SBA Law is a Melbourne law firm specialising in litigation, property and corporate/commercial law. With 40 staff and nine partners, all hailing from top tier firms, their level of service and professionalism is a highly regarded standard expected from their clients – and of themselves.

When new Practice Manager Karmal Sekhon arrived, the firm was experiencing rapid growth; working simultaneously on a wide range of projects, all while welcoming new partners on board.

Shortly after joining the team, Karmal noticed that they had outgrown their IT Vendor. The current IT system was setup for a start-up firm and was no longer keeping up with their rapid user growth. SBA’s IT system security, performance and resilience were all no longer meeting expectations and was impacting their ability to efficiently service their clients.

With both partners and clients used to the service and capabilities of top tier firms, it was important that SBA meet expectations and not be slowed down by subpar IT.

Stopping IT downtime with an IT upgrade

While change isn’t always easy to initiate in established businesses, all the partners at SBA soon realised that IT delays were causing hours downtime every week, making it impossible to achieve the standard to which the firm held itself.

With strong agreement that something needed to be done, Karmal started her search for a new IT solution. She knew they didn’t want in-house IT, but they had some non-negotiables when it came to what was required:

  • A hosted system that would support their current practice management system, LexisNexis Affinity
  • An ability to move their server services off premise into a data centre, but maintain full Lexis Affinity functionality
  • A provider that specifically understood the needs of law firms, and had experience with top-tier firms
  • A system that would allow them to offer top-tier service without the extensive infrastructure and cost

Karmal discovered Innessco through an email Innessco had sent and invited them to tender for the job. She soon noticed the similarities between Innessco’s level of service and their own and decided to bring them onboard as SBA’s IT provider.

“Innessco is a very professional outfit – [they offer the] same level of professionalism as we pride ourselves with.” – Karmal Sekhon (Practice Manager)

(Almost) custom made solutions

Innessco provided detailed information about the architecture and delivered a demo of their system prior to implementation. SBA partners were kept in the loop during the entire process and were surprised about how easy and seamless the transition to Innessco was.

By the time of system implementation, SBA felt like the system had been built specifically for them, such was Innessco’s dedication to assessing the needs and environment of the firm.

“They understood top tier firms, so our IT was comparable but without the overheads.” – Karmal Sekhon (Practice Manager)

Their dedication to the project didn’t just stop at implementation. Innessco worked with both SBA and their Practice Management System provider throughout the process to make sure everyone was on the same page, and to ensure an ongoing positive and efficient working environment.

The result: Top tier service without the cost

Not only did the IT change allow SBA to continue delivering a high-level and competitive service standard, they also noticed there were added benefits to their new system, including:

  • Increased speed
  • The option of remote access
  • A helpful, professional and efficient helpdesk

Although there were some initial operational lags and speedbumps, Innessco was quick to rectify them and SBA recalls the transitions as “smooth and excellent”.

No longer held back by growth, SBA Law have said goodbye to slow IT for good and are once again attracting top tier talent through high-level service standards.

“We made the right decision and have no trouble recommending Innessco. The experience has been absolutely amazing. The Partners have been talking about the wonderful benefits of a hosted desktop. We feel like we’ve been a priority”. – Karmal Sekhon (Practice Manager)

Find your solution.

If your practice management system is facing similar IT system pains to SBA Law, you might benefit from a discussion about your options for a system upgrade or transition.

To find out your options, contact Innessco here, or give Innessco a call on 02 7200 4400 or email robert.cox@innessco.com.

Alternatively, you can get a comprehensive idea of how well your firm’s IT is performing by heading over to innessco.com/evaluation-tool/ and taking the quick survey.