EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A new Citrix environment delivered by Open Reality enabled partners, lawyers and support staff to prepare files, manage client liaison and share information that was previously only available from their office via a remote Citrix session.
This has meant lawyers are free to work on more billable cases, greatly enhancing revenue, whilst client service levels are better than ever. This more effective use of partner and staff time has meant extended working hours have been reduced and employees enjoy a better work-life balance.
Based in the South East of England Cripps LLP expertise includes real estate, development, construction, planning and environment, dispute resolution, company and commercial, employment, charity and private client services. It is ranked as a National Leader by The Legal 500 and was listed as a top 100 UK law firm by Legal Business and The Lawyer in 2014.
CHALLENGES
As part of its excellence strategy, Cripps LLP is a leader in the use of IT and is nationally recognised for its innovative use of technology in the provision of services to clients.
More and more employees wanted to work from locations other than an office and to service this requirement Cripps LLP were using Citrix Presentation Server 4.5. However it was only compatible with Windows computers and they had numerous applications published across multiple servers, so the solution was not ideal. This led Darragh Macken, IT Systems Manager to review their remote access solution.
For the last decade their IT had been delivered on premise by its expert in-house IT team and for the last two years they have partnered with Open Reality on IT projects. Darragh came to us with the challenge of increasing the stability, performance and user friendliness or their existing remote access solution.
THE SOLUTION
In partnership with Cripps, Open Reality established the exact requirements and specifications required. We then took immediate steps to publish just the desktop on Presentation Server 4.5 to remote access users. This had an immediate impact; improving the systems stability and performance while giving users an equal experience wherever they were working. This change alone cut helpdesk calls by half.
We then helped build a new Citrix farm running XenApp 6.5 and published a desktop that mirrored the desktop in the office and implemented a Netscaler VPX Gateway to improve upon existing security measures while also delivering remote access to users across multiple platforms, devices and locations.
RESULTS
Cripps remote access solution now provides enhanced IT capabilities to employees, enabling them to work from any location on any device, so they can be more efficient and productive, while delivering improvements to the firm’s already excellent customer service to clients.
The Citrix project with Open Reality enabled Cripps to expand its offices and improved the business continuity of its other offices across London and Kent. In the event of disruption to these offices employees can continue to work until such time as normal services have resumed.
Cripps LLP’s 300+ staff including 48 partners and over 150 lawyers, now have the complete flexibility they need to work effectively and securely from their office, home, client location, court and on the move.
COST SAVINGS
• Citrix XenApp reduced the cost of application management by 30%
• Mobility has improved productivity by 25%
• Released Helpdesk resources by 25%
