Case study | Legal

The firm that had put IT last for a decade

How a Stafford law firm switched its IT support to EPX IT and went from patching problems with a plaster to an office move, a new phone system and a new case management system, with engineers it knows by name.

Nowell Meller Solicitors: a Stafford law firm since 1956

Nowell Meller Solicitors was established in Stafford in 1956. It became a limited company in 2005, merged with Arthur Bolton Solicitors of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in 2007, and now works from offices in Stafford and Newcastle-under-Lyme with an outpost in Alsager, serving clients across Staffordshire, the West Midlands and Cheshire. Around 29 staff cover corporate and commercial work, residential property, wills and probate, and family law.

Louise Fenn is the practice manager and has been with the firm for 35 years, having started as an office junior when the office still worked on typewriters. Alongside practice management she covers IT, HR, payroll and compliance, which is a common shape in a firm of this size and a large part of why the IT position had become difficult.

Why the firm needed a new IT support provider

The firm had worked with two IT providers before EPX IT. The first knew them well and visited often, and eventually reached the point of being unable to help. "They couldn't help us anymore because our system was so dated, and due to financial constraints we couldn't upgrade at that point." They referred the firm on.

The second provider was, in Louise's words, "absolutely fine", and cost was again the limit. The firm chose to put its money into staff and clients, so the technology moved down the list.

"There was a lot of IT issues. A lot of time was spent because of IT issues."

With nobody in house, Louise and managing director Steve covered it between them, learning as they went and "patching things over with the plaster". Support came through a call centre. "You pretty much got somebody different every time. There wasn't a personable approach."

How Nowell Meller switched IT support providers without disruption

Nowell Meller was referred to EPX IT by its outgoing provider. Steve researched the firm and met the team before any commitment. Three things decided it: EPX IT was local, it wanted to plan the firm's technology forward rather than only keep it alive, and it was "very clued up with cyber security".

"Local firm, friendly, innovative, want to work with us, so it was like, yeah, let's give them a go."

The switch itself was uneventful. "There was no issues at all."

Since then the firm has moved onto new laptops, updated its core systems, started moving to the cloud, adopted a new case management system, and switched its telephony to 3CX so that phones and IT sit with one supplier. EPX IT project managed the firm's office move across Stafford and coordinated the case management migration with the software vendor.

What changed for the firm after the switch to EPX IT

Louise sums up the change in pace simply. The firm is "kind of running with everything at the moment".

The relationship is the part she returns to. EPX IT's engineers are known by name, laptops are delivered to the back door, and the account manager picks up the phone. "If ever you ring Ben, he answers the phone, even if it's first thing in the morning."

"The phishing exercises, we've never had any of that before. The stats that Ben gives us when it comes to the quarterly meetings, again, something we've never had before. So just really informative and proactive, and feel like they're on our journey with us."

Louise Fenn's advice to firms thinking of switching

"Just do it. We haven't looked back. It's been nothing but good things for us." Louise is fair about it, and points out that everyone has blips and moments of frustration with IT. On the substance she has no reservations.

"Everything that we've gone through with EPX IT, moving into the office, the telephone switch over, can't fault them at all."

Transcript of Louise Fenn's film