Osborne Clarke Implements BigHand Now and BigHand Capacity Manager

UK News

24
Jan
2017

Editor

As part of an initiative to increase efficiency across the business

Osborne Clarke, a leading international law firm, is implementing BigHand Now and BigHand Capacity Manager as part of an initiative to increase efficiency across the business and foster a ‘right work to the right place’ approach.

Debbie Baker, Business Support Manager at Osborne Clarke, explains, “As a firm, it’s very important that we are operating as effectively and efficiently as possible. We recognised that there were improvements we could make in how tasks were being assigned, managed and executed throughout the business. We also knew that with additional insight, we could make sure that the right work gets done by the right people while also encouraging a natural change to our internal workflows. Not only will this have a positive impact on our business, it will drive efficiencies that will positively impact our client service provision.”

BigHand Now allows firms to directly create tasks as fully auditable, digital workflow entries, and replaces the need for voice, email, electronic or paper-based requests. By completing a pre-configured digital form and attaching any accompanying files, Osborne Clarke’s fee earners, senior PA’s and assigned members of the secretarial teams can create tasks quickly and easily.

In addition, the analytics within BigHand Now, combined with the central visibility BigHand Capacity Manager provides, are enabling Osborne Clarke to better understand the nature of the work being delegated and ensure this is matched correctly to the level of resource.

Debbie explains, “BigHand Capacity Manager is now giving us the central visibility of who is doing what task, making sure that the right staff is doing the right tasks, at the right time, and at a measured cost to the business. We’re able to prioritise and reassign tasks in real time, which has already helped eliminate the build-up that the busy team regularly deal with.”

BigHand has been very well received amongst Osborne Clarke’s Bristol-based Real Estate practice area - which comprises 74 fee earners and PA’s, five Senior PA’s, the Head of PA Services, as well as a Business Support Manager – so much so, that fee earners are requesting new forms to be created on a regular basis and staff across the practice area are actively identifying new areas of deployment and application for the technology.

The firm is currently planning the wider roll out of BigHand Now and BigHand Capacity Manager across the business; when complete, the BigHand technology will be used by 838 staff, including over 474 fee earners, across its three UK offices of London, Bristol and Reading, facilitating efficient and effective business operations.