Drowning in data that could not legally leave the country, this is the story of how a 76-year old law firm defied their legal peers by choosing to embrace the future of large file transfer.
The legal industry is understandably coy about transitioning to digital technologies, but Peters & Peters IT manager Brian McDonald saw an opportunity to save a bundle of money, improve security and take the strain off his department with a simple solution to data transfer.
Peters & Peters is a City-based law firm with 45 lawyers and 85 employees in total. It has been practicing for 76 years in the realms of financial regulation, litigation and fraud and boasts a large client base from individuals to multi-nationals, governments and regulatory bodies.
The law is a data-heavy industry and for all firms in the legal sector, demand has increased in the last five or ten years for services able to move information quickly and safely. But it has been slow to embrace digital technologies and for a long time ferried packets around using recorded deliveries and trusted couriers.
But in a sector where information is vital to keeping the cogs whirring, this status quo could only last so long and, gradually, forward-thinking firms have sought secure and convenient ways to work smarter using digital channels.
“We have a lot of demand when it comes to data transfer. At the lower end, our solicitors constantly need to exchange sensitive files with clients and third parties, going up to huge case files made up of hundreds of individual documents,” says Brian McDonald, IT manager at Peters & Peters.
Mr McDonald was the driving force behind the firm’s transition to digital and introduced Maytech to the partners more than two years ago, partly to speed up the old outdated courier system and partly to increase the security of data-in-transit.
His ‘Eureka moment’ was actually a long and drawn out accumulation of data tasks which put increasing pressure on his department. It came after large numbers of requests for files to be loaded onto CDs and DVDs became too much to handle. He needed an efficient solution that put people’s data in their own hands.
“We needed an easy-to-use way of transferring large quantities of data-heavy files to the various bodies that we liaise with, not least our clients. Over the years this has become more paramount to the needs of the business,” he says.
“It’s very simple to use on both sides of the equation: the initial set-up and the process of sending large files,” he says. “Previously we’d have to get the files onto a USB stick or a CD, which would have to be encrypted and sent by courier.”
“Maytech lets us create packages and send them to destinations in the blink of an eye, allowing us to maintain integrity of the file structure. In other words, you don’t have to repackage the file or chop it up in order to send it on.”
The Peters & Peters team had researched the market thoroughly and decided on Maytech for a number of reasons, one of which was its data hub in the UK (as well as New York, Hong Kong, Sydney and Dubai – customers can pick which they want). The firm is legally prevented from storing data outside the UK, making data residency essential.
For Mr McDonald, the main benefits of a professional data-transfer service are security, simplicity and speed. But there are also significant savings totalling thousands of pounds to be had.
Estimating the bottom-line benefits this has to the business, Mr McDonald says: “Moreover, the savings on client bills, fee earner time and IT hardware procurement amounts to about 70% each year.”
The pricing structure fitted the business’ approach and the offer of a demo meant senior executives could see the software in operation before committing to a purchase. The firm went with FTP-Stream and InstantShare for its ease of use and vast security credentials.
“We wanted to be able to offer the easiest-possible solution which put control in the hands of end-users here,” explains Mr McDonald. “It’s just simple because it’s basically like sending an email but there’s a lot of security and tracking behind it too.”
Today, saving money hand-over-fist and able to concentrate on core-IT tasks, he no longer has to worry about rogue compact disks and expensive couriers. Thanks to Maytech, these concerns are a thing of the past.
Call Maytech today to implement a solution for moving your company’s sensitive data.
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