18 months ago law firm asb law began a £1.5 million I.T. modernisation programme and have announced that they have achieved all their major objectives on time and under budget.
Chief executive Christopher Honeyman Brown says, "We are delighted with the success we have achieved in linking all seven offices and over 350 staff into a fully integrated knowledge sharing, common workflow system. The increase in efficiency and reduction in paper handling is excellent. The new installation has improved our internal working practices and external operations, with benefits accruing to clients across all work types. We were supported throughout by Andrew Simmans of Simmans Consulting, who acted as the interface between the various suppliers (in particular Axxia) and our partners and staff. It is unlikely we could have made the progress we did without Andrew's support."
Six specific objectives were set and Simmans Consulting was tasked with ensuring that the Axxia system integrated with the brand-new Microsoft / Citrix based environment. The objectives were

(1) Common and consistent work processes throughout the firm.

(2) Single-team working over many physical locations.

(3) Common sharing of knowledge and information.

(4) Efficient I.T. able to react rapidly and flexibly to new opportunities.

(5) Improved financial control through in-depth access to, and visible monitoring of, financial and management data.

(6) Ability to quickly and easily bring new teams or a new firm into asb law's processes.

These have all been achieved in the timescale and budget agreed by the partners.
"Team work and clear communication was essential to achieving the objectives", says Andrew Simmans. "Everybody from the chief executive to the newest secretary had to own the plan and cooperate with the implementation schedule, including comprehensive prototyping, testing, and task-specific training. A project of this type requires a considerable change in working methods and close co-operation with the partners and staff has been critical to its success. Everyone is at last on a common system and further improvements in risk management and case management are now being developed as everyone becomes aware of the potential of the system. The new integrated systems are immensely powerful and allow people to access their data from any office, or even from remote locations such as home or international locations."
Honeyman Brown commented, "Integrating over 350 staff all with different needs and different methodologies, and who are located in a number of offices is a success story which cannot be overstated. asb law has achieved a technology platform that will give us tremendous flexibility as we develop our service range, client base and office network. This practical use of technology is helping us to improve client service and at the same time enabling us to move forward with our expansion plans at a faster rate than we might have otherwise expected."

For further details contact Christopher Honeyman Brown on 01293 601444, email chb@asb-law.com
or
Andrew Simmans on 01403 265607, email Andrew@Simmans.com

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EDITORS' NOTES
The installation covers over 350 users in 7 offices. It comprises 10 Citrix Servers, Clustered Microsoft 2000 Exchange and Windows 2000 File Servers, Microsoft IIS Server, Microsoft SQL 2000 Server, and an Informix Server (for Axxia). 2Mb leased lines have been installed to link all offices using Cisco Routers and VPN Software is used for remote access over the Internet Forman world wide locations.
The software includes MS Office, Axxia's integrated Accounts, Case Management, and Marketing Database, Laserforms together with various bespoke developments provided by Simmans Consulting for management information and easy knowledge management using Office / IIS (Active Server Pages) / Index Server.

asb law is one of the top 100 law firms in the country and one of the largest in the South of England with 46 partners and over 310 legal and support staff. The firm has offices in Brighton, Crawley, Croydon, Horsham and Maidstone providing a range of specialist legal services to businesses, private clients, not for profit organisations and the public sector. asb law's client base includes airlines and travel companies, universities and colleges, blue-chip companies, local authorities, insurance companies, breweries, construction companies and accountants. The firm also acts for a wide range of substantial listed and privately owned companies with turnovers ranging from £500,000 to £100m.

Simmans Consulting is a specialist IT consultancy based in Horsham, West Sussex and is headed up by Andrew Simmans. Andrew has been a senior IT Consultant / Director / Project Manager for over 20 years, managing IT teams and implementing large-scale projects mainly with blue chip companies such as Reed Business Information, Price Waterhouse Management Consultants, J.Sainsbury, and Habitat Designs. He served as IT Director for asb law for 18 months with full responsibility for all staff and the £1.5m capital budget, and is now working with top 100 law firms advising on how to effectively implement and use their existing IT systems. His particular areas of legal expertise are in Case-Matter-Document Management, and in making financial management information visible and understandable. In a wider setting he has also defined top-down IT strategies; developed complete IT infrastructures; established Intranets, Extranets and Internet Server Applications; as well as managing "bespoke" development projects both using in-house teams and external suppliers.
For further details consult the website www.simmans.co.uk or phone 01403 265607
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