DWF is one of the largest law firms in north west England, with more than 1,200 staff at offices in Preston, Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds. But success and rapid growth was putting its IT systems under severe strain.

When Phil Whitehead was appointed DWF’s IT Director he commissioned a review of systems, resulting in a planned large scale upgrade of technology to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

He said, "When I joined DWF the firm had over 30 IT staff trying to manage an IT infrastructure built around 44 servers. It was an all too common situation – everyone seemed to be involved in resolving IT issues."

At that time the firm was running Novell and GroupWise, which was proving highly problematic. "It was apparent that a complete IT overhaul was required, so I approached a few suppliers for a suggested solution. Having worked with Circle IT in my previous company, their experience and expertise was a known quantity and I didn’t hesitate in using them again."

A complete IT overhaul presented severe logistical challenges, and Circle IT was the only supplier to propose a phased approach. To ensure easier integration of existing applications and planned system developments Circle IT provided project management, consultancy and technical expertise. DWF’s entire infrastructure was switched from Novell 5 and GroupWise 5 to Microsoft Windows 2003 and an Exchange 2003 server platform.

With implementation phased over six weeks, Circle IT ensured that the migration of more than 700 PCs was carried out smoothly by ‘ghosting’ desktops to a standard configuration running Windows XP Pro, Office 2003, case/practice management applications and standard office applications were fully integrated into the new system, which means that in-house IT support staff are now able to control and manage the firm’s IT resources more effectively.

"Previously, not only did we have 30 in house staff, we were also paying for a support contract with an external supplier," said Phil Whitehead. "Our new infrastructure is so much easier to manage: we’ve literally been able to cut our internal IT resource down to 18 staff and reduce support costs by at least 40 per cent.