McCarthy Tétrault invests in its people and technology — demonstrated by their implementation of iManage Closing Folders legal transaction management solution in 2017. So, when the firm's document management solution created performance issues that hindered productivity, they responded by rolling out iManage Work 10 in the Cloud and iManage Insight to address the issue. Lawyers now employ faster searches in an intuitive user interface, saving time that allows them to focus on more innovative legal practices. The client service team can prioritize delivering industry-leading client services. And, with the addition of iManage Threat Manager, the firm has greater insight into behavioral analytics, which is key for data loss prevention.
The challenge
Performance issues hinder productivity
McCarthy Tétrault defined five strategic initiatives in order to deliver the best outcomes for clients. At their core, these initiatives required fast, secure access to all client documents from anywhere, so the firm knew that they needed to replace their legacy document management system to meet their goals.
“Our existing solution had performance issues that made it difficult for staff working remotely to access everything they needed, but staff in the office also found it challenging to navigate and were frustrated with how long it took to perform searches,” explains Kathleen Hogan, Senior Director, Knowledge and Data Insights at McCarthy Tétrault.
In addition, the existing process of saving emails was time consuming and lacked consistency. This presented another hurdle for the firm's staff who were trying to gather comprehensive information relating to a matter, because key details were often contained in those emails.
“We had different naming conventions between different teams, which was causing additional complexity,” said Hogan. “We needed a more consistent approach to document management across the whole enterprise.”
The solution
Creating excitement around a central work management platform
The firm wanted a cloud-first solution, and Hogan had used iManage for document management in previous roles. She liked its powerful search and intuitive user interface. McCarthy Tétrault was also impressed with the dedication shown by the iManage team and the company’s corporate values of investing in innovation and people, which align with their own.
“iManage is a great partner to us. The team brings a fresh perspective and will proactively advise us on design changes or enhancements. That’s the kind of relationship we want, not someone who lets us take unnecessary risks or is too scared to tell us we’ve made a bad decision,” Hogan remarked.
The benefits
Making people happier
“Our goal was to make people happier, and we’ve absolutely achieved that with iManage,” says Hogan. She adds that performance issues are a thing of the past and users have consistent access to highly available data from anywhere. Staff are more efficient than ever and lawyers are keeping more comprehensive records, which has streamlined collaboration and accelerated the pace of work overall.
Using iManage Threat Manager to monitor user adoption and compliance gives the team greater insight into behavioral analytics, which is key for data loss prevention.
“We established baselines, and we’re alerted to any unusual behavior or risks that sit outside of those parameters. It has increased security and compliance across our whole environment,” shared Matthew Peters, National Innovation Lead at McCarthy Tétrault.
Looking ahead
“Our legacy system took up a huge amount of time and resources just to keep the lights on. Now, we can get more value from our IT team and leverage data analytics to make changes with the greatest impact on productivity,” Hogan concluded.
