How Lee Bolton Monier Williams LLP improved user experiences and embraced remote working with Oosha’s Digital Workplace

Lee Bolton Monier Williams LLP (LBMW) is a Westminster-based specialist law firm that has been operating in the heart of London for more than 150 years. The firm advises clients across highly specialised areas in different sectors including the drinks industry, education, church and not for profit. LBMW has built a long-standing reputation as a respected institution within the London legal space, and its current workforce numbers around 70. It takes pride in being a dynamic, forward-thinking organisation that wants to adapt to the changing needs of its clients, and to the changing world of work.

The challenge

In order to keep moving forward, LBMW was looking at ways in which it could modernise its IT system. Its legacy technology was very paper-heavy and largely based on-premise, and so was increasingly holding the workforce back, as a lack of digitalisation meant processes consumed too much time and human effort.

On top of all this, LBMW’s in-house IT manager stepped back into a training role, acting as the catalyst for the company to review all of its IT provision. This largely involved bringing in a new MSP, and after an evaluation process, Oosha (part of Access Legal) was chosen to come on board, thanks to its deep experience and expertise within the legal sector and the potential within its solutions.

“Oosha had gone the extra mile in trying to find out what we were about, understanding our psyche, our working practices, et cetera, as well as what we wanted”

Susie Hurst- Practice Manager, LBMW

The solution

Initially, Oosha, part of Access Legal, worked with LBMW solely for IT support but LBMW were then able to use Oosha’s expertise in cloud technology for the legal sector to push ahead with their migration to the cloud.

The partnership took place amid the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had forced LBMW employees to start working from home, something that many of them had not been able to do in the past. Initially, this meant putting in place all the technology to allow the workforce to operate remotely with ease, which Oosha managed to accomplish within three days.

Later in 2020, the cloud migration seamlessly took place over a single weekend, with an emphasis on security for sensitive data, enabling a paper-free working environment and supporting long-term remote working. To achieve this, Oosha implemented its Digital Workplace solution, through which all LBMW’s data is stored securely in the cloud, and can be securely accessed by employees on a variety of devices through multi-factor authentication.

As a result, LBMW no longer has any on-premise servers or equipment as everything is hosted in the cloud, and their workforce therefore enjoys much greater accessibility to data and applications with no compromise in security.

Furthermore, they have a system within which their important legal applications like Access Legal Case Management can easily be integrated. Another key part of the Oosha migration was to implement enhanced IT support, including the provision of a support team member on-site, the introduction of a ticketing system, and eventually a full hand-over of IT support and network management to Oosha.

“We had historically not been a firm that had very many people working from home. But, in the space of three days, Oosha got everybody working from home, and working from home effectively. They were exemplary.”

Susie Hurst - Practice Manager, LBMW

The benefits

The partnership with Oosha, part of Access Legal, has helped LBMW achieve positive outcomes and enjoy benefits in a number of areas, including:

Legal sector knowledge - Oosha’s experience in migrating law firms to the Digital Workplace meant LBMW could get a cloud environment that met their needs
Improved user experience - Users suffered little to no disruption through the migration, and now have more integrated, up-to-date technology to work with
Enabling remote working - With data and applications in the cloud, employees can securely work from home at any time
Rapid, flexible support - LBMW have been able to use Oosha’s capacity to relieve themselves of the burden of IT support and network management

The future

Building on the success of the Managed Service Provider relationship and the seamless cloud migration, LBMW and Oosha are now exploring other ways they can work together.

This includes more development in how MatterSphere is integrated into the cloud environment and the introduction of a client portal and secure document exchange. Through these innovations, LBMW can drive even greater efficiencies in how their employees operate, and spread the benefits of the cloud-based Digital Workplace beyond their workforce and into how they serve their clients.

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