Ascertus helps Steele Raymond adopt cloud email solution
Legal firm Steele Raymond, has selected consultancy Ascertus to adopt best practices in document and email management. The implementation and support of iManage Work in the cloud from Ascertus will help its clients save both time and money in the day to day running of the business.
Steele Raymond is a full service law firm based in Bournemouth. As the firm looks to future-proof its infrastructure for hybridised working, and deliver the best possible legal service to achieve its business growth goals, it decided the time was right to shift its email and document management to a cloud solution.
Presently uploading documents in network drives is cumbersome. Lawyers have to export them from the practice management system, save on their desktop and then upload into the client drives. However, by moving to iManage, lawyers will be able to save documents from their Microsoft Office applications, as well as emails from their Outlook inboxes, directly in to the document management system, with a click of the mouse.
Elaborating on the firm’s business rationale for its technology strategy, Lee Taylor, Business Development Director at Steele Raymond, said, “To maintain our competitiveness, we want to provide a work environment that attracts the best talent, and is conducive to high quality service delivery. The right technology infrastructure is core to this, with best practice information management in the cloud being among the most important capabilities. It will support hybrid working, and facilitate a digital and paper light environment, transforming our way of working.”
Making the change is easier said than done, though, prompting the law firm to seek expert assistance from Ascertus. Based in Central London, the company offers a full range of professional services – from consultancy, business analysis and project management; to software implementation, training, documentation and technical support – delivering bespoke email, contract and document management solutions in on-premises and privately hosted environments.
On the firm’s decision to appoint Ascertus as the implementation and support partner, Yvette Moss, IT Director at Steele Raymond, said, “We are only interested in partnering with suppliers who genuinely care for our business. And so, Ascertus is the only technology implementor who we want to work with. The team is very experienced in iManage implementations, but from the first interactions we had with the company, it was clear that they lay a lot of emphasis on good account management and relationships. Already, in a short space of time, we can see that the team gets our requirements at 100%.”
Ascertus will work with Steele Raymond to help it with the implementation and support of iManage Work in the cloud. This includes guidance from solution design and data migration through to go-live and user training. As part of this first phase of the project, Ascertus is also integrating iManage Work with Eclipse, the firm’s practice management system. Afterwards, Ascertus will also support the technology, providing its complete suite of services.
Jon Wainwright, Sales Director at Ascertus, remarked, “Steele Raymond’s technology investment strategy is driven by their objective of providing a level of service that is at par with, if not better, than their largest competitors. To achieve this, they are focussing their investment on deploying the best applications available on the market, so that they have a strong and future-proof technological footing. It’s heartening to see that they’re taking a comprehensive approach to information management capability – rather than piecemeal.
According to Wainwright, the strategy will ultimately deliver “the highest possible return on investment and facilitate their aspirations to compete and win against the best.” This is because, once all the firm’s data is stored centrally in iManage Work, lawyers will benefit from very significant efficiency and productivity gains. After its deployment, iManage Work will be the central hub and ‘go to’ application for all client matters as well as internal firm-related information, facilitating a paper-light, digital and hybrid working environment.
