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The Significance of Getting the Basics Right while Embracing Core Technologies

Kim Ashley-Smith, Head of Office Operations Programmes and Steve Andrews, Head of Architecture & System Delivery, Herbert Smith Freehills

Kim Ashley-Smith, Head of Office Operations Programmes and Steve Andrews, Head of Architecture & System Delivery, Herbert Smith Freehills

Herbert Smith Freehills has approximately 5500 people in 23 countries around the world. Like many other businesses in March 2020, we sent most of our people home with no real idea when we might return to our offices; but absolutely expecting that they would continue to provide the exceptional client service that Herbert Smith Freehills is known for globally.

Prior to Covid-19, we had made advancements in adopting remote work technology and enabling home-working. Our Business Services teams were already geared up to work remotely following recent relocations into our Macquarie Park (Sydney) and Canary Wharf (London) offices. Our legal teams, though able to work from home, still found the need to work predominantly in the office surrounded by their team members and the traditional tools required to do the job.

We weren’t that cutting-edge or new in our initial response. Nobody wanted to experiment with key, core technology services when wider global business prospects were so unknown and volatile. We simply continued an approach that has served us well for years – get the basics right (invest in known quality, capacity, and resilience), keep our services stable, and trust our users to do what they do best.

The pandemic (please nobody say “unprecedented” ever again) immediately confirmed the value of that thinking, our previous planning, and the value of trust the firm had placed in the IT function to make the right technology decisions.

Herbert Smith Freehills had already standardized on Microsoft Surface devices globally. We had already implemented mobile device management, additionally providing phone and tablet device connectivity, and the appropriate security tools and policies to allow our people to work remotely.

We had also invested significantly in core network infrastructure including Virtual Private Networks and cloud security tools, and we were already implementing Microsoft365 and other cloud-based capabilities. Most who wanted one already had a noise-canceling headset.

We simply continued an approach that has served us well for years – get the basics right, keep our services stable, and trust our users to do what they do best

We were ready; the question was whether it would all ‘be okay on the day.’ We’re pleased to say it was and has continued to be since.

Over these past 17 months, we have seen many improvements, enhancements, and changes. Some of them have nothing to do with technology directly, but which only the combination of the technology and the pandemic could enable. For example – ever been in a traditional meeting with six people in the room and two dialed in on the phone? When someone else has the room booked for the next meeting and it all wraps up quickly—“people on the phone anything to add before we have to give up the room”; almost an after-thought? We don’t have that any longer. We have everyone in the same situation; everyone on Teams, with cameras on; everyone present and engaged; everyone on an equal attendance footing. As a result, our meetings are better, quicker, more inclusive, and more focused.

That’s not to say we don’t need face-to-face meetings in real meeting rooms. Just that through the technology available we have made the entire experience better for all. The same is true of telephony through which a law firm transacts so much client interaction and service.

Since launching Teams-based telephony we now have multiple requests a day across the firm for the service and for the removal of traditional handsets and call-forwarding to mobiles and call groups. Everyone has learned to self-serve because they’ve had to for the past year or so, and they know the most efficient and effective way for themselves to work. We will continue to roll out these services – more self-service, more mobile capability; more ability for our people to work where and how they choose.

The other changes we’ve seen are so much more important than the technology but again they are wholly enabled by that technology. We’ve all become more tolerant and understanding of “IT issues” – that will happen when you know it might be your home broadband or conditions entirely beyond the IT team’s control that are contributing to issues.

We recognize and understand more about the needs of our carers, parents, and others with various pressures on their time. We are closer as a global team because we spend more time every day interacting via the collaboration tools we’ve implemented rather than commuting. In fact, many of us wonder where we will get two hours a day back to return to commuting. We have become generally more aware – of the technology; of the work; of the importance of interaction by whatever means; of each other.

We have learned to work well in constrained global circumstances; and we have the tools and processes in place which will serve us well as we return to more hybrid office-based working.

As we reopen our offices our next opportunity is how we keep all the learnings so that our office-based experience is even richer and our client service continues as exemplary. In many ways, technology is the easy bit!