Blake Dawson: WorkSite upgrade across six Australian offices

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Client: Blake Dawson

A nationwide, large-scale WorkSite upgrade

Blake Dawson is one of Australia’s leading law firms with 80 partners and 500 lawyers. Its 2,000 users are based across Australia and in Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, Port Moresby and an associated office in Jakarta. Its services are integrated across all offices and areas of law.

In 2010, Chrissy Burns, Director, IT and Knowledge, was planning to upgrade the firm’s six Australian offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, Brisbane and Perth to Autonomy iManage WorkSite 8.5.

“We were looking for an integrator with experience of upgrading WorkSite to complement our internal team,” says Burns. “Learning from the experience of other firms and highlighting the key benefits and pitfalls would facilitate our upgrade and help us make the most of the product.”

Phoenix supported Burns and her team throughout the implementation. “We were keen to leverage Phoenix’s extensive experience of WorkSite upgrades,” she explains. “The implementation ran smoothly, and Phoenix helped us work through some early challenges. The local technical lead brought fantastic skill, expertise and experience.” Phoenix’s UK team also supported the implementation. ”Phoenix was proactive about introducing ideas from previous projects to facilitate the upgrade.”

The upgrade to WorkSite 8.5 rolled out smoothly across the firm. At each office, the software was upgraded overnight and the following day IT teams walked the floors, making sure the system was working properly and dealing with any queries. The upgrade was supported by face-to-face and online training. An important benefit was how well Phoenix’s team integrated with Blake Dawson’s internal team. “Coordination was excellent. Everyone involved in the project worked together as a single team. Phoenix was responsive and attentive. It has been altogether a positive experience to have them as an external partner to support the process. A large-scale upgrade is always a challenge and Phoenix lived up to their excellent reputation.”