5 January 2004 - Hornbill systems, an innovative provider or support and service management systems is pleased to announce that one of its customers, leading law firm Addleshaw Goddard, ranked as one of the UK's top 16 law firms, has received double recognition for its effective use of IT, after winning two awards. The company was named Law Firm IT Department of the Year 2003 at a ceremony held at The Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland and last month won The Law Society Gazette's "Best use of IT" award.


The Law Society Gazette's award ceremony, held last month at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, included entries from individuals, firms, companies and in-house teams, from many of the leading UK legal firms, all illustrating how they had made a significant contribution to the legal profession.


May 2003, saw the merger of Addleshaw Booth & Co and Theodore Goddard forming a new company, Addleshaw Goddard. Prior to the merger Addleshaw Booth and Co were successfully using Hornbill's Supportworks Helpdesk . Theodore Goddard were using an alternative offering. Following the merger Addleshaw Goddard chose Supportworks over the legacy system therefore implementing Supportworks across the whole firm.



Hornbill Supportworks runs on NPA (Non Polling Architecture), a platform that allows multiple helpdesks of the same or different disciplines (for example, IT, Human Resources, Payroll, Fleet Management, Facilities Management etc) to run independently or collectively, at the same time keeping strong communications links between each one. This overcomes the problem seen by many law firms, and other organisations, of several helpdesks running independently and being unable to communicate with each other.


Susan Lee, IT support services manager at Addleshaw Goddard said: "Prior to the adoption of Hornbill Supportworks the lack of a standard solution across the firm significantly compromised both the delivery and the ability to improve the support services offered. Without one standard solution we simply failed to capture the information we needed to understand whether we delivered the services the firm needed on time, against recognized priorities and with the appropriate resources."


Patrick Bolger, sales director at Hornbill Systems said: "Companies need to realise the importance of having an effective support mechanism in place to maintain maximum productivity within their business. Addleshaw Goddard made the correct decision in standardising on Supportworks across the company. Their investment is already delivering measurable benefit to their overall business and assisted them in winning the awards.


He continues, "We are extremely pleased that Addleshaw Goddard has received these IT awards. Addleshaw Goddard's management set out to align IT with the needs of the business. Hornbill and Addleshaw Goddard worked in partnership to set a high standard for IT Service Delivery to the business and we believe that these awards are a reflection of the work and dedication applied to this project."





Editor's Notes

For a limited period Hornbill is providing a free on-site evaluation of the legal sector's support systems. If organisations would like to hear more about this free service, please contact Hornbill on: 0208 582 8222 or email: info@hornbill.com



Addleshaw Goddard's commercial sector recently won a landmark victory in the High Court on behalf of OK! magazine, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones following a long running damages case against Hello! magazine.