Ten Old Square’s successful transition to Microsoft Azure and 365 with Advanced
Moving MLC to Microsoft Azure and 365 delivered improved security and collaboration
About Ten Old Square
Ten Old Square is an award-winning set of Chancery barristers’ who continue to be ranked highly in all the leading legal directories year after year. This set of Chambers contains some of the finest and brightest practitioners, with talented barristers working for those who need legal representation and require expert advice of the very highest calibre.
This set of Chambers have used MLC for many years. Recently, we spoke with their Senior Clerk, Keith Plowman, about his experience, and the benefits gained, from a change in system platforms.
Their Advanced experience
Recently, Ten Old Square moved from a hosted environment to Microsoft Azure and 365. Keith spoke about their experience during the move:
“The implementation went very smoothly. The MLC team supported us at every stage and ensured everything progressed well. Inevitably, there were one or two hiccups but when we reached a hurdle, Advanced sorted any issues quickly.”
Keith explained the benefits that the move to Azure and 365 has delivered:
“We’ve gained several advantages, including improved security. We’re much more confident logging into the Azure environment using multi factor authentication. Previously, people were working in their own way, and we couldn’t be sure they were using the correct security protocols to log in and protect the data they control. Now they have no choice.”
“Everyone now has the latest versions of Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams. The requirement to use the Chambers’ version of Microsoft 365 Premium to access emails has meant that everyone is working in the same environment and that’s made hybrid and remote working much safer. Even when not in Chambers, you still feel connected to everyone and have everything you need to hand – including diaries, fees, case files, or documents. Barristers no longer work in isolation; they can communicate with a clerk through their laptop or phone. Everything can be accessed and monitored centrally.”
Keith Plowman, Senior Clerk, Ten Old Square: “I think it’s important to stress just how good the Advanced team were in helping us through this process. They knew what they were doing and any queries we had were addressed immediately.”
Any other key advantages you’ve gained?
“We’ve moved all of our committees, minutes and notes to Microsoft Teams, setting up various teams for different areas, and removing the organisational burden from our barristers. This has allowed us to provide our clients with an even better, seamless professional service.”
Why would you recommend MLC to other Chambers?
I don’t have an IT manager in Chambers or a systems administrator I can blame when things go wrong. The system works well and the backup I get from the Advanced support team and system developers has been fantastic. It helps that they have some former clerks in there, so they know the pressures that we’re under.
What’s next?
A move to OneDrive. The functionality of our current file sharing software is a little bit jittery, and it just makes sense to adopt OneDrive as it’s a part of our current Microsoft suite. When we make the move, current issues will be resolved.
