Holman Webb empowers lawyers with 30 minutes more time every day with iManage

Award-winning law firm, Holman Webb, serves a diverse customer base with highly specific needs. When aging on-premises infrastructure was becoming costly to maintain and impacting how quickly lawyers could find documents, the team partnered with iManage to migrate to the cloud. With iManage Work 10 in the Cloud, lawyers save 30 minutes of time every day, the IT team is free to focus on optimizing the user experience, and document management has helped the team transform from cost center to profit center.

The business challenge

Empowering staff to serve diverse client needs

Holman Webb is one of the top law firms in its field. Serving a diverse client base across the commercial and insurance sectors means they need agile technology to empower lawyers to give their all. While the type and volume of documents involved in a matter can vary greatly, the team needs fast access whether they’re in the office, the courtroom, or working remotely.

“In the past, our on-premises environment was limiting how we managed data and running on costly infrastructure. The move to cloud was part of our ongoing strategy to outsource managing environments to free up the IT team to focus more on designing the best user experience, to give our clients the best possible outcomes, as efficiently as possible,” said Steve Ferhad, CTO at Holman Webb.

At Holman Webb, a standard approach to document management and a rigid filing structure simply doesn’t work. Credit collections, for example, require documents to be stored, managed, and ready to present in court during a legal battle, while commercial or insurance cases can involve large volumes of static documents, or hours of video evidence.

“A document management system shouldn’t dictate how lawyers work. When we take on a new case, we don’t always know what type or volume of documents will be involved throughout the life of a matter. We need a scalable solution that gives the ability to meet a broad and changing set of requirements,” Steve explained.

And with high-profile cases attracting significant media interest, the firm also needs the highest levels of security to protect against cyberattacks.

The solution

Feature-rich document management and secure collaboration

Holman Webb implemented iManage Work 10 in the Cloud to their four offices and rolled out a change management program to streamline user adoption. During pilot sessions, the IT team worked alongside lawyers to workshop the best ways to structure documents to meet their needs.

“iManage was the obvious choice for us. It’s the weapon of choice for the legal sector, and clients expect us to have the best possible solutions,” said Steve. “It’s not just a great document management system, iManage is a long-term partner invested in our success. We’ve got expert advice on tap and don’t have to worry about maintaining hardware.”

The platform is integrated with workplace solutions, such as the time-tracking system and the data warehouse. This gives the team insight into how documents and data are stored in relation to specific matters. In the future, this will help to categorize matters faster and identify common clauses that can be templated for similar cases.

Enhanced searches are also helping lawyers to save time. When they drag and drop files into a folder, they’re automatically tagged with metadata that makes it easier to find relevant documents during discovery. Another small change making a big impact is version control. Previously, matching PDFs to the document they were created from was challenging, but in iManage, finding the latest version is simple.

Holman Webb also implemented iManage Share, which provides a crucial layer of protection against cyberattacks. “iManage Share is vital for us. We can share documents with the right people without using risky third-party collaboration tools,” Steve noted.

Business outcomes

Giving back 30 minutes of time per lawyer, every day

Moving to iManage Work 10 in the Cloud has revolutionized life at Holman Webb for both lawyers and the IT team. Eliminating hardware and its associated maintenance costs has transformed the IT department into a profit center.

“Our strategy has been to change from a cost center ‘managing the tin’ to the team our business leaders look to for help with innovation and growth. With iManage in the Cloud, we can focus more energy on DevOps and the user experience. Our stock has gone up in the eyes of the business: colleagues recognize the impact we have on their workday and that our technology is on a par with large, global firms,” said Steve.

Meanwhile, lawyers have gained 30 minutes per day and can spend more time focused on client and team work. In a recent survey, the team agreed that the platform meets their needs — giving the transformation a +40 NPS rating improvement.