UK Top 50 law firm Travers Smith has successfully migrated from NetDocuments to iManage Cloud, in a transition that we’re told took place over six months, led by Travers’ IT team without external support. The team developed a cloud-to-cloud, API-to-API migration tool called Hermes, along with various other custom solutions, which facilitated a “controlled and efficient migration” through a period of dual-DMS running.
Travers selected NetDocuments at the start of 2018, led by former IT director Ann Cant. Commenting on the switch, Travers Smith’s chief technology officer Oliver Bethell, who joined from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in the summer of 2018, emphasised the importance of consistently evaluating the firm’s technology portfolio, saying: “iManage Cloud provides the best fit for our technology roadmap, and the feedback we’re getting from across the firm proves the value of our investment.”
A key aspect of Travers Smith’s technology strategy is the development of highly skilled internal teams, over outsourcing to consultancies. iManage’s CEO Neil Araujo told Legal IT Insider: “I’m amazed at how they pulled this off by themselves. These migrations are non-trivial and it’s rare that a team can manage it on their own without help from outside professionals, so kudos to them.
“We learn a tremendous amount from our customers and Travers’ forward thinking is going to push us, which only makes us better.”
The internal team also delivered a series of 1:1 briefing sessions, dedicating an hour of focused training to everyone in the firm, regardless of their role. This inclusive approach contributed to a seamless migration and high levels of engagement with iManage.
Shawn Curran, head of legal technology at Travers Smith, said: “Our successful migration to iManage within six months, without any complaints and with plenty of positive feedback from all teams across legal and business services, demonstrates the effectiveness of the teams at Travers Smith, both within technology and in area such as knowledge management and business change where we work with very closely – something I’m incredibly proud of.”
Travers is using Threat Manager, which indicates a 92% monthly active usage of the iManage platform. Araujo said: “That’s ultimately the most satisfying thing for us and proves out all of the investment we have made, not just in the initial release of Work 10 but how the team has constantly iterated on Work 10 and kept moving the bar higher and higher.”
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