Lancashire-based Napthens LLP Solicitors has placed an £80,000 order with Solicitors Own Software to standardise on SOS Connect for integrated case and practice management across its five branches. Napthens expects to drive new efficiencies and improve working practices by replacing legacy case management systems inherited from the three mergers that the firm has experienced over the last two years.

Napthens provides a wide range of legal services to clients in the central Lancashire area with revenues equally divided between business and private clients. Offices are located in Preston, Chorley, Blackburn, Blackpool and Longridge where 200 people are employed. The law firm has used SOS Practice Manager for accounts since 2001. With each of the three mergers, partners re-assessed the other accounting systems in use – including Axxia and Eclipse, before deciding to standardise on SOS for accounts. With this latest order, that decision has now been extended to replace the diverse legacy case management systems with SOS Connect.

“With SOS Connect, we can run personal injury, conveyancing and probate through a single case management solution. Together with the tight integration with the SOS accounts, we expect Connect to deliver a more streamlined and economic operation to the business, but equally importantly, a much better way of delivering our service to our clients,” says Robert Kipling, head of operations at Napthens.

An example of this is the simplified integration of email. SOS Connect enables emails to be created and sent from within the matter without exiting the system and for received emails to be automatically linked back to the matter in one electronic record. Another example is the ability to present performance information back to fee earners, based on key performance indicators (KPIs), which is seen to be as beneficial as automating time recording itself.

The overall flexibility of SOS systems to meet Napthen’s complete needs was a major factor in the decision to rationalise IT throughout the firm. Customer service, however, was also a key decider, as Robert Kipling comments: “We know that we receive a very quick response from SOS when we need support and that was also a significant part of our decision-making.”