Information services providers such as Wolters Kluwer have been creating mobile apps for tax, legal and regulatory professionals for several years. Some apps migrate traditional print products to apps, such as the WK eReader, whereas others, such as IntelliConnect Mobile and CCH Mobile, are “mobile first.” Another type of app is emerging. Wolters Kluwer’s customers – tax, legal & regulatory professional services firms – increasingly are creating apps for their clients. How might Wolters Kluwer’s content be integrated into those apps?
Apps created by professional services firms tend to provide the following types of services:
- recruitment of new employees, such as new lawyers (example, Skadden Arps’ Skadden Start Here);
- news & insights to solidify relationships with existing clients and to create relationships with potential clients (example, PwC’s Regulatory Navigator);
- client intake/attorney referral (example, My Attorney App); and
- delivering legal & tax advice (example, Divorce?).
Other interesting examples include Baker & McKenzie’s Cross-Border Listings, Global Privacy App and Global Equity Matrix; von Noerr LLP’s Dawn Raid Guide; and Latham & Watkins AB&C Laws for iPad. Please see Law Firm Mobile to track apps built by law firms.
Wolters Kluwer’s content could be linked to or published as part of such apps, thus extending the traditional value chain of professional services firms customizing Wolters Kluwer’s content to respond to their clients’ tax, legal and regulatory issues. An app can certainly link to the full text of a primary source on the Web but by linking to Wolters Kluwer’s version, clients could link to Wolters Kluwer’s editorially created commentaries and explanations of those primary sources. Current awareness, for example, from Wolters Kluwer’s Daily Reporting Suite might be linked to, or published as part of, an app (assuming appropriate business/pricing models).
Wolters Kluwer’s contribution could go beyond content. Its mobile app frameworks and platforms theoretically could be used by professional services firms to create their own apps, combining both Wolters Kluwer’s content and their work product customized for the needs of their clients. Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting publishes software as a service through its Open Integration Platform. Apps created by professional services firms theoretically could pull in some of these software services to respond to specific tax clients’ needs. Wolters Kluwer’s Smart Charts & Quick Charts software, traditionally used to present Wolters Kluwer’s editorially created content in a tabular/multi-jurisdictional survey format, could be leveraged by professional services firms to present their work product in chart form for their clients.
So I see a possible new value chain emerging. What are your thoughts?