Maureen Whelton
Managing Partner
Stevenson Whelton MacDonald & Swan LLP
Litigation and Personal Injury
14 lawyers, 15 staff
Toronto, Vaughan, Oakville, & Oshawa, Ontario
Stevensons LLP and MacDonald & Swan LLP were ready to make big changes to their firms. Their ambitious plans included merging and growing their practices to multiple locations. Among many things, this required a complete re-evaluation of their IT. Four offices spread across central Ontario required a robust, reliable system that could be easily and consistently employed across locations. They needed IT that empowered their newly formed firm to grow and prosper, and at the same time, not break the bank at a crucial time in their evolution.
The Challenge
“With an on-site system, we couldn’t have grown into the firm we wanted to be.”
According to Maureen Whelton, choosing the right technology was “critically important to our practice” to be able to achieve the success the firm can now boast. The challenge was that scaling up with in-house systems for each of their four offices would have a prohibitive price tag attached. With the financial commitments necessary to achieve their ambitions, the firm needed a system that would not drain their resources. The predictable, monthly costs of Private Cloud were a big attraction to the firm. In addition, their IT solution needed to be of the highest quality, and include expert, legal tech support so that the burden of managing IT would not longer be their responsibility, and in-house IT support costs could be eliminated.
A Five-star System
“Wherever you sit, it's like you're sitting at your desk – it works flawlessly”
So, after ruling out expensive onsite systems, the firm turned to the Private Cloud. Maureen appreciated that the key benefit of a professionally-managed, high-tech cloud system meant that they could afford a superior system without having to invest in the latest servers and onsite management. By choosing LexCloud.ca, the firm could eschew the hassle of managing IT, putting that valuable energy toward achieving their ambitious growth.
“I can't speak highly enough of it. It is an incredible system.”
Empowering growth
Maureen credits Private Cloud with helping the firm become what it is today, “we could not do what we do, we would not be the firm that we've been able to grow into, without the cloud technology that we have.”
They needed a system that allows lawyers and staff to easily communicate and collaborate, working consistently no matter what office or off-site location they work in on a given day. Maureen can’t say enough about the benefits her firm experiences on a daily basis with Private Cloud. “It has far exceeded my expectations and, frankly, I had high expectations. There is no difference between sitting at my computer, sitting at my computer at home, sitting at a computer in a hotel. To me, it is different than anything that we had in the past.”
Streamlined costs
With onsite IT, you must attempt to predict the capacity the firm will need over many years. This basically guarantees that firms have to over-buy capacity up front, placing a financial burden on the firm.
With a monthly fee based on usage, the firm’s new cloud system allows the firm to scale easily and quickly – they pay only for the capacity they use. Scaling up our down is accomplished with a predictable financial result. Private Cloud costs are streamlined and allow accurate budgetary planning. “It's surprising how streamlined it’s become. Our model pre-LexCloud was the server onsite, paying a yearly fee for the server over many years. With LexCloud’s monthly fee, you can predict the cost on not only a yearly basis, but even three to five years into the future.”
“They're very good people; they know what they're doing and they want to do it well”
Trusted IT partners
The respect and trust that Maureen talks about when she describes the firm’s professional relationship with LexCloud speaks to a mutual sense of partnership between the two organisations. “From our perspective, it's like they're members of our team. The leadership of LexCloud is very service-oriented, very professional, and the quality of the product they're delivering is extremely important to them. A company tends to develop a personality and I think that personality comes from leadership hiring like-minded people. And LexCloud does that.”
Learn how the capabilities of Private Cloud can benefit your law firm.
The Result
Today, the firm’s many locations are going strong, thanks in part to the cloud technology that empowered them to grow and change when and how they needed to, without the burden of capital investment in onsite IT. With the easy and cost-effective scalability of the Private Cloud, the firm is set to continue to grow, on their terms.
For a free consultation on your firm's legal IT needs, please contact us today!
