Legal services firm Slater and Gordon is looking to change how colleagues work when the pandemic lockdown ends following a successful rollout of Microsoft Teams across the UK.
Jon Grainger, Chief Information Officer at Slater and Gordon, said using Microsoft's collaboration and communication tool had enabled the company to go from 'survive to thrive' since the Government's stay-at-home rules were introduced in March.
Colleagues are continuing to work from home, helping clients and customers, which has led Slater and Gordon to look at offering remote working more widely once people return to their offices.
'When the lockdown came into effect, we were able to move 2,000 colleagues across the UK on to Teams and keep our contact centre running,' Grainger said. 'Our colleagues can work from home and use Teams with their own phone numbers. That's been critical because our clients don't want to email sensitive information to a generic email address, they want to speak to someone.
'Teams is redefining how we can work remotely. Lots of colleagues say it allows them to stay in touch with their team in a way that you can't do with a telephone call.'
Click here to load media
Slater and Gordon is the largest provider of consumer legal services in the UK, and currently has offices in most parts of the UK. The legal sector has typically been very office-based, whereas the Slater and Gordon mode of operation has been moving rapidly toward serving customers digitally where work location is less important. Grainger said the use of Teams during lockdown has opened up new possibilities for Slater and Gordon once Government restrictions are lifted, to accelerate the migration to a digital world with people working from all areas of the UK using Microsoft technology without the requirement of a formal office infrastructure.
'I've also run live events via Teams,' Grainger said. 'I recently spoke to 900 people virtually from my home in Yorkshire, and then handed over to another company's Chief Executive who was based in London. We were both answering questions as they were being submitted in the chat window by viewers.'
Slater and Gordon was also one of the first companies to use Microsoft Managed Desktop (MMD), which lets Microsoft directly handle its endpoint security, device management, updates and user support.
MMD is a cloud-based, subscription service that is overseen by engineers from the Microsoft Security Operations Center 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This means a business' computer systems are constantly monitored for cybersecurity threats as well as updated and improved with the latest patches and technology to help people work more efficiently.
The company also uses Microsoft 365 on Surface devices, Microsoft's range of laptops.
Levente Nagy, Product Marketing Manager for Microsoft 365 Customer Success, said: 'We are delighted to see Teams supporting Slater and Gordon as the company works remotely and continues to provide excellent service to its clients. Teams is used by around 75 million people every day, and helps staff at a range of companies to communicate and collaborate, wherever they are.'
SLATER & GORDON 