Gabe Shaughnessy – Page 2

The explosive rise of Microsoft 365 in mid-tier law firms: a panel discussion

In February 2021, senior directors of two mid-sized UK law firms – Brachers and Conexus Law – came together with legal market advisor Derek Southall and Sheila Gormley, VP of Legal Solutions at Repstor, for a virtual discussion on the significant and growing impact of Microsoft 365 for transforming the way legal teams operate.

As well as debating Microsoft’s substantial footprint in the sector, the panel gave their perspectives on rising trends among law firms including IT consolidation, dispersed operating models, and the appetite to increase knowledge re-use, operational intelligence and process automation.

Salisbury chartered accounting firm Fawcetts selects Repstor as the basis for transforming its working practices

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UK200 Group peer Armstrong Watson gave Repstor for Accounting a rave review, inspiring Fawcetts to look beyond its immediate priority to improve email and document management using Outlook and SharePoint, to a roadmap for broader improvements harnessing Microsoft 365

Belfast, March 24^th , 2021 – Repstor, the Microsoft 365-based information management specialist, has announced that Fawcetts, one of Salisbury’s most established chartered firms, has chosen Repstor for Accounting™ to transform its email and document management, and in due course its wider working practices.

Fawcetts is a mid-size accounting firm employing five partners, four client directors and a team of 40 highly-qualified and experienced staff, who provide a range of accountancy services to small businesses from a single office location in central Salisbury.

Although the pandemic increased the urgency around Fawcetts’ digital transformation plans, the firm had been looking for a suitable email and document management solution for several years, but had struggled to find anything “fit for purpose for the 21^st century, or for accounting specifically.”

“Despite there being lots of document management solutions out there, we couldn’t find anything that would allow us to retain our existing filing structures and retain control of our own data,” says Fawcetts partner James Hayes.

That was until a peer firm recommended Repstor, which provides comprehensive content management capabilities -optimised for accounting firms – on top of Microsoft 365. James is chair of the Technology & Innovation forum at the UK200 Group of practicing chartered accountants, an active peer network that Fawcetts belongs to. When he sought advice from the network about a suitable and modern DMS, Toby Woodhead, Head of Technology at another accounting firm, Armstrong Watson, suggested Repstor based on his own recent experience.

Armstrong Watson deployed the Repstor for Accounting suite during the pandemic, and its reported benefits are already legendary in accounting circles. “Everyone has heard what they’ve done,” James says. “We had a lengthy and fascinating chat and I was left in no doubt that this was the way we needed to go. We already knew what we wanted but having this ringing endorsement from a firm that we know and trust, confirmed our choice of Repstor.”

Fawcetts had rolled out Microsoft 365 across the firm in 2020, so it made sense to build on this investment. James also wanted to minimise any potential disruption to the team, who, like most of us “groan when new software is introduced.” In both of these contexts, Repstor was the ideal solution.

“The fact that it works with Outlook is the icing on the cake,” James says. “The team won’t have to change the interface they use, or the way they file documents, but seamlessly everything will be stored in and accessed via SharePoint.

“This is a massive opportunity to improve efficiency with very little change to the way people work,” he continues. “Deploying Repstor will have an impact on profitability, improving the speed with which we can deliver, as we’ll be more organised with filing and accessing data. Clients will feel the benefits of that too.”

Fawcetts has been inspired by the broader deployment of the Repstor for Accounting suite at Armstrong Watson and aspires to many of the same applications and benefits.

“Armstrong Watson have a complete solution now – and one that gives them freedom in what they do, which is absolutely key,” James says. “They’re not tied to a particular document management supplier, haven’t had to bend what they do to suit the software, and they can access their data from anywhere: they haven’t surrendered control of their data.

“We can see ourselves doing a lot of the same things that Armstrong Watson have done or plan to do – using Repstor for fuller client engagement management and to manage Teams, for instance. Repstor gives us that roadmap, that power to revolutionise the way we work.”

