Customer Stories
Harper Macleod keeps 35+ million documents safe in the iManage Cloud
Award-winning Scottish law firm moves forward with industry-leading DMS, cites benefits of trusted partnerships and seamless transitions
Harper Macleod’s cloud story has multiple chapters and takes place over more than a decade. iManage first appears in 2012, when the firm was looking for a dedicated document management system (DMS). The firm strongly considered an early, cloud-only DMS called NetDocuments, but they ultimately went with iManage, which — at the time — was available only on premises. In 2019, Harper Macleod was one of the first UK customers to migrate to the first cloud-based iteration of iManage, and moved its 35 million+ documents to the iManage Cloud on Azure in 2025. The three main advantages the firm has seen with the move to iManage Cloud are enhanced security, improved integrations, a reduction in the overhead of patching and upgrades, and quicker access to new features.
Founded in 1988, Harper Macleod took up the challenge of building a commercial law firm of scale from scratch, disproving its naysayers in short order. Honored nine times as Scotland’s Law Firm of the Year, with its latest accolade being Scottish Firm of the Year at the inaugural Chambers UK Awards 2025, Harper Macleod is an award-winning business that happens to be a full-service law firm.
The business challenge
No dedicated document management
Prior to becoming an iManage customer in 2012, Harper Macleod stored its files in its practice management system, LawSoft, its case management system, Solcase, and on network shares. Since neither application was a document management system (DMS), people couldn’t search the firm’s content, get help with email filing, or see what people were doing with their files.
The firm started its search for a dedicated DMS in 2012, says Richard Harvey, IT Director, Harper Macleod. After extensive research, they narrowed it down to iManage, which had no cloud offering at the time, and NetDocuments, which was pioneering a cloud-only solution. They believed that the cloud was the way everything was going, but rightly
conducted a thorough due diligence process to inform their decision.
“It was a difficult decision, what would best meet our requirements both at that time and moving forward. Then, around the time the management group was considering the proposals, there was a massive AWS (Amazon Web Services) outage that took down Netflix and Instagram, amongst others,” Harvey recalls. ”This shone a light on
the risks of cloud, which was in its infancy as far as enterprise systems went.”
iManage was not only lower risk, it also had a proven reputation. “iManage has a massive market share now, obviously — but even 12 or 13 years ago, they had a sizable following,” says Harvey. “Around 70 of the top 100 firms in the UK, including a lot of very large firms,
were already using iManage more than a decade ago.”
So, they started with iManage on premises, going live in 2012. Harvey feels it was prudent to pick the option with the longest track record. But by 2018, the argument for a cloud DMS was persuasive.
Headquarters
Glasgow, Scotland
Industry
Legal
Products
- Enhanced security
- Reduced IT overhead
- Quicker access to new features
- Seamless integrations
About partner
Founded in 2015, Morae Global Corporation is trusted around the world for the delivery of digital and business solutions for a constantly
changing legal industry.
With iManage Cloud, we see new product capabilities immediately, with each release. And
the integrations with iManage Work 10 in the Cloud are a big advantage to the firm.
Richard Harvey, IT Director, Harper Macleod
The solution
The safest choice for the firm’s assets
Following a presentation at their annual general meeting (AGM), the firm approved the adoption of a cloud-first strategy. It stipulated that any new systems or upgrades should be to the cloud unless there was a compelling reason not to do so. iManage was the first system they chose to migrate from on premises to cloud.
“We were one of the first iManage customers in the UK to migrate from on premises to cloud,” says Harvey. “We went live on iManage Work Cloud on the 1st of March 2019.”
Harvey says he used an analogy to help anyone who still believed documents were safer on premises to put things in perspective: “Would you rather put your crown jewels in a safe inside your house, or in a bank vault? That made them think”, he says.
“Not only are around 90 percent of the UK’s top 100 law firms now using iManage, which is a significant recognition in itself, we strongly believe that iManage does the job we need it to do. It is a valuable system that our users can rely on,” reasons Harvey.
Suppliers you can trust to make your life easier
Harvey says the move to iManage Cloud on Azure in May 2025, was almost effortless. And he gives credit to their implementation partner, Morae. They moved all their data over a weekend with zero impact on users.
“In my job,” says Harvey, “having suppliers you trust completely makes your life so much easier. We’re approached often by other implementation partners, but we’ve never had any cause to go anywhere but Morae. That speaks volumes to the service and guidance they provide.”
Harvey says Morae managed the firm’s migration of about 35 million documents to the iManage Cloud on Azure almost single-handedly.
“I could have just said we were taking the system down for maintenance. The users wouldn’t have known the difference — it was that seamless. If all big system changes were as smooth as our move to the iManage Cloud on Azure, my hair would be less grey,” Harvey laughs.
Business outcomes
Immediate time/cost benefits and integrations
“We’re at about 80+ percent adoption on iManage for client and matters because we still have some heavy Solcase users who we are moving over to Sharedo, a new case and matter management system. Then we’ll be at 100 percent adoption on iManage,” predicts Harvey.
“Transitioning to the iManage Cloud made things much, much easier,” observes Harvey. He says that while costs were closely considered, the other benefits are compelling.
For one, the cloud is much less time-consuming for Harvey’s team to maintain. With iManage Cloud, upgrades are automatic and there’s no downtime. Patching or vulnerabilities are dealt with very quickly, which he says is essential to preserving the firm’s accreditations and its clients’ confidence.
“Just reducing that overhead on my team has helped significantly,” says Harvey, “which is an important factor in us moving so much to the cloud. It allows us to focus on other projects that will continue to move our business forward.”
Many of the firm’s systems are now in the cloud, and that means there are fewer “tunnels” and less exposure to risk. But with cross-sector and high-profile organizations being hit by cyberattacks almost daily, his team also reduces risk with iManage Threat Manager, which produces reports and alerts them to anomalous user behaviors.
“We’ve now got north of 30 million documents and emails, and that number is going up roughly 10 to 20 percent per year,” Harvey estimates. “We won’t risk the safety of those assets from a business continuity and regulatory perspective.”
Small gains add up to big benefits
Harvey remarks on how quickly they get new technologies in the cloud, saying that with on prem they had to upgrade to get new features. “There are a number of variable factors we consider when assessing the need for upgrades. With iManage Cloud,” he explains, “we see new product capabilities with each release. It’s much more immediate. And the integrations available out of the box with iManage Work 10 in the Cloud are a big advantage to the firm.”
Harvey keeps mailbox limits on the small side to encourage good mailbox hygiene and drive firm policy, which is to file client and matter emails into client and matter workspaces. “It’s really straightforward to do,” he says, “and it prevents colleagues building up giant pots of emails.” He says seeing that the email has already been filed is another great benefit. “They feel more comfortable deleting it from their inbox, knowing it’s been filed.”
Harvey says every single person in the firm has access to iManage: marketing, finance, IT, operations, billing, credit control, HR, and facilities. “The real difference for the user is the new features iManage Cloud makes available, like co-authoring. Tighter integration with Teams is another valuable enhancement.”
“Lawyers expect excellence,” he adds. “iManage search is extremely powerful. And document preview is much snappier than it was in the pre-Azure iteration of iManage Cloud.”
All these features add up and help people work in more efficient ways. “Small gains can seem marginal,” Harvey observes, “but if you’re doing it thousands of times a year, it quickly becomes a significant material benefit.”
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