Extranets as low-cost tools for law departments. So where are they?

One session at the ACC 2004 Annual Meeting (805) offered some pointers for what law departments should normally expect from law firms regarding extranets. The first expectation caught my eye. ”Launch of a new extranet in minutes upon your request for as little as $500/month, often paid by the firm.” This makes extranets a commodity.

The other three attributes law departments deserve with their extranets are “extremely useable and intuitive interfaces,” “robust, feature-level security,” and “integration with existing systems (such as billing).” If these four expectations are truly matters-of-right, why are there not more extranets? I don’t hear about them in my consulting projects, only from vendors of extranets and a few law firms (See my post of February 20, 2005 on technology as it affects ordinary in-house lawyers.)