Mitel Case Study - Pannone & Partners

Pannone & Partners is a full service law firm with clients split almost equally between businesses and private individuals. With roots that can be traced back as far as 1852, the firm now has 74 partners who, with over 495 staff, work within specialist teams focusing on the niche work carried out by their department. They are based in central Manchester and serve clients throughout the North West, as well as nationally and internationally. Pannone & Partners is recognized by both The Legal 500 Guide and The Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession as one of the leading North West firms and has many Partners who are considered to be “leaders in their field.” The firm has also ranked sixth in The Sunday Times, 100 Best UK Companies to Work for.

Over the last four years Pannone & Partners has experienced phenomenal growth in turnover and staff and has doubled its workforce. As the firm grew, its communication infrastructure became more outdated and inflexible in terms of managing office moves, voice mail and transferring calls. When the contract for the old Centrex system ended in 2004 it was decided that the IT department, now 13 people strong, should manage the communications infrastructure in-house.

Pannone & Partners evaluated the market for a voice and data solution and selected a Mitel® IP solution, which included the Mitel 3300 Integrated Communications Platform (ICP) with three controllers and the Mitel Your Assistant.

David Griffiths, IT Director, Pannone & Partners explains, “Mitel definitely has one of the leading IP solutions.We were reassured in the number of companies that had the 3300 ICP and it works perfectly with our existing Cisco data infrastructure.”

The migration from the Centrex system to the 3300 ICP was conducted over one weekend with a smooth transition and was completed for Monday morning. Griffiths says, “As a firm focused on client service it was critical that we had a solution that was completely resilient.We installed three 3300 ICP controllers, so if we lost a connection due to a network failure or something else, the voice services would automatically switch to the others in the network, providing continuous service to both users and callers.”

Continues Griffiths, “All of the 495 employees use the 3300 ICP and we now have simplified management on the LAN, relocating office moves is now so easy, and once the user is trained they can manage their own changes.” Pannone & Partners is currently rolling out Your Assistant to its fee earners, who will use all of the features of the product including the simplified conferencing feature, secure instant messaging and the drag and drop document functionality. The presence and availability management feature will also be beneficial allowing the fee earners to see if their colleagues are on the phone, away from their desks, etc. All of which will help improve efficiency and customer service.

“Your Assistant will give the fee earners the flexibility to work remotely and still retain the same functionality they have in the office. They will also use Your Assistant to run management reports to record the duration of client calls, which is essential for accurate billing and client service analysis. The Mitel solution has given us a robust communications system that has and will continue to improve the communications and methods of working for our employees,” concluded Griffiths.