International law firm DAC Beachcroft is pleased to announce the launch of DACB CO/LAB, a crowdsourcing platform where its clients and internal teams at DACB can come together to share ideas and collaborate to develop innovative, mutually beneficial solutions.
DACB CO/LAB is a web-based platform, powered by Medallia Crowdicity, where challenges are posted for the ‘crowd’ – DACB’s internal team and its client’s team – to share ideas about how to address it. The crowd casts votes, comments, and helps refine the ideas, harnessing its collective creativity to find actionable solutions. DACB intends to use the new platform as a way of engaging with its clients to help them tackle the challenges they are facing and uncover solutions that can add value to their, and potentially other clients’, businesses.
“CO/LAB is a way for us to facilitate the co-creation of bespoke solutions for our clients,” said David Pollitt, Managing Partner at DACB. “We can add additional value by working together to identify the issues and challenges – legal and beyond – our clients are facing and work with them to navigate change and transformation.
“Our clients are telling us they want to work together more with their advisers. CO/LAB is a collaborative community where our respective teams can root out innovative ideas that will make a big difference to our businesses, our teams and how we work together.”
DAC Beachcroft is already using the CO/LAB platform internally to crowdsource solutions to challenges and share ideas about improvements and efficiencies that can be adopted by the business. Since its launch in early 2021, DACB colleagues have contributed more than 170 separate ideas for challenges on topics such as working flexibly, continuing learning and development while working from home, and building client relationships. A number of these ideas have been fully developed and implemented, from finding a name – AIDan – for the firm’s latest AI-powered tool which assists with the initial triage process of potential insurance recovery claims, to helping shape Flex Forward, the firm’s recently launched approach to how, when and where colleagues work.
“A great idea can come from anywhere,” said Pete Allchorne, partner and Head of Innovations Lab at DACB. “We know our clients face many of the same challenges as us when it comes to their own clients, their business and their people. CO/LAB is about working with our clients to share knowledge and ideas about how we can tackle these challenges, adapt our approaches, and improve how we do things. The platform provides a space where all of our ideas can collide and merge to form bigger, better, more refined ideas that we and our clients can take forward.”
DACB designs solutions that fit the current and future needs of its clients by combining excellent legal skills and cutting-edge delivery expertise with, in many cases, clever uses of technology.
This latest step in DACB’s innovation drive follows a number of client-led investments made by the firm in technology and smarter working. In addition to AIDan and Flex Forward, it has recently launched a new advocacy service known as 8 DAC Beachcroft Buildings, implemented a next-generation electronic working platform, and automated the identification and verification processes for new clients. It also cemented an AI partnership with intelligent automation specialist Rainbird to continue delivering latest innovations to its clients.
