Managed service provider e-know.net has announced further success in the legal sector with the news that it has signed up family law specialist, Woolley & Co. The firm went live at the beginning of June with e-know.net delivering Office 2007, Exchange, Adobe Acrobat, Laserforms, Sage Accounts, SmartStamp, SOS Business and SOS Family on a fully hosted basis.
Unlike recent wins, this was not about pitching to replace the traditional in-house IT infrastructure but to improve the quality of IT outsourcing, as Woolley & Co’s founder, Andrew Woolley, explains:
“When we set up as one of the UK’s first virtual law firms back in 1996, I was determined that, just as people turn to lawyers for their particular expertise, so would we rely predominantly on a number of third parties to supply us with key business services. We wanted to focus on legal delivery and client care, and having external and suitably qualified teams taking responsibility in areas such as IT, HR and payroll, has allowed us to keep that focus, maintain standards and grow the business. The one challenge with outsourcing is ensuring you have the right partner on board – is it a marriage made in heaven, or hell?”
With the firm already convinced of the merits of the managed service platform, it was the qualities of e-know.net as service provider that came under the closest scrutiny. Andrew Woolley again:
“As an experienced user of outsourced services, we were very impressed and reassured by what e-know.net had to offer. Having effectively outgrown our previous supplier, we were keen to secure a partnership for the long-term – priorities for us were a depth and breadth of high-grade technical and support skill, coupled with an understanding of, and commitment to, a rather atypical practice.
One of the challenges of running a virtual law firm with thirty staff spread throughout the country is that systems need to just ‘be there’, available and working any time of the day or night. Should a problem develop, help needs to be similarly on tap and reliable. Plus you want to give colleagues the best possible tools for the job and to keep investing in line with the needs of the team, the business and its clients. e-know.net have the scope and capability to give us new technologies on demand; for example, mobile working via smartphones is just one way we’ve extended our capabilities since the go-live.”
Commenting on the win Nigel Redwood, e-know.net’s managing director, said: “This was an interesting deal for us in that it was the first in legal which didn’t really revolve around selling the merits of managed service as an IT platform. With their years of exposure to outsourcing Woolley & Co concentrated much more on our credentials as a suitable partner moving forward. As well as their day-to-day requirements they also have ambitious growth plans, and we’re confident that this new relationship can help underpin the firm’s continued success.”