Information systems - Briefing

© Thomson Snell & Passmore 2012

InductionOverview of Information Systems

David Bennett

Head of Information Systems

[email protected]

D: 01892 701267

July 2012

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Agenda

• About us

• Catalyst to change

• Transforming the practice

• Questions


About us

About us

• Established in 1570, Thomson Snell & Passmore is one of the oldest legal firms in the world.

• A top 200 UK based law firm, head-quartered in Tunbridge Wells supporting clients across the South East. In 2005, we expanded into Thames Gateway to benefit from the regeneration of this area.

• 188 users, 94 fee earners (16 equity partners) and 94 business support staff.

• Fee income of £14.5 million, which compares favourably with our competitors.

About us

• Diverse practice, eight legal departments:

• The firm benefits from a balanced portfolio of services – 45% commercial and 55% private client work.

• Focus is to build on our position as a leading firm in the South-East, gaining additional work from London.

Corporate & Commercial Private Client

Commercial Property Residential Conveyancing

Dispute resolution Clinical Negligence / Personal Injury

Employment Family

About us

• Private Client Group – Highly regarded and receive referrals from all over the United Kingdom. We recognise that we need to follow consumer led business development initiatives.

• Commercial Group – The nature of their work tends to be “one off transactions” therefore there is a heavy focus on business development activities.

• Focus is to build on our position as a leading firm in the South-East, gaining additional work from London. As with many firms, we want to have bigger commercial clients and more high net worth individual clients.

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Catalyst to change

Catalyst to change - Business

• The economy.

• Legal Services Act.

• Ever expanding client demands and a increasingly competitive marketplace.

• Need to increase income and profitability.

• Day to day operational capacity hampering development.

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Catalyst to change – IT Systems

No significant investment in IT since the beginning of the recession.

• Key systems needing upgrading :• Practice Management System – Iris Evolution;• Microsoft Office 2003;• Microsoft Infrastructure – Xp, Exchange 2003 and SQL 2000.

• Operational issues – capacity issues, disaster recovery.

• Existing systems functioned correctly, just not ‘joined-up’.

• Lack of basic IT skills and knowledge.

Catalyst to change

• Looking to invest in information systems as a catalyst to increase productivity and develop efficient working practices.

• Provide new features that support and drive business development and cross selling.

• Implications throughout the Practice, the introduction of the new systems is forcing it to address a number of business issues.

• Recognise that there is only a limited opportunity to implement the change – client demands and staff belief.


Transforming the practice

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• Standardised on the following applications, delivered via Citrix and/or over the internet:

Microsoft Office 2010 Exchange and Outlook 2010

BigHand Digital Dictation Mimecast

Oyez Legal Forms Pilgrim’s Lawsoft (PMS)

Microsystems DocXTools breatheHR

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 G-Metrix (eLearning)


• Disaster and business recovery continuity.

• Remote access.

• Ability to build an infrastructure based on best practice which was not compromised by the existing infrastructure.

• Reduction in applications – approximately 80 applications have been removed from the environment.

• Rationalise suppliers.


eLearning Document Assembly

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Microsoft Office PMS

MicrosoftExchange

Remote AccessOffices

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Transforming the practice – Support

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Transforming the practice - eLearning

• eLearning products have been implemented to provide training on the new Microsoft products.

• Courses were provided in the 2010 variants of Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and everybody will be encouraged to undertake the Outlook and Word courses as a minimum.

• Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS). An internationally accredited certificate.

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Transforming the practice – Local Experts

• In order to improve the level of support that the IS group provides to the firm, we have 'recruited' representatives from the departments to become IT Local Experts (LE’s).

• LE's are to be trained in all aspects of the new systems and are tasked with providing support and advice to their department/floor at a very local level.

• They will be a focal point for their colleagues, answering 'How to' or 'Can I' type questions.

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Questions?

Questions?

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Technology

Information systems - Briefing