Background
Founded in 1888, MJ O’Connor Solicitors LLP is one of the longest-established legal firms in Ireland. It is a very busy firm with offices in Wexford and Cobh and a team that prides itself on its dedication to clients and issues in every aspect of corporate and personal law. This case study takes the form of an interview with Brid O’Leary, partner in the firm.
How did you hear about Keyhouse?
I had always known of Keyhouse and was aware of their reputation in the marketplace from colleagues, but we only started to seriously look at Keyhouse and consider in investing in a new practice management system in early 2020 to help manage the growth of our business.
As a firm we are acutely aware of the importance of a good practice management system in order to save time and work more efficiently and thereby offer our clients a better service.
What were you looking to achieve by working with Keyhouse?
As a growing firm with plans to expand further, we were looking for a provider that we could work with in partnership. The actual technology was, of course, important but from a disappointing previous experience with another supplier, support and engagement was critical. We had to feel confident that the support and back up was there for the whole team as and when needed. We also wanted to work with Keyhouse as we felt they would help the firm adapt and evolve with the ever-changing legal landscape.
Challenges
What were the original reasons for investing in a new system?
Our legacy system, whilst it was doing the basics in terms of file management, would not help us move to the next level. For us that meant having the facility to easily implement workflows with automatic document generation. Again, as a growing firm, we felt this was necessary to streamline work and enhance productivity, thereby providing a better, more value-added service to our clients.
With our previous system, there were also issues around lack of support and a sense of general disengagement from the supplier. We wanted a provider based here in Ireland with real people on the ground and a voice at the other end of the phone, which we knew Keyhouse were well known for.
What were your biggest challenges before investing in Keyhouse?
The overall reputation they have in the market is second to none, and particularly for support which was a key factor in our decision. In addition, it was very clear from early on how closely Keyhouse worked with clients and what the actual system offered, functionality wise. As a firm, we strongly believe in building strong relationships with expert partners to ensure we get the most from our investment, and we are confident that with Keyhouse we will.
About the product itself, the complete integration with MS Outlook was a star attraction as was the facility to easily develop workflows and/or amend the standard suite provided with the system (although we have yet to do this, but we have only been live for two months).
How was your experience with migrating the data from your old system?
Naturally, we were concerned over how the documents and accounts ledgers would migrate over. For Keyhouse, this was just a technical challenge, but it was a major concern of ours. The integrity of our client data underpins everything we do, and the migration was necessary to ensure the firm had continued access to all of the historical data together with accounts ledger.
Although all these services were provided remotely, it went off with barely a challenge. What helped a great deal with this was the time allocated for us to test the system and compare files in Keyhouse with our old system. This also helped us become more familiar with the system before going live. The assistance given by the Keyhouse project team with this and their responsiveness when tweaks were needed was invaluable. We had a huge fear around the data migration and were very relieved to see all our client data in its rightful place in Keyhouse.
Do you feel Keyhouse understands your business?
Yes absolutely, the team behind Keyhouse from sales, account management, project management and developers are all very experienced which gives them a good understanding of the legal market and, importantly, our specific challenges as a law firm.
How would you describe the support and training provided by Keyhouse?
Fantastic – the responsiveness of the team is excellent. With COVID-19, all training was provided remotely which we found much to our surprise very effective. Their trainers are very knowledgeable and send recordings afterwards which are great as you can refer to as and when needed. I know they are also hoping to get back out on site when restrictions ease and more of the population are vaccinated and provide more individual or role-based training if we feel it is needed. There is always someone available at the end of the phone or an email – that was clear from the beginning and continues to be.
How has your journey with Keyhouse been so far?
Although we have only been using Keyhouse for two months now, we are very happy with our journey so far. The data migration and training were seamless given the backdrop of the pandemic as everything had to be done remotely which was an added challenge on top of everything else that comes with bringing in a new system.
In addition to the data conversion, we had huge concerns over the disruption a new system would bring in the midst of one of our busiest times ever. This however was needless as downtime was minimal (three hours on a Monday morning I think, as the data conversion was done over a weekend). All the team here started using the system straight away and adapted really quickly which was helped by its intuitive Microsoft Office look and feel along with its user friendliness.
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