Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers an online service for tracking rivals (see article below), a content management system for blogs, wikis, and internal discussions, and a Firefox plugin for tracking online forum threads of interest. Don't miss the next issue.
Spies Like Us
By Neil J. Squillante
If you operate a gas station at a busy intersection, it's pretty easy to keep tabs on your competitors on the other three corners. Just walk outside and take a look through your binoculars. Because neither you nor your clients work at a gas station, you'll need a more sophisticated strategy.
Enter RivalSoft's RivalMap, a Web-based service that enables you, your colleagues, and your clients to share information about other organizations of interest — especially rivals.
You start by setting up profiles of the organizations you want to track. You can categorize as needed. For example, you might organize rival law firms by the practice area in which you compete for business.
Once you complete the set-up process, you and others can post comments such as anecdotes, links, etc. You can also share files such as brochures, proposals, photos, briefs, and anything else that comes into your possession (legally of course).
If a rival engages in an action that troubles you or a client, you can create a "Concern" and then track that particular issue separately from more general posts. A "Concern" could of course result in legal action, which means RivalMap could help you generate more business.
RivalMap features a number of "social bookmarking" tools. For example, the bookmark tool creates a live link. The clipping tool enables you to quickly capture and share the relevant portion of a Web page. To facilitate finding all the information associated with a given issue, you can apply "tags" to your posts. You can also search RivalMap using Boolean queries.
Like many knowledge management products nowadays, RivalMap provides a dashboard so that you can see the most recent and most urgent information at a glance.
RivalMap comes in five versions — Free, Small Team ($49/month), Team ($99/month), Company ($199/month), and Enterprise (price varies). The versions differ regarding the number of users and storage space. Also, the Free version lacks encryption. You can upgrade or downgrade anytime, and need not commit for longer than one month. You can try any version for free for 30 days. Learn more about RivalMap.
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