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Adams & Adams bases a more agile future on Repstor for Legal and Cloud Essentials

South African law firm Adams & Adams bases a more agile future on Repstor for Legal and Cloud Essentials

Find out how Adams & Adams, a leading South African law firm that employs around 600 people across four office locations, worked with Cloud Essentials and Repstor to produce a solution for their legal document and matter management.

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Stedin Groep selects Repstor Custodian for Legal from Transform Data

Stedin Groep is active in the Randstad megalopolis of The Netherlands, which includes the four largest Dutch cities, the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam and Schiphol airport.

Given its extensive operations, the group needed a better way to manage documents and email trails linked to legal matters, to improve productivity and efficiency in its dealings across the business.

Specifically, the Group was looking for a highfunctioning, fit-for-purpose file management system to simplify legal document and email management, reducing reliance on legacy systems which were proving restrictive and a burden to manage.

Find out why Stedin Groep through Transform Data chose Repstor Custodian for Legal as its Legal DMS.

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Coca Cola European Partners has selected Repstor for Legal™ to transform the way its in-house legal team accepts, manages and reports on corporate matters.

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BELFAST, February 24^th, 20&21 – Repstor, the Microsoft 365-based information and matter management specialist preferred by professional services firms globally, has announced that Coca-Cola European Partners has selected Repstor for Legal™ to help transform the way its in-house legal team accepts, manages and reports on corporate matters.

Repstor for Legal, which harnesses popular Microsoft 365 applications including Outlook, SharePoint and Teams, will help streamline the handling of legal matter, from initial business requests to end reporting.

Standardizing on the Repstor solution will enable the 70-member in-house legal team to collaborate more consistently and effectively across multiple jurisdictions and enhance reporting. This will help the department deliver and demonstrate greater value to the business.

Repstor for Legal provides an intuitive document and matter management solution which capitalizes on users’ familiarity with Outlook, enabling them to more effectively manage, process and report on corporate legal matters.

“It’s fantastic to see another major global brand recognize the power and simplicity of managing legal matters using the tools people already use every day, which is Repstor for Legal’s great appeal,” comments Sheila Gormley, Repstor’s Executive VP for Legal Solutions. “We are seeing phenomenal growth in demand for Repstor for Legal, and we’re delighted to welcome Coca Cola European Partners on board as a customer.”

Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) is the world’s largest independent Coca-Cola bottler, based on net sales.

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The Future of ECM: Why it will cease to be a distinct acvitity

The days of treating content management as a discipline in its own right, needing special investment and dedicated systems, have long gone

If the last year has taught us anything, it’s that people just need to be able to get on with their jobs and do everything properly without having to be in a particular place, using special IT systems. The more that information workers can simply log onto the web and start working productively using Microsoft 365 and tools like Teams, the more seamless and stress-free their working day becomes. Especially if these familiar, mainstream tools can serve as their interface to all that they need.

And that’s where smart content management is heading: becoming more seamlessly integrated as part of routine business processes – maximising the investments that companies have already made (ie in the Microsoft 365 platform) and allowing users to achieve more via the workspace already in front of them – without having to switch between applications.

Teams-based content coordination

Microsoft Teams has been a big game-changer. It was already on a sharp growth trajectory, and then the pandemic struck and Teams became many workers’ go-to tool to maintain connections with their dispersed co-workers and continue collaborating on projects or client accounts. As workplaces closed and companies disbanded, Teams user numbers more than tripled – from 32 million in March 2020 to 115 million by October.

It isn’t just that Teams engagement has soared; employees are also becoming more holistic and comprehensive in the way they are using the application. Where initially they might have opened Teams specifically to make a call, join a conference or share notes, now colleagues are defaulting to it as a space for coordinating all of their work – a kind of hub or central workspace and dashboard.

