Overview of the infrastructure used at Thomson Snell & Passmore.

1. © Thomson Snell & Passmore 2012
Induction
Overview of Information Systems
David Bennett
Head of Information Systems
David.Bennett@ts-p.co.uk
D: 01892 701267
July 2012

2. 2
Agenda
• About us
• Catalyst to change
• Transforming the practice
• Questions

3. © Thomson Snell & Passmore 2012
About us

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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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7. © Thomson Snell & Passmore 2012
Catalyst to change

8. 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.

10. 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.

11. © Thomson Snell & Passmore 2012
Transforming the practice

12. 12
Transforming the practice
• 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)

13. Transforming the practice
• 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.

14. Transforming the practice
eLearning
Document
Assembly
SocialHR
Microsoft
Office
PMS
Microsoft
Exchange
Remote
Access
Offices
HR
Core
Infrastructure VESK Data
Centre

15. Mimecast
Transforming the practice – Support
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MDNX
Response ITK-Cloud
Element-K
Bighand
Pilgrim
Element-K
MDNX
SilverPeak
Blackberry
Microsoft
Office
BreatheHR
Lawsoft
MimecastBigHand
DictateNow
G-Metrix
Microsystems
Thomson Snell & Passmore
Mimecast

16. 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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17. 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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18. © Thomson Snell & Passmore 2012
Questions?

19. Questions?
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