Great Client Partnership Leads To Robust Cloud Solution

Ward Gethin Archer is one of the largest law firms in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, with nine offices across the two counties.

Recommended by one of our existing customers in September 2020, the company made contact to explore options for extending the functionality of their current communication system. They also needed increased flexibility to contend with the need for staff to work securely from home.

The law firm had existing on-premise telephone systems across two sites to service around 130 users. The incumbent system did offer upgrade options, with additional licences for remote workers and hosting. Still, through a process of due diligence, we worked with the team to look at options that offered greater flexibility for a comparative price.

Solution

We proposed two cloud-based telephony options, with Ward Gethin Archer choosing a new Mitel Cloud Hosted product. This choice would also allow them to retain their existing handsets, which could be reprogrammed to the new cloud service.

The decision to move to the cloud service was made in November 2020, allowing all remote workers to use mobile softphones while keeping their office phone numbers intact.

A challenge of this project was the number of sites, with nine offices requiring migration and numerous ranges of numbers to port across to the new system. So, we implemented a staggered go-live plan to minimise any downtime and to manage any migration issues quickly if they occurred.

We were also thrown a curveball in that the law firms’ incumbent SIP trunks were being migrated to a new provider, with their existing service reaching ‘end-of-life’, so the changeover became time-sensitive.

Support

To aid training remotely during Covid-19 lockdowns, we provided bespoke videos for mobile softphone set up and offered online tutorials for user training.

Result

The cloud-based telephony system went live in March 2021, with the nine offices successfully migrating to Mitel Cloud Hosted. We delivered a fully-supported telephone system full of functionality that enables easy management for remote workers. What’s more, by maintaining a Mitel system, the company also managed to retain their existing handset inventory.

Half of the 130+ staff are using the MiCollab Softphone App for flexible and remote working, with iCS reporting for call detail.

The key to the success of this project lay in the partnership that was established at the beginning of the project. Objectively looking at options – both on-premise and cloud-based – we could factor in the needs of the business, both now (during the restrictions that COVID-19 places on businesses) and for future flexibility.