Sharrock Pitman is a mid-sized firm in Victoria, boasting about 20 staff. They ran their core applications on servers and had their IT services provided by one external supplier – a lone expert running a one-man business.

While they had always received wonderful service, after 15 years of hard work and practice growth, the one-man team could no longer provide the level of service required by Sharrock Pitman’s expanding needs.

Even after the supplier decided to sell his business to a bigger provider, Sharrock Pitman’s needs failed to be met. While capable of catering to their growth, the bigger supplier wasn’t able to offer the level of personalised service Sharrock Pitman expected to receive.

“They weren’t providing a personalised service, so we started to look for other options.” – Andre Ong, Principal

Seeking an expert advantage

Sharrock Pitman weren’t willing to settle for substandard support. On top of changing IT providers, they were also seeking to upgrade their practice management system to Affinity due to the improved business efficiency capabilities it offers – an area they knew new-age legal firms should embrace.

To achieve this, as well as being able to uphold operation standards and provide their staff with the service they needed to do their jobs, they wanted a provider that could offer:

  • A scalable service that would support and encourage growth, and keep up with demand through growth periods
  • A personal service from support staff who knew who they were and understood their exact needs and problems
  • An understanding of practice management systems and experience working with law firms

Through attending ALPMA they discovered Innessco, and were drawn to their specific experience working with law firms. They were encouraged to speak to other firms who used Innessco, to thoroughly check their abilities and credentials.

They received nothing but positive feedback and decided to go ahead and engage Innessco as their provider. This didn’t mean they entered the process without hesitation, though.

While Sharrock Pitman were clear about their needs from IT, their unfamiliarity with hosted desktops, the cloud and security made making the change feel like they were putting their entire business at risk.

“Our entire business was on the server, so the transition required a leap of faith – we were talking about our livelihood!”

Support at every step

Sharrock Pitman’s concerns were met with understanding and support from Innessco. Their consistent level of communication made stepping into the great unknown easier, and their demonstrated experience working with law firms shined through.

“They knew about our practice management system – and Lexis / Affinity is not easy to deal with. This meant that our move to the cloud could be expedited”

At 5pm on a Friday the old system was turned off, and when the team returned on Monday the new system was in place – no disruptions, and no downtime.

“Innessco were in the office, on hand to help. We have about 20 people in the office, and no one was overlooked.”

Not only was the transition smooth, but it was quick – something that was particularly important, due to contractual agreements with their old provider. Innessco helped Sharrock Pitman fast-track the transition, and met every timeframe and benchmark along the way.

The result: First class service, each and every time

Sharrock Pitman staff are now enjoying a system that is so easy to use they stopped looking at their ‘how-to’ guides after two days.

When a question is raised, they have a personalised service with dedicated support staff and help desk that are easy to contact (via skype, phone or in person) and are quick to respond.

Having transitioned to PMS Affinity during the process, Sharrock Pittman have experienced enhanced capabilities through the client portal and workflow features, including:

  • Secure, real-time sharing of documents
  • Protocol compliance
  • Consistency in service delivery
  • Leveraged efficiency of the software

“This is a great system to ensure certainty in your processes and that team members are not missing any crucial steps”

The result of the transition is a hosted desktop and cloud-based service that has the capacity to support them while they grow, and great personal service.

“With other providers we’ve found that after you sign on the service level drops – that’s not the case with Innessco. They are keeping up the same levels of great service and communication as when they started.”

Find your solution.

If you are similar to Sharrock Pitman Legal and are looking for personalised industry-specific IT service, you might benefit from a discussion about your options for your IT.

To find out your options, contact Innessco today 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.