it
- Who can see what after the connection, including staff who did not see it before
- What happens when a record is edited or deleted on one side
- How duplicates are found
- Whether the connection can be turned off without losing data
- Who is told when the connection stops working
- Test it first on a sample matter with sample data, not on real files