Josiah Hincks Solicitors ensure business continuity by going hosted

One of the challenges for a modern law firm is managing growth. In the time between 2016 and 2020, Josiah Hincks had grown from 3 branches up to 5 branches across Leicestershire.

It was important for Operations Director, Stuart Wright, that the Law firm wasn’t spending its time managing its IT infrastructure when it could be better spending its time practicing law and serving its clients.

This inspired the move to go hosted, so that all their solutions are under one roof and supported by Access Legal’s Support Teams.

"When we saw the integration with the Access Legal Case Management System and the IT Support, it was a no-brainer."

As part of Josiah Hincks IT development project in late 2019 many questions were asked internally about what was wanted and needed from their IT system. “We asked ourselves, do we go into the cloud or upgrade our internal onsite server systems? Do we have one provider for law case management and one for IT? Is the cloud safe? Following a wide and deep review of our system upgrade options and potential IT providers, the cloud-based option came out on top for us.

We did look at alternate Cloud solutions, whilst staying with Access Legal, which would have been a marked improvement from where we were. However, when we saw the new cloud hosted integration with the Access Legal Case Management System and the IT Support, it was a no-brainer.

Stuart commented, “We are not IT experts, we are a Law Firm and we gained confidence from the level of IT Support that was being offered, in addition to the security in the Cloud  and GDPR compliance that came with being hosted by Access Legal”

Support from Access Legal

One key advantage of going hosted with Access Legal and having the Case Management System in the Cloud is that in addition to the support they receive from a Relationship Manager and Client Services, they also have three lines of Technical Support in the UK who can deal with any issues that crop up whilst Fee Earners are working remotely quickly and efficiently.

Stuart commented “In terms of dealing with our county wide branch provision, having an IT provider with multiple layers of solutions in terms of Technical Support was an essential requirement of our new IT provider, something which was not available with our previous provider”.

Stuart Wright, Operations Director - Josiah Hincks Solicitors

“This additional IT support provided that level of reassurance we needed as we grow the business”

“We have found the IT support to be excellent. Easy to use, friendly, professional and with good response time. Always solving any temporary issues that have popped up. The support provided during migration to the cloud was exceptional, including the additional training provided”

Hosting mitigating the effect on Business of Covid-19

The Covid-19 Pandemic has caused disruption not only in the legal industry, but industries across the world. Whilst no one could prepare for such a global crisis, going hosted with Access Legal has meant that the transition to move all of Josiah Hincks staff to remote working has been quick and efficient.

“It has been incredibly easy; in the space of two days we moved all 50 staff to home working. It wasn’t stressful for us in the slightest, we just picked up and went home. The system is there to do it [remote working], the hard bit is getting the wi-fi dongles and transporting the hardware home." Reflected Stuart on the recent transition to home working.

“It has been incredibly easy; in the space of two days we moved all 50 staff to home working."

"We were hardly down at all, and interestingly, the end of March was one of our most successful months.”

The level of support experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic has stayed the same as well, with Access Legal Engineers ready to assist with getting hardware joined up to the hosted system so that Fee Earners could still print off their paperwork if they so wish.

“Bar setting up a couple of printers at home, we have had no other real issues, we’ve been able to concentrate on getting our jobs done, which is a key factor is why we chose DPS which is: We want to focus on what we are good at (Legal) and leave somebody else doing what they are good at - Which is Access Legal handling the IT”

A Modern Legal Practice

Josiah Hincks are an example of a Modern Law Firm in practice, able to continue their work from anywhere in the world with their Case Management & Legal Accounts all securely stored and accessible in the Cloud.  This is further supported by DPS Mobile, which allows users to access their File History, including documents and emails, add time and notes to a Matter, Dictate and view reports all from their mobile.

“When we went hosted, initially one-third of those who were dictating, used DPS Mobile, now one hundred percent of them use DPS Mobile”

"What we are seeing is staff being more productive and progressing files very well"

“The reporting system and the detail within the system, but not being Big Brother, has helped us monitor effectively what is going on and what we are seeing is staff being more productive and progressing files very well [during this time]”

Access Legal provides a standard reporting package inside the Case Management System, in addition to provide ad-hoc queries and SSRS Reports which can be sent out to any member(s) of staff as a subscription service, so they receive reports as periodically as they like. In testing times such as these, being able to monitor the work that is being done and the cash flow with it, is important for keeping a Law firm running efficiently as this can be done with the Access Legal suite of reports.

Going hosted with Access Legal has proved to be a great decision for Josiah Hincks. All 50 of their users have been able to work from home at the drop of the hat, leaving their firms relatively unaffected when the COVID-19 crisis hit. But they’ve also benefitted from first class support and greater efficiencies from using the software in a hosted system.