Matthew & Matthew Solicitors is a well known and trusted Dorset based legal firm who offer conveyancing, private client and other specialist legal services to the local area. However, the company had come to see technology as a barrier to their business, with problems of scalability, security and, more recently, the desire to future proof the technology utilised.

The dilemma for Matthew & Matthew, and one that will resonate with many businesses, is the ability to utilise technology to enhance the client experience, whilst creating a secure, scalable and cost-effective environment that works for employees too.

Adopting Infrastructure as a Service, or IAAS, has removed these challenges, allowing Matthew & Matthew to get on with the day job. “People make and maintain relationships, whilst technology assists them to simplify and create smart ways for the team to work together.” says Emma King, Director.

Matthew & Matthew has a 28-person operation in Southbourne, Bournemouth, Dorset.  The brief given to Sentinel was to migrate employees from unmanaged devices to Sentinel’s cloud platform based in Ringwood, Hampshire. The focus was on creating a flexible work environment and ensuring that security and compliance with GDPR regulation was maintained.

This flexibility allows top tear management to work remotely yet securely. Matthew & Matthew employees can service clients and cases throughout the day, without the worry of GDPR compliance. “We need to give our staff the ability to do their jobs, but without concerns over clunky technology or security”, explains Emma. “Sentinel managed the migration to the new platform seamlessly, while maintaining familiarity of the users’ current systems and minimizing the impact on our day to day business.Their technicians were with us every step of the way. We really couldn’t be happier with their service and would recommend Sentinel to any business”

Initially working with Matthew & Matthew consultatively, it quickly became apparent that Sentinel’s services were a great fit for the size and shape of the project. With this in mind, Matthew & Matthew was extremely keen to engage with Sentinel to design and deploy the solution. “Sentinel offers a best in class IT solution for businesses of our size in terms of strategy, infrastructure and products,” says David Webb, Director. “Clearly there is a benefit in terms of economies of scale, but we also looked at other ways we could leverage our relationship with Sentinel by outsourcing things like hardware and telephony supply. We found we spent a lot of time managing the supply, maintenance and management of workforce hardware. Sentinel were able to take on these tasks, adding further value to the relationship. We see Sentinel as our own IT Department.”

Much of the project integration was user-focused; Sentinel spent time with the business delivering training and making sure that they were able to not only use the new platform, but more importantly use it well and work smarter. “When you give your staff the right technology, you’ll leverage more opportunities as a business,” says David, “Whatever case or client our teams are working on we can provide the same great service as always, but we can now do it unhindered by technology.”

“This has further enabled the company’s disaster recovery plan allowing all employees to work remotely if required“

“We believe in people going farther and that applies, both to what we do for our clients and, for our own team,” concludes David. “Working with Sentinel as a partner, we’re building value together. We’re using technology that just works.”