Covent Garden based Clintons, a market leader in the provision of legal services to the entertainment, sport and media sectors wanted to extract maximum value from their investment in IT Clintons subsequently contracted with Quiss Technology for the provision of Works, a complete outsourcing solution ideally suited to legal practices.

Before Works was implemented the IT function at Clintons consisted of internal staff who were supplemented by external consultants. The result was a lack of synergy with limited control. IT projects had not been completed on time or within budget and in some cases not at all. There were frequent virus attacks and IT was clearly not aligned with Clintons business requirements.

Productivity was not being optimised as too much management time was being devoted to IT issues. James Jones, Partner at Clintons comments, “IT simply wasn’t working for us. The bottom line is that IT must act as an enabler for us to hit deadlines and earn our fees.”

Solution

After gaining a thorough understanding of Clintons current and future business requirements, Quiss Technology provided and installed a new IT infrastructure comprising hardware, software and networking equipment.

To ensure there were no disruptions to Clintons or their clients business the physical installation was completed over a single weekend. James Jones adds, “We came in on Monday morning and the system worked. Our IT infrastructure was transformed within just two days.” The new infrastructure was fully integrated with specialist user application software (Worksite and Paragon).

Works removed the need for Clintons to retain an internal IT department as all areas of network administration, help desk and onsite support were part of the solution.

“Within three months it was obvious that we had done the right thing. Our initial fear regarding the concept of Works was having no dedicated IT person permanently onsite. However, this has not been an issue at all,” said James Jones. Quiss provided Clintons with a Service Level Agreement guaranteeing support response, in line with equipment priorities.

Consultancy

The ongoing consultancy that is included with Works ensures Clintons IT and business requirements are continually aligned. Going forward Clintons will be able to benefit from advice on how emerging technologies can deliver further productivity gains.

Recently Quiss Technology successfully project managed the integration between Clintons new accounts and time recording software with their document management system. This ensures that all client matter data is synchronised effectively.

Benefits

James Jones comments, “With Works the benefits were immediate, right across the practice. We no longer have to devote management time to IT issues. Basically IT is now a reliable tool enabling us to do our jobs and we have seen a marked improvement in our efficiency.” With management time focused on their core business, as there are no longer any IT related distractions, Clintons can strengthen their position in an increasingly competitive market.

The standardisation of hardware and software alongside the separation of functions across additional servers has resulted in this reliable and stable IT environment, which now requires minimal intervention.

Security is also optimised through automatic anti-virus updates for both server and workstation devices. A high capacity tape drive was provided so that growth in data storage can be managed and to allow a nightly single full system backup to be completed. Works provides a full disaster recovery and business continuity plan as standard.

Due to Clintons users receiving ongoing focused training they are more productive as new tasks can be completed quickly as a result of their enhanced IT skills. If users still require assistance with a desktop application, instead of distracting colleagues they have unlimited access to the Quiss Technology applications helpdesk.

Works removed the need for an internal IT department at Clintons whilst simultaneously closing the skills gap that had prevented the alignment of IT with business requirements. The additional benefit of Works is that it allows Clintons to control costs as investment per user is fixed and therefore entirely predictable. Real returns are now being realised from Clintons investment in IT

Renewal

At the end of their first contract with Quiss, Clintons decision to continue an out sourced solution was simple. “We are highly unlikely ever to go back to an in house IT solution” reports James Jones. “Quiss have always performed well and complaints have been few and far between. Staff have come to expect 100% performance all of the time. We renewed with Quiss because we trust them to deliver. We did have other quotes but we elected to go with Quiss as we knew what we would be getting.”
Almost the entire infrastructure was replaced and software upgraded to the latest versions.