Weightmans

Ahead of the game with a Mitel IP Solution

Weightmans is a top 60 law firm with offices in Birmingham, Leicester, Liverpool, London and
Manchester, with over 920 staff, of which 104 are partners. The firm is focused on delivering results for
its clients and success for its people.

The practice has a formidable reputation and is a leading national player in the insurance industry,
handling all sizes of claims for insurers and their clients across a broad range of disciplines. It has a
growing reputation in the public sector market, acting for many local, police and fire authorities, and
many NHS trusts. Weightmans also offers a broad range of commercial services to both public and
private sector clients of all sizes.

Weightmans’ focus is on quality, and they are one of the largest private practice firms to have an excel
accreditation. Recently the firm has become a technology led business and drives quality procedures
through technology.

In order for Weightmans to become a true technology-focused firm, a new phone system was
necessary. The firm’s previous phone system used legacy equipment with a mix of analogue and digital
handsets, and purchasing obsolete equipment proved to be both difficult and expensive.

Stuart Whittle, IS and Operations Director, Weightmans, identified that an IP solution was the answer
to its IT problems and would provide the company with one platform on which to add on applications
when required.
 “The challenge of deploying IP was in persuading the
board to approve it. At a fundamental level we had a
phone system that worked and I wanted to replace it with
a phone system that works. Put in those sort of terms, it is
not a particularly attractive sell. I had wanted to install IP
for about three or four years and I couldn’t get the figures
to stack up in such a way that I would even be prepared to
go to the board,” said Whittle.
“I had a chance meeting with a Mitel® Account Manager
and asked him to help me sell IP to the board. I said to
him if you can sell it to me for less than I am currently
paying in terms of cash out of the business then we will
be interested. I was genuinely surprised when the Account
Manager came back to me with a Mitel Leasing deal
suggesting that when you took telephony as a product as
a whole including line rental, telephone call charges it was
going to cost us less than what we were already paying.
Armed with this proposition I got approval from the board
and we could replace the phone system using less cash
out of the business.”
After such an attractive proposition, a robust relationship
with the Mitel Account Manager and the fact that a lot
of Whittle’s industry peers also used Mitel applications
and were pleased with the results. Weightmans deployed
MiVoice Business solution with 3300 controllers.
Customer Needs
• A future-proof communications platform
• Reduce costs
• Discover new ways of working to improve business processes
• Improve client services
It is the Trivial Things that Matter
The most fundamental reason for Weightmans selecting
a Mitel IP solution was to have a platform in place that
could meet the demands of the business involving a simple
process. Every time a requirement is needed it is just a
matter of purchasing one or a number of licences.
Mitel | 2
COMPANY
Weightmans LLP is a law firm employing 920 within
the United Kingdom. Weightmans deployed MiVoice
Business solution with 3300 controllers.
www.weightmans.com
“It sounds quite banal but one of the things I’ve learned
in the last few years is that sometimes it is the trivial
things that matter to people. If the trivial thing is
something that happens to you everyday, three or four,
or five or six times a day then it becomes a big deal. One
of the issues we had was with the mix of analogue and
digital, so some people had caller line identification and
some didn’t, some people had the light on the phone
that told them they had a voice mail, and some didn’t.
So, there was quite a lot of agitation with people all
wanting the same functionality and quite rightly so.”
– STUART WHITTLE,
IS AND OPERATIONS DIRECTOR,
WEIGHTMANS LLP
“It sounds quite banal but one of the things I’ve learnt in
the last few years is that sometimes it is the trivial things
that matter to people. If the trivial thing is something that
happens to you everyday, three or four, or five or six times
a day then it becomes a big deal. One of the issues we had
was with the mix of analogue and digital, so some people
had caller line identification and some didn’t, some people
had the light on the phone that told them they had a voice
mail, and some didn’t. So, there was quite a lot of agitation
with people all wanting the same functionality and quite
rightly so,” said Whittle.
“With the Mitel IP solution we were able to provide
everyone with the same level of service. They all got caller
ID and the message light on the phone. They may sound
like trivial things, but in the legal industry, time is money
and staying connected to your clients is crucial. So, if you
come back to your desk and see a message light flashing
you know immediately that a client is trying to get hold of
you and you can pick up the message and return the call.”
On the Move with One Number
Weightmans has around 25 percent of its employees
that are mobile with ten percent that never sit in the
same office for more than a couple of days a week. Mitel
Hotdesking functionality provides employees with the
ability for them to log into the phone they are sitting next
to and retain the same number. Clients do not know where
they are calling from and have the ability to reach the
legal professional on one number that of course improves
customer service.
Simplified Moves, Adds and Changes
Employees move around a lot at Weightmans and
previously re-patching all the phones has taken two or
three people more than a day to complete. The Mitel IP
solution has saved a lot of time and essentially staff are
self-sufficient when moving, as long as there is a desk, PC
and phone then the IT team doesn’t have to get involved.
Mitel Takes Weightmans into the Future
Whittle is eager to expand the applications that will improve
business processes and customer service and is currently
looking into MiCollab Mobile Client.
“One of the things that I find interesting is the mobile
twinning, in the fact that you only have one phone number
and you can pick a call up on your mobile, on your
landline, or whatever device you are using,” said Whittle.
Weightmans is also potentially looking at a contact
centre solution to facilitate an existing department and
home working.
Solution Components
• MiVoice Business
Results
• A single communications platform to add on applications
when required
• Reduced costs by using the Mitel Total Solutions
finance programme
• Discovered new ways of working with hot desking and
home working
• Improved client service – clients experience first call resolution
because they can always get hold of their legal representative
Whittle comments, “We don’t really have a formal home
working policy but we do have an infrastructure in place
that enables people to work from home. There are bits
missing in it in terms of what we can provide, and one of
those things is the telephone. Again, what I would like to
provide in the future is a handset that they simply plug into
their home broadband router and log in as if they are in the
office, and I know Mitel offers this. Having a Mitel platform
in place allows me to easily deliver the things that the
business wants in place.”
Mitel’s IP solution has enabled Whittle and team to save
money and meet the demands of the business very quickly
by adding on applications when required. Weightmans
is a technology-led company that uses the most
innovative technology to improve business process, make
employees lives easier and of course deliver outstanding
service to clients. By partnering with Mitel, leaders in
communications software – it’s the perfect match.

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