Mills & Reeve implements Sysero’s low-code workflow automation to dramatically improve document creation during cloud migration mega-project
With offices throughout the UK and more than 1,400 staff, Mills & Reeve are one of the UK’s leading full-service law firms. Having made the decision to migrate their DMS to the iManage Cloud, they needed to replace their macro-based template management system with a cloud-based solution that uses the latest web technologies. The implementation of the project which started in March 2023 needed to hit a hard deadline of October 2023 and had to run in parallel with the DMS migration. The goals of the project were to achieve:
- Increased efficiency when producing documents: Mills & Reeve wanted a document production process that amalgamated information from various systems to enable users to quickly produce documents that met the firm’s standards for content and appearance.
- Robustness, performance and flexibility: Mills & Reeve sought a system that would provide greater flexibility than their legacy macro-based system.
- Maintainability: The firm wanted the new system to allow non-technical users to be able to maintain the source content allowing the documents to be easily updated as their needs and the legal landscape changes.
As with all large law firms, Mills & Reeve utilise industry-leading PMS and CRM systems which needed to integrate with the new document production process. As these systems were managed in-house, Sysero needed to work with Mills & Reeve’s Development Manager Nik Louch to create a secure mechanism of communicating between the AWS hosted Sysero Cloud, the Azure hosted iManage Cloud, Microsoft’s Entra ID and systems behind the firewall. Sysero and Nik’s team utilised Sysero’s low-code features to develop a secure REST-based API that provides the firm’s users with an environment where they can select filing locations in (Cloud-based) iManage, add contacts from the CRM system using security integrated with Microsoft Entra.
To provide the most flexible system, Mills & Reeve wanted to be able to instigate document creation from 5 different applications: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, iManage Cloud, Matter Management software and Microsoft SharePoint.
Mills & Reeve spent a considerable amount of time evaluating the market before selecting Sysero. According to Nik, he was impressed, not only with Sysero’s integration potential, but also that fact that documents could be produced from multiple environments using a single template. Each template can also be maintained by in-house staff without the need for coding skills.
Running the document creation project was Mills & Reeve’s Helen Turner who was responsible for coordinating the project with dozens of other sub-projects all with the hard end date of October. As Sysero was to be the jumping-off point for the document creation process, it was vital that the implementation went well. According to Helen: “We all really enjoyed working with the Sysero Team who were extremely knowledgeable and flexible throughout the project”.
Sysero’s iManage expert, Paul Upton created 30 workflows that not only produce customised documents in real-time, but also respond to the users’ environment. “We were asked to create templates that could create documents in iManage as well as being re-directed into SharePoint under certain circumstances,” Paul explained. “We also had to allow the workflow to be aware of the status of the iManage server to allow users to save documents locally should the DMS ever become unavailable.”
Paul worked extensively with Head of Legal Technology Emma Jackson to ensure that the functionality met the expectations of the firm. Although Mills & Reeve had been using templates for many years, the process was re-evaluated to ensure it was as efficient as possible. Whilst working with Paul, Emma said: “Paul has taught me how Sysero works allowing me to create new templates myself that handle variations of the same document. The questionnaires react depending on how users answer questions ensuring that they are only offered choices relevant to their situation. We are now relatively self-sufficient and can create templates without help which is great as we wish to add more automations over time as we expand the team”.
As part of the project Sysero designed a number of new features to help larger law firms implement document-based workflows. One of these is now called “Smart Clauses” which is now in use by Mills & Reeve to maintain an automated staff list which includes full details and a photograph of each member of staff. This list is populated directly from Active Directory ensuring the employee details are correct. Details of staff can be added at the click of a button to any relevant document but automatically appear in the HR and Marketing documents where needed.
After several months of full-time use by 1,000+ active staff members, Mills & Reeve have shown the potential benefits of migrating from a macro-based to a cloud-based document production system. The success of this migration underscores the importance of selecting a system that is not only robust and reliable but also user-friendly and flexible. With the right system and a well-planned migration process, law firms can significantly enhance their template management processes, ultimately leading to improved efficiency and productivity.