Employers were wary of this behaviour at first, concerned that it would play havoc with established ways of filing information, important documents and correspondence trails – potentially undermining internal information management and security policies. But now, with the right controls in place, companies are realising that it makes good sense to let users make more of their M365 licences – especially if it boosts their productivity and means they can work more seamlessly from where they are.

Platform consolidation: doing more with less

One inevitable consequence of more blended, consolidated content management capabilities is that specialist systems are losing their prominence, a trend we see accelerating.

This includes SharePoint, which is likely to become more of a content layer that supports Teams. That isn’t to suggest that the Microsoft shared repository system no longer holds value, but rather that its use will be more consistent – and its value boosted – once SharePoint plays a more integral, underpinning role behind the user experiences people naturally gravitate towards, as provided by Teams.

As for other dedicated ECM or document management systems, not only are they a costly separate investment and maintenance burden; most can’t be integrated readily with the Microsoft 365 suite.

This is unfortunate given that Teams is designed to be integrated with other systems. We predict that content system vendors will scramble to provide their functionality within Teams over the coming months, as more customers start to view this as their new, easy-to-use content system – and as more organisations look to consolidate their application portfolios.

Smarter ways of working

Reducing reliance on dedicated document or ECM systems is also paving the way for other efficiency improvements.

Defaulting to Microsoft 365 and Teams as the main window for managing and working with content is proving transformational in knowledge-based sectors such as professional and legal services. It’s allowing dispersed teams to continue working productively on client engagements, projects or legal matters, safe in the knowledge that information and documents will be stored and indexed correctly.

It’s in this context that another important aspect of harnessing Microsoft 365 comes to the fore.

Absorbing AI into everyday applications

Microsoft invests staggeringly high amounts of R&D money in advancing its technology and features, giving users ready access to the latest AI and machine learning (ML) capabilities. So when companies default to using Microsoft 365 as the front-end to their content management, they get to tap into these exciting new facilities.

In global professional services, embedded AI and machine learning will help specialist departments automatically locate, extract and re-use their best work, to reduce the need to prepare project plans or documents for new engagements from scratch, by enabling advanced knowledge and content management.

Again, the real advances in practice will come through the seamless, embedded application of AI within routine, everyday tasks – without firms needing to be aware that AI is the enabler. (Just as when Microsoft Cortana tells you how your schedule is looking, offering a few gentle prompts about actions that are due, you don’t think of it as AI, but simply a tool that adds value to your day.)

This is the kind of development being driven by Microsoft’s Project Cortex.

ECM and content services are at a crossroads currently, but choose the right path and the new possibilities for business process transformation are exciting.

A Repstor and SYKE Success Story

Microsoft, Repstor & SYKE give Pizza Hut’s corporate legal team new control over matter intake, management & reporting, using its existing Microsoft 365 applications.

Pizza Hut, headquartered in Texas and owned by Yum! Brands, is an American restaurant chain and international franchise business. With over 18,000 restaurants worldwide, it is one of the largest restaurant companies in the world. In the UK, where it has been operating for almost half a century, Pizza Hut has over 200 branches. It also provides takeaway delivery services.

Find out how Repstor and SYKE worked with Pizza Hut’s in-house legal function to be seen as a trusted partner to the business in the case study below.

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Armstrong Watson – A Repstor for Accounting Success Story

Armstrong Watson chooses Repstor’s complete suite of Microsoft 365-based ECM, Teams & client collaboration capabilities as continued lockdown prompts new ways of working.

The Repstor for Accounting™ suite is already live after a rapid, pandemic-prompted rollout, giving users access to powerful capabilities for managing Teams, mobile email and documents, and external collaboration via the tools they already use every day.

Find out why Armstrong Watson, a top-30 UK business advisory and accounting firm serving the north of England and Scotland, has selected and gone live with Repstor for Accounting™ below.

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Armstrong Watson chooses Repstor’s complete suite of Microsoft 365-based ECM, Teams & client collaboration capabilities as continued lockdown prompts new ways of working

Belfast, February 2^nd, 2021 – Repstor, the Microsoft 365-based information management specialist, has today announced that Armstrong Watson, a top-30 UK business advisory and accounting firm serving the north of England and Scotland, has selected and gone live with Repstor for Accounting™, after Covid-19 lockdowns intensified demand for Teams-based collaboration and secure remote access to client records.

Armstrong Watson, which employs 440 people across 16 offices from the M62 to Glasgow and on both sides of the Pennines, provides services spanning accountancy, cloud accounting, audit, tax, payroll, corporate finance, financial planning, forensic accounting, corporate restructuring and insolvency.

During the pandemic, its clients have needed more tailored support which Armstrong Watson partners and teams have had to provide remotely. When the first pandemic lockdown struck in March 2020, demand for video calls and collaboration via Teams went through the roof.

This caused Armstrong Watson to bring forward plans to migrate to Office 365, a decision which introduced some challenges with, the firm’s existing document management system.

“Accessing some of the new functionality, including co-authoring support, would have meant a significant integration burden,” explains Toby Woodhead, the firm’s Head of Technology.

The Microsoft 365-based Repstor for Accounting™ suite, which includes powerful capabilities for managing Teams, mobile email and document management, as well as third-party collaboration, provides a wealth of rich functionality directly from within familiar Microsoft applications.

“From day one, Repstor has enabled our people to access client records, documents, audit trails and calculations from anywhere, so we’ve been able to keep providing a continuous service to our clients,” Toby says. “What’s more, due to the pandemic, I didn’t have to convince users of the switch. Never before have I witnessed such a desire in a firm to adopt new technology.”

A strategic technology advisor recommended Repstor as a means to enable comprehensive remote working, with full compliance controls over email, document filing and Teams use. “I googled Repstor, made contact the same day and within a week we were talking commercials,” Toby says.

“We did a quick review of other potential solutions, but Repstor offered us everything we needed – including a strategic step change in our ability to do business, which DMS vendors couldn’t match. Crucially too, Repstor was harnessing our investment in Microsoft 365 and SharePoint,” he adds.

Following a rapid and comprehensive proof of concept, Repstor introduced partner Transform Data to help with data migration from the old document management system to SharePoint, the firm’s new default content store.

Ultimately, Repstor for Accounting will serve as a complete client engagement management system. Already, the ability to work seamlessly from home means Armstrong Watson’s professionals can engage with the MDs of busy companies on their personal accounting at 8am, before they themselves start work. “This opens up new business opportunities,” Toby notes.

“I can honestly say we’re seeing seismic ramifications from our decision to transform the way we work,” he enthuses. “When I wrote my board report for the last year I described this as the biggest step for Technology in the firm for 10 years, since we moved our servers into a data centre.

“For users, everything is just seamless: it just works and is there for them in Outlook. They can take advantage of important capabilities like co-authoring, too. Another Repstor benefit is the ability to work on- and offline, so if someone is in a rural area where broadband is weak they can download a document, continue working on it, and then re-synchronise it later when they’re back online.

“From an IT perspective, we’re leaps and bounds ahead with our ambitions for Teams, which will soon become a central hub that we’ll all work from,” Toby continues. “After that we’ll add client access to a SharePoint portal, for secure external collaboration. The sky is the limit for users then: we’ll be able to use all of the exciting new technology Microsoft is giving us, and have more of a ‘project teams’ focus, giving our people a chance to get deeper into our client engagements.”

Armstrong Watson also plans to make use of advanced Microsoft 365 features such as PowerAutomate for automating document approval workflows in SharePoint, and the systemised production of documents from blocks of data, which will enable substantial cost savings and productivity gains.

“Last but not least, standardising on Microsoft 365 and Repstor will make it easy to add all sorts of other products – such as an electronic document signing tool – because so many of these naturally integrate with Microsoft 365, as Repstor does. This will massively reduce the cost of integration.”

Download a free copy of the Armstrong Watson case study Download here.

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Structure and routine: the antidote to stress and chaos – and the key to effective matter management for corporate legal teams

The ability to default to agreed rules and standards can be reassuringly grounding, maintaining order and control when usual business conditions and processes have been disrupted. And now, more than ever, corporate legal teams are realising the importance of formal structure in matter management, especially where colleagues may be working off site.

The calming order of consistent filing practices

Where previously lawyers have self-governed, looking after their own work and logging developments in their own way, a more standardised and systematic approach encourages professionals to record matter activity and to file emails and documents in a more formal and consistent way.

This has all sorts of operational benefits for the whole team – as well as for business clients. As long as it is made easy and intuitive for lawyers to record matter status information and file the latest correspondence and documents properly as they go, legal operations will be able to monitor progress – and professionals will be able to locate and pick up each other’s work more readily as and when required.

This contrasts with common ad-hoc methods which typically see individuals each recording information in their own way in their own folders – on their own local hard drive, within their email account, or somewhere on a shared drive (not always immediately discoverable if each lawyer uses their own filing protocol, and if remote access depends on a cumbersome VPN connection). This haphazard behaviour often sees lawyers having to set aside three hours on a Friday to catch up with filing, and trying to decipher their scant notes to report back on matter progress at team meetings.

Capitalising on existing investments in Microsoft 365

So what is holding teams back from formalising and streamlining matter management – something that can substantially hamper their productivity and efficiency?

Well, historically, corporate legal teams have felt badly served by IT solutions. Any systems with a legal leaning have tended to be designed predominantly for private law firms. More generic document management systems, on the other hand, have failed to cater for the specific demands of a legal setting. Although Microsoft SharePoint may have been readily available within the organisation for instance, without the right IT support in-house legal teams may have struggled to know how best to incorporate the repository as part of matter management.

But these barriers no longer apply. Repstor, a Microsoft Gold Partner, specialises in optimising Microsoft 365 for legal use – particularly in end-to-end matter lifecycle management. Using a secure, proven, cloud-based software platform that most organisations have already invested in, we help corporate legal teams standardise and transform the way they log, manage, store and access their work, whatever their location.

This means that they can perform at their most productive wherever professionals are.

Reducing resistance

As recording and filing become instinctive and ‘in stream’, and matter archives become pooled, professionals are able to look up previous case files for precedents – and to save reinventing the wheel. If a lawyer isn’t available for whatever reason, a colleague with access rights can call up the latest files, notes and email correspondence, to check the current status of a matter and, if appropriate, progress it in their absence. At a time when colleagues are not conveniently within ear shot at the next desk, easy look-up and the means of intuitive, ad-hoc collaboration matter more than ever.

When Eversheds Sutherland adopted our technology, making Microsoft 365 and Outlook its default platform for matter management, it found it was saving an hour of fee-earner time per day, just from chasing matter updates, finding the latest versions of documents, and switching between different systems to get the job done.

Legal professionals have found the Repstor/Microsoft 365 approach to matter management ‘transformational’, according to the company’s Legal Operations Manager. Today the company has 800 open matters being handled through the system, and lawyers are marvelling at how they ever coped without it.

Adding visibility for the business

Business clients benefit greatly from systematic matter management, too – especially where they have access to self-service portal and/or automatic notification system which updates them on the evolving status of a matter (with the added benefit that lawyers no longer have to service routine queries). Reporting is made effortless too, as metadata about matters is captured continuously across the lifecycle of an engagement.

A further considerable benefit of going down the Microsoft 365 route is that the platform is being updated all the time with the latest technology advances – including artificial intelligence and workflow automation – so as a choice for matter management it is reassuringly futureproof.

We recently delivered a short webinar ‘Transforming Legal Operations with Microsoft 365’ featuring a presentation by IATA’s assistant general counsel, Dane Clapson. Catch the webinar on demand here

Leigh Smith, Principal Consultant, Corporate Legal, Repstor