Customer Stories

Managing information barriers and related security arrangements

“One-stop-shop” for a leading international law firm serving clients throughout Australia and Asia

Allens wanted a “one-stop-shop” for information barrier management and related security arrangements in its document management and matter management systems for its 1600 users. By deploying iManage Security Policy Manager, Allens automated a significant part of the implementation and management process, which included delegating access control to key staff and allowing changes to be made within minutes remotely from relevant employee desktops. Allens is a leading international law firm serving clients throughout Australia and Asia. Together with Linklaters, its global network spans 40 offices across 28 countries.

The business challenge

Following the successful deployment of iManage Work 10 backed by RAVN (iManage) search, Allens sought to implement a central portal for managing information barriers and related security arrangements.

Headquarters

Sydney, Australia

Industry

Legal

Products

iManage Security Policy Manager

Benefits

Minutes to set up/manage information barriers and related security arrangements
Solutions scale seamlessly
Authorized employees manage information barriers any time, from anywhere
System takes internal staff movements into account
Consistency between teams without crosschecking from both sides

Now we have a dashboard with all of the information at our fingertips. We are saving time which equates to a significant cost saving for the firm.

Clare Smith, Senior Associate, OGC, Allens

The solution

iManage Security Policy Manager (SPM)

The firm has an in-house legal team known as the Office
of General Counsel (OGC). Amongst other things, it supports Allens’ partners and lawyers on professional risk management issues, including information barriers.

The OGC identified that Allens would benefit from a solution that would work seamlessly with their iManage Work DMS and their matter management system (Aderant Expert), as well as providing advanced governance features to help simplify and automate their current processes, create electronic real-time audit logs of activity and reduce the resource burden on IT.

By implementing iManage Security Policy Manager, Allens has significantly streamlined the management of information barriers. Importantly, they reduced the resources and manual overhead involved in defining, managing and setting up information barriers – enhancing security and risk mitigation. A key benefit of the SPM system was the rapid application of changes made within the SPM system to the DMS and matter management systems (within minutes).

According to Clare Smith, a Senior Associate in the OGC, who was the Business Lead in relation to the SPM implementation, “Now we have a dashboard with all of the information at our fingertips. We are saving time which equates to a significant cost saving for the firm.”

1.6K

Users

40

Offices

28

Countries

Business outcomes

Efficient and accessible centralized portal for managing information barriers and related security arrangements.

SPM and its integration with iManage Work 10 came into its own in 2020, when Allens moved to a work-from-home arrangement for a period due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Smith says, “Having iManage Security Policy Manager in place meant our information barrier management was not impacted. The key was being able to add people into a team and give them access and manage relevant restrictions and information barrier obligations quickly from anywhere – home or office – at any time of the day.”

Outcome/Results

Set up and manage information barriers and related security arrangements within minutes
Solutions scale seamlessly
Authorized employees can manage information barriers at any time from anywhere
System takes into account internal staff movements
Kept consistency between teams without having to cross-check from both sides
Transformation

Allens has enhanced and streamlined the application of security and information barrier management through electronic automation.

Download the full customer story