The impetus for the project came from the firm’s need to rationalise both the look and feel of its document templates, and the processes for how these were managed internally. Previously, templates were stored in disparate folders without any quality control around the introduction of new templates, the updating of current ones or the eventual retirement of any surplus. The templates themselves also had inconsistencies in house style and were therefore difficult to format.

Kathy Robertson, IT Skills Developer at Napthens comments; “With the new BigHand technology in place our legal support team can create professional documents quickly and easily that are consistent with our house styling. The changes to our internal support structure would not have received the comprehensive buy-in throughout the firm without BigHand Styling Tools helping to make much of the difficult functionality in Word far simpler.” As part of the document creation workflow, BigHand Metadata Management will also allow users to effortlessly view and remove sensitive metadata from their documents, protecting the firm against potential data leaks.

Kathy continues, “BigHand have taken the time to really understand our business needs and have worked with us to ensure a smooth implementation. We have received extremely positive feedback so far, it’s the most excited I have seen people be towards new technology in a long time.” A thorough training programme for the support staff has been devised. After a BigHand Styling Tools training session, one user, who had no prior knowledge of ‘Styles’ in Word, said ‘it’s opened my eyes to how technical the formatting of a Word document can be, and how easy BigHand makes it.”

The support function now use BigHand Document Creation to easily produce professional documents which adhere to their internal template guidelines and are of a consistently high standard.  They also have access to the same tools no matter where they are working from. Those with administrative rights are able to govern all settings and distribute functionality from a central point, to staff either on a global, departmental or even individual basis.

Simon Ainsworth, Partner and Chief Operating Officer says, “At Napthens, we pride ourselves on our forward-thinking approach to technology adoption, not only to ensure we maintain a high-quality service, but also as an enabler for future business growth, and to retain a competitive edge in the market. BigHand’s solutions have helped us achieve a first-class document production function, which in turn, guarantees we deliver a consistent first-class service to our clients.”