Case Studies

Clarke Willmott

As one of the UK’s top 75 law firms, Clarke Willmott has built a national reputation as a specialist in property and planning, with strong complimentary services in dispute resolution, corporate and private client services. The firm has 70 partners and a total of over 600 staff, which operate from four regional centres. In a move to provide reliable, cost-effective and secure Internet access for its employees, Clarke Willmott decided upon CI’s 0800-Charge back remote access service.

“Our lawyers and other staff often need to work from home, or occasionally from overseas when they are travelling,” says IT Manager, Iain Hepburn. “They may be working extended hours or from a client’s office or even from court. Wherever they are, they need to be able to work as efficiently out of the office as when they are in the office.”

The priorities were clear: simplicity of administration coupled with efficiency of operation.

CI provided the law firm with its remote access service, 0800 Charge-back, which enables Clarke Willmott’s staff to access the Internet via a 0800 number without incurring call charges at the point of connection. Instead, usage is conveniently billed directly back to the firm at the end of each month. Bills are itemised, so the Finance Department can identify and assign each individual user’s charges.

“We are able to pick up the phone bill for our staff, so they no longer have to split out Internet usage and claim it back on expenses. It’s easy to manage and a very cost-effective way of working,” says Hepburn.

Security is a key issue for Clarke Willmott, especially concerning remote access to its corporate network. Working in conjunction with the law firm’s IT department, CI was able to provide an additional layer of security to the existing systems to help to protect the confidentiality of material on the network.

The service also features a web-based control panel that gives the firm’s IT administrators far greater control and visibility over their staff’s remote access. They are able to create and assign accounts for individual members of staff, manage usernames and passwords and view usage logs for UK dial-up and international global roaming.

“Overall we have been impressed by how easy it has been for us to set up and use the service and how responsive CI has been, whenever we’ve had questions and queries,” says Hepburn.

“It’s all been very straightforward. The only time we did have a problem, in the early days, it was CI who alerted us. They contacted us and told us how to rectify the situation - that was even before we knew a problem existed.

“That sort of pro-active approach is typical of their helpful attitude. Everything I have to say is positive.”

Downloads: