Feature

posted 29 Jan 2003 in Volume 5 Issue 8

Internal and external efficiency: Making a success of IT at Ashursts

In their use of technology, law firms may be some steps behind other businesses, but they are learning fast and in some areas, digital dictation for example, they are positively leading the way. Chris White, global information technology director at Ashurst Morris Crisp, assesses the use of IT at Ashursts with a particular focus on their roll-out of digital dictation.

Being relatively new to the legal profession, I believe that I am in a good position to look objectively at how law firms use technology. I have spent the majority of my career working in financial services in the City, specifically in investment management. Financial services companies tend to be “power users” of technology. This is both in terms of the complexity of the systems they run and in the stability required of them. Systems I have implemented for things such as performance measurement and attribution, risk management, fund management, and trading are hugely sophisticated and complex – far more than anything I have come across in the legal sector. Resilience is essential in a trading environment where you cannot afford to have any down time. If a business-critical system is down and the market moves against you, you could potentially be sitting on huge losses. Consequently, most financial services organisations invest heavily in resilience.

The legal environment is different. It is not generally faced with the same time imperatives and in many ways, the profession is a less sophisticated user of technology. Although it is a number of steps behind financial services, it is in no way a luddite. There are areas in which law firms use technology extremely effectively – such as in document management, which is essential to any sizable law firm.

What we do have in the legal profession is a tremendous opportunity to make better use of technology, both to improve our internal efficiency and also to improve the service we offer to clients.

Since joining Ashursts, I have significantly revised the firm’s IT architecture so that our systems are organised in a far more logical, integrated way. Data will be held only once and it will be accessible to everyone that needs access to it. All of our IT projects are moving us towards this new architecture. I have also turned IT around so that we are less focused on the technology and far more outward looking and in tune with what our users and clients need.

IT plans for 2003

IT at Ashursts is a very busy department. We support around 1,500 users across our global network of offices. There are three key areas of development for the coming year: infrastructure, internal systems and delivering services to our clients.

Infrastructure

The infrastructure includes all those are things that have to be done to keep the business running smoothly. We are planning a move from NT to XP over the next year and are taking the opportunity to upgrade our document-management system at the same time. This is a very large undertaking for the whole firm. In addition to the technical considerations, all of our global users will have to be trained and many of our templates and standard documents changed.

We will also start rolling-out new technologies such as voice-over IP (meaning that voice, fax and/or voice-messaging applications are transported over the internet, rather than the public switched network). This will give significant cost savings and improve communication across our global network.

Internal systems

We have invested heavily in technology and we must make sure we make the best use of it and that it supports our business processes. One area that we must get to grips with is the matter-centric storage of information. In the past, everything was stored in the matter file – typically an A4 lever-arch file. Today, information relating to a matter is stored in a number of different places and is not always easily accessible; for example, documents are stored in the document management system, e-mails in the fee-earner’s inbox, etc. We have invested in a storage area network and e-mail archiving so that we can securely store all electronic data in a central place that is easily accessible to everyone that needs it.

A central part of our new IT architecture is a CRM (customer-relationship management) system, which will hold centrally, all client and deals information. This information will be available to everyone within the firm and allow us to have a far more co-ordinated approach to marketing and client care.

With more clients requiring round-the-clock access to their legal advisors, our fee-earners require greater flexibility in where they can work. Our strategy is to give them access to all Ashursts’s systems from any web browser, be it at home, hotel, airport lounge, client office, etc. We have already given access to Outlook and we will be extending this to our document management system and know-how.

The use of digital dictation in our London offices has been very successful and we plan to roll it out to all our other offices around the globe.

Clients

The most exciting area for me is how we can better use technology to help deliver our legal capabilities to our clients. We have for some time heard of the merits of electronic data and deal rooms, and client extranets, and we have had some success with them. 2003 will really see them take off. The technology is available, it is becoming cheaper and easier to use, and I believe that lawyers and our clients are beginning to see the benefits it can offer.

The key to providing a good IT service to the firm is to get the business engaged in the IT debate. IT cannot deliver solutions in isolation; it is a team game and all parts of the firm need to be involved. I have a business background and I run IT from a business angle. My job is to provide business solutions to business issues – granted, many (but not all) of the solutions involve the use of technology but the business process surrounding the technology is as important as the technology itself. I have seen too many IT directors fail because they develop superb technical solutions that do not add any value to the business. Little wonder that many management teams see IT as nothing but a cost to the business and a drain on resources.

All IT projects at Ashursts have real business involvement, with partners frequently acting as business sponsors and lawyers sitting on the project teams.

Digital dictation

One area where the legal profession does lead the pack is in the use of digital dictation. There is a great deal of interest in this area. Ashursts has the largest roll-out of digital dictation in the UK.

We now have all 850 fee-earners and secretaries in our London office using digital dictation on a daily basis. The TotalSpeech software package we use, developed by BigHand, is soon to be rolled out globally starting with our European offices. As the first and largest roll-out of this technology in the country, the project has received much attention, and as such, we recently held a discussion evening on the ins and outs of the project so other law firms, large or small, could learn from our experience.

Each law firm has its own targets and requirements when bringing in a totally new technology. Ashursts’s approach to digital dictation is by no means the only way to assess and manage such a project – but what we have learnt is that the latest generation of digital dictation technology is reliable and flexible enough to operate on a number of levels depending on initial objectives. Whether you simply have the replacement of analogue equipment in mind or radical cultural changes on your agenda, a move to digital dictation should be explored.

The firm

Ashursts first looked at digital dictation when we were introduced to BigHand over two years ago. Like many firms at that time, speech recognition was still our main focus in terms of speech technology, but BigHand had recognised quite early on that digital dictation also had a great deal to offer. We agreed that it would be worthwhile looking at both technologies.

We ended coming out of that joint pilot refocusing on digital dictation, while retaining an interest in speech recognition on a limited basis. It was clear from the results that digital dictation was popular, easy to use and beneficial to the firm, and that speech recognition was right for some people with a very distinct need.

After the pilot, digital dictation really came up trumps, as there was no real criticism and a lot of clear advantages. Training is minimal, the quality of the recording is excellent and there is flexibility in the workflow.

In terms of a business case, we identified that we could justify the roll-out expenditure on digital dictation because it would provide us with:

Medium-term cost savings;
Greater efficiency;
Greater flexibility.

In fact, over five years we will see a positive payback even without taking into account the operational benefits and productivity improvements – so there are certainly weaker business cases than that presented by digital dictation. You only have to save one week, per secretary, per annum in cover costs (sickness cover, holiday cover, etc), and you more than legitimise bringing in the system. As digital dictation has no shelf life, a big factor in our own calculations was simply eradicating the continuous cost of tapes and analogue equipment. It is, however, very much up to the firm in question, and if you want to be a bit more radical then there are some good potential savings.

As an IT director, I must always look for more efficient ways of organising and operating our business and, as far as I am concerned, digital dictation is a tool that enables us to do that. It also ensures that we are making the most of the computer equipment we supply to all staff. Surely moving all our systems onto the network has to be the most efficient way of going forward?

The users

When a technology offers such positive organisational benefits, it is easy to forget who the system is actually aimed at. Every fee-earner and secretary in the firm now relies on digital dictation every day, so user opinion was at the crux of any roll-out decision.

It is worth noting that moving to digital dictation is initially quite a cultural change for users and it is prudent to pave the way for them from the very beginning. First, we announced the pilot and the reasons for it in a weekly newsletter, emphasising that simple efficiency was the motivation and that digital dictation was aimed at helping secretaries as well as fee-earners. We emphasised that it is not speech recognition.

We also presented to the whole of the department due to get the system first (real estate), while answering queries or concerns. After this there was no need for further sessions as word of mouth completely took over. Due to its simplicity and flexibility the system began to sell itself. As one of our partners describes: “We expect a system, as fee-earners, that is extremely simple, easy to use and flexible. This may sound like heresy but I’m not terribly interested in how it works, I’m interested in if it does work. It is just as easy for me to use digital dictation at home, or at the office, as it is to use a tape-based system, and the flexibility that goes with it is fantastic. Flexibility and simplicity is key.”

We have recently sought feedback from other users of digital dictation. Comments received included:

It organises solicitors more. On-screen work in progress allows a fee-earner to keep track of each dictation that has gone to a secretary. With every matter now clearly identified, there are no delays because a tape or particular dictation goes missing;
You can prioritise individual dictations, which are now split up rather than all sitting on one tape together, encouraging quicker turnaround of documents;
You can edit and insert within the dictation easily;
Remote use is an advantage and it is now easy to work from home;
Time saving – it encourages fee-earners to dictate a bit more because it is so easy and quick to use, leaving more of their time for fee-earning work;
RSI sufferers – the system helps them as well.

In addition, and equally as important, were the views of our secretaries, as they use the system more extensively than any other group. It was a pleasant surprise to see quite how popular digital dictation

has proved with this group. One secretarial team co-ordinator commented: “It has helped secretaries to help each other, especially in the corporate department when there’s been a deal on. We all know that it is easier to get things done quickly if you pull together as a team and, when there’s loads of stuff to be done, digital dictation works brilliantly.”

There is no doubt that increases in teamwork like this is something that will filter through to our client service. The secretarial team co-ordinater also garnered opinion from other secretaries across our company department. Among points to come back were:

The sound quality is far superior to tapes, allowing quicker transcription and less mistakes;
It is easier to control your own workload;
Time management has improved through being able to see the length of a dictation, which is particularly useful before lunch breaks and towards the end of the day;
It is very user friendly;
It promotes teamwork and can improve relationships with fee-earners.

The technical overview

My first thought when assessing digital dictation from a logistics point of view was one of horror. All these voice files flying about the network – what was the impact going to be? I think it is fair to say that this concern is really unjustified. The way that the files are compressed means that network traffic is really not an issue for us.

Another consideration was server capacity. On the pilot, we ran digital dictation on our local server, with no special requirements, and we have now moved up to a single-server environment. Again, nothing out of the ordinary is required, a dual Pentium III 800 MHZ, 100GB disk, 1GB Ram. Server wise, it is as simple a system to integrate as it is to use.

The other main consideration was the number of devices we were attaching to the software. We had a variety of desktops, laptops, etc, and we had to consider how it was going to work on each device. The good thing is digital dictation has minimal requirements in terms of processing power on the client machine, yet another advantage it has over speech recognition.

As with any roll out, there were also training and support issues involved. But in many ways, if you get the training right, there is less support required – education is the key. Another positive is that digital dictation is easy to use. We had a team of four to five IT people on the project during the major part of the roll-out, all training, supporting and resolving technical issues. However, most calls were from people just getting used to the system, regarding things like the new handsets that were required. Enquiries have now tailed off to such a degree that the number of people supporting digital dictation is down to less than one full-time equivalent for 850 users. Not bad considering everyone uses it daily.

We did have one or two minor teething problems along the way, as you would expect when working with a new technology. For example, on one occasion some secretaries reported that the dictations were clipping at the end of the playback. We discovered that some fee-earners had become used to analogue tapes carrying on for a second after they had hit the button. Digital dictation is so precise it was stopping immediately and cutting off a split second of their recording. We decided with BigHand that the application had to take account of human nature, so they programmed a “free-wheel” option into the software that combats this dictation quirk. This just underlines the importance of running a proper pilot, as well as having open access to the developer of the software.

The future

We will increasingly look to use the digital-dictation system to its maximum potential, in terms of moving work around the organisation and monitoring performance. We have the core functions working very well and we will now work to better utilise the flexibility that the system provides.

Starting with Europe, we are about to begin rolling-out digital dictation to our offices around the globe, which opens up the possibility of 24-hour, English-speaking secretarial support for international offices. If solicitors working abroad are busy or working late, they could dictate to a pool in London and the secretaries could have the document back to them before they return to the office the next morning.

We will also want to expand on the remote use of digital dictation as our whole IT strategy is based upon allowing our fee-earners to work from wherever they are in the world, be it an overseas office, a hotel, or their home, whatever the time. We are opening up our document-management system for that end and digital dictation is part of that initiative too.

One thing is certain: we can look forward to a very busy, challenging and exciting year ahead.

Chris White is global information technology director for Ashurst Morris Crisp. He can be contacted at chris.white@ashursts.com..