Less than five years from starting Ingrams Solicitors in 2001, and having expanded to nearly 70 staff across three offices in York, Hull and Harrogate, we discovered we had a communication problem. This surprised us, as we had achieved Investors in People recognition and thought we had established good channels of communication between partners and staff, between offices and between departments; but a survey showed our staff thought otherwise.
Good communication at all levels is vital for any enterprise to succeed, and as we were working towards Lexcel accreditation we needed something that would quickly and easily improve communication and knowledge management within the firm.
It was also a challenge ensuring every staff member had an up-to-date Practice Manual and Employee Handbook. Like most firms, we had been supplying paper copies to our staff and relying on them to keep them up to date. This system was cumbersome, unreliable and used a huge amount of paper.
Our IT advisers, One Click Support knew what we needed – an intranet – but there was nothing on the market which fitted our requirements. With a limited budget, we didn’t want to buy new servers, hardware or software, nor did we want the expense of individual user licence fees. We wanted something suitable for a small- to medium-sized law firm that would be functional and relevant to our staff, delivering better communication and knowledge sharing across the firm using easy-to-navigate menus and supplying quick-links to case management systems, email, and work-related internet sites. We did not need flight booking facilities, canteen-queue webcams or time-zone clocks showing availability of staff in Shanghai. We are, after all, a Yorkshire firm!
Doug Walker of One Click Support understood our aim and believed that with their technical expertise and our knowledge of the legal services sector we could, in collaboration, create just what we needed and on a shoestring budget – and so Lextranet was born.
Lextranet is an intranet-based legal knowledge management system, designed to assist firms who are working towards standards of excellence such as IIP and, more specifically, Lexcel accreditation. Our staff can access Lextranet via a username and password, controlled by an administrator within the firm. By putting all our manuals, policies and procedures on an intranet, accessible from every staff member’s desktop, we can now be certain that everyone in the firm is using the same updated core material.
In addition to our Practice Manual and Employee Handbook, Lextranet also holds our staff directory, Anti-Money Laundering Code of Conduct and Solicitors Accounts Rules guidance, risk checklists, Law Society warning cards, registers of experts and business and marketing plans. Effective communication of these strengthens our risk management capabilities.
A newsdesk facility enables us to announce changes to the Practice Manual, so these can be introduced and implemented very quickly. Our staff can put news on the newsdesk too.
All of this made completing the Lexcel self-assessment checklist much easier, as our use of Lextranet was the route to compliance with numerous sections of the Lexcel Standard. In August 2006 we were delighted to achieve Lexcel accreditation.
A staff survey carried out that same year showed a marked improvement in staff satisfaction regarding communication at all levels (much of this due to the introduction of Lextranet) and showed that staff were more aware of our business plan and their roles in it.
Lextranet can incorporate a firm’s own branding and we have taken advantage of this to reinforce our brand and corporate identity within Ingrams itself. Lextranet is simple to construct, as it requires no new software or system upgrade, merely using a firm’s existing IT infrastructure. It is very flexible since material can be added or amended in-house, whenever necessary.
We now have a precedents bank within Lextranet to share know-how and expertise within the firm and have introduced Key Performance Indicators onto management team and heads of departments’ desktops, enabling them to monitor staff performance and departmental profitability. Now we can step up a gear and exploit our intranet capabilities to the full.
Catherine Copp is a partner at Ingrams Solicitors of York, Hull and Harrogate and is Head of Conveyancing. She led the firm in achieving Lexel accreditation.
Email catherinec@ingramssolicitors.co.uk.
Doug Walker of One Click Support adds
Lextranet utilises current Microsoft Windows based tools which interface with all other Windows based case management systems to improve productivity and provide consistent quality of performance. Relevant information is easy to find whilst providing a corporate image on each desktop. Ingrams wanted the software to assist with the implementation of the Lexcel requirements and that has been very much in our minds as we developed the system.
The software is supported by a team of six development and technical support desk staff. The latest version of the software was demonstrated at the recent Managing Partner Magazine conference “Intranets for Law Firms” where Catherine Copp gave a presentation.
We have formed a separate company Lextranet Ltd to market and develop the product. It costs £2,500 for a 50 user Licence Pack. Installation and implementation is estimated at 5 days (subject to survey) and charged at £500 per day. A support contract of £2,400 a year ensures free upgrades to the software and technical support.
Doug Walker is Managing Director of One Click Support of Driffield, East Yorkshire.
Email doug@oneclicksupport.co.uk.
Note: this article is part of a series on Intranets for law firms – see also the articles on SharePoint and Intranet Dashboard in the March/April and May/June 2008 issues.
