The OnePass Rollout Scramble for Westlaw Users: An Ounce of Communication Can Prevent a Pound of Complaints

In Westlaw's OnePass Fiasco: A Study In How NOT To Roll Out A Change, Greg Lambert writes that West sent out a mass email last Thursday about rolling out it's new OnePass login system two days later. One librarian, Cindy, commented to Greg's post that she didn't get the email but did receive a vague heads-up from her Westlaw rep (In her words, "This would happen sometime in November, though not an exact date.") Some Westlaw reps informed their clients months ago, others did not and may not even had known about the rollout according to Greg. Did you get a heads-up from your rep? Did you receive the mass email last Thursday? I didn't.

Perhaps the rollout is being staggered. Hell if I know. Do note that the entire OnePass system is supposed to be fully implemented by the end of January 2010. Here's just another illustration of why West rates as the worst provider of customer service in the legal publishing industry. See LLB's Rate Your Legal Resources Vendors Survey: Customer Services Findings for BNA, LexisNexis, West and Wolters Kluwer.

So as a "public service announcement" for Westlaw users and the librarians and IT staff who support them because West has dropped the ball for many of its clients, if you need to learn what's going on, visit the OnePass page of the Company's website and download the OnePass Quick Reference Guide. It explains how to register Westlaw passwords so you can help your Westlaw user population.

OnePass Glitches. Hopefully your Westlaw users won't experience the glitches in the OnePass registration system some of Cindy's users did when they tried to create their new logins. In fairness to West, if glitches do occur, they may be caused by configuration settings and apps running at the user's end. However, that's another reason why West should have given its customers more advance notice in greater specificity and given its customers' support providers, meaning librarians and IT staff on site, the opportunity to test drive the system before Westlaw dumped mass implementation into their laps.

The OnePass system has a number of benefits but it's implementation would have benefited from "a little more forethought on the side of West" writes Greg who has the last word on this fiasco: "let's all work together to make sure we don't have to scramble to achieve the changes just because there is a lack of communication between the vendor and the clients. An ounce of communication can prevent a pound of complaints later!!" [JH]