Hesketh Henry Judges Elite 3E as Best Fit for Firms Operating in International Market Place

June 2008: Hesketh Henry, one of New Zealand’s oldest law firms, has become the first in the country to select Elite’s next generation financial and practice management system, Elite 3E.

A key factor in the firm’s decision to choose 3E was the global appeal of the product, says Hesketh Henry’s General Manager, Justin Cox. Since its launch in 2006, Elite 3E has been sold to around 70 law firms across North America, Europe, United Kingdom and Asia Pacific.

"Our key requirement was to select a sophisticated solution that had been sold successfully overseas. Domestic products are not suitable to a firm of our size and for the market we operate in. We believe Elite 3E is perfectly suited to the type of international business we want to embrace."

Cox says the firm is constantly looking at ways to increase productivity and lower costs to clients. "Streamlining legal processes is key to delivering on that promise and Elite 3E will help us in this regard." The firm’s managing partner, Erich Bachmann, fully endorses this approach as it is consistent with Hesketh Henry’s stated objective of delivering unrivalled value in the relationships that it builds with clients.

Hesketh Henry is a full service commercial firm representing some of New Zealand’s best known companies, as well as a number of well known multinationals. It employs specialists across almost all aspects of commercial law including mergers and acquisitions, civil litigation and dispute resolution, commercial property, corporate and commercial law, employment, IT, IP, resource management and environmental law and telecommunications. While firmly focused on the Auckland market, the firm transacts business with a global client base across Asia, Europe and the US.

Cox says Elite 3E is built using the latest software technologies and as a result it can adapt to the firm’s business practices without the need for customisation.

“We were adamant that we wanted a software system that did all we asked of it out of the box. Elite 3E is an extremely flexible solution which we will be able to leverage to full advantage using our existing business infrastructure. Hesketh Henry has always sought to align its internal business procedures as closely as possible to its client facing services and Elite 3E will provide further advantage in this area.”

Hesketh Henry is one of the largest law firms in Auckland and is also one of the country’s fastest growing. Last year the firm increased revenues by 16 percent against an industry average of nine percent. Lawyer numbers increased from 55 to 70.

Selecting a system that could be configured to accommodate both large and small clients was an essential prerequisite for the purchase, Cox says.

“We like to deliver a customised legal solution to each of our clients and we needed a product that, through its flexible business rules, was capable of enabling that process. We are very impressed with the workflow capabilities of 3E and believe it will be able to provide more active support to our lawyers as they begin their engagement with the client.”

Cox says, traditionally, practice management systems have not been successful at recognising the business rules that assist the process of lawyer client engagement, with most systems only modeling the process once it has taken place.

“I want to try and make sure that any conditions that need to be met prior to the lawyer client engagement are built into the system so they can guide the lawyer along that path. I believe the workflow capabilities of 3E will allow us to create that type of conditional logic.”

This capacity is made possible by Elite 3E’s rapid application development functionality which allows firms to embed their unique processes within 3E applications to extend the solution for their needs. Using 3E’s integrated development environment (IDE), law firms can add or modify screens, create new database tables or columns, and change business logic.

Lucas Garlepp, Elite’s Regional Sales Manager – Asia Pacific, says the company is delighted with Hesketh Henry’s decision to partner with them. “As the first firm in New Zealand to implement Elite 3E the team at Hesketh Henry is breaking new ground in the region. Despite their understandable caution around being 'first in market' they recognised 3E as the next generation solution that law firms, and professional services firms in general have been looking forward to for a number of years. Their decision also recognised the value and importance of partnering with a stable, reliable and client focused organisation for what will be a long term relationship."

Cox expects further business improvements to be delivered through Elite 3E’s business intelligence function. "Traditionally this area has not had sufficient focus from trust accounting systems. In today’s business climate we need the ability to deliver relevant, up-to-the-minute information straight to the fee-earner’s desk."

Elite 3E provides instant access to information about a firm at macro and micro levels, increasing visibility of overall practice performance and presenting detailed information about day-to-day routines.

Says Cox: "At the higher level, access to this data will help guide the strategy of the firm, giving the partners the ability to make business decisions based on accurate, timely knowledge. We saw Elite as being able to deliver quite strongly on this."

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