Berwins is a medium-sized law firm based in Harrogate and Leeds offering a full spectrum of legal services, including specialist areas such as digital law. With this in mind, Berwins is always on the lookout for new technology to assist with their business processes. To help drive efficiencies, the firm have rolled out BigHand Workflow Management to a total of 45 staff members.

Previously, the firm were using shared inboxes to delegate work. Michelle Crowhurst, Associate Director and driver of the BigHand project at Berwins, elaborated. "A task would be sent to the team inbox, and one of the legal assistants would pick it up, replying to everyone ‘I’ll deal with this.’ This process led to an unequal distribution of work, and a manual and time-consuming process of tracking the progress of each task.

"Having looked into different options, BigHand Workflow Management was exactly the technology needed to overcome these issues.’

With BigHand Workflow Management, tasks can be created quickly and easily by completing a pre-configured form and attaching any accompanying files. Once in the workflow, tasks can be assigned to a specific team or team member for processing and monitored through to completion. This makes managing workloads easy by being able to view all tasks in one centralised list.

The implementation process was seamless, with the Residential Property team first up to try it out, followed by the Commercial team. Michelle continues; ‘The form designer is so simple and intuitive, anyone can use it. We’ve had great user adoption rates, with the Residential Property team already having set up many different form requests ranging from new file requests, to redemptions and quotation requirements.’

Berwins are not only using the technology to allow Fee Earners to send tasks effortlessly to the Legal Assistants. They've also ensured the work is sent back up the reporting line for complex enquiries that come into the business. With this 360-degree process in place, Berwins can have confidence that work will be completed on time and by the right person.

The next step for Berwins will be to roll-out the software to their Operations team, which will then enable full inter-departmental use of BigHand Workflow Management, enabling the firm to experience it’s maximum benefits.

Michelle concludes: "With BigHand Workflow Management, staff are fully accountable for tasks, and it enables us to allocate work appropriately to ensure cases move forward as smoothly as possible giving our clients a positive experience with speedy levels of service. I’ve already recommended BigHand, I love how easy the technology is to use, and what a big difference it is making to our firm."