It made headlines alongside Osborne Clarke, CMS Cameron McKenna and TLT with a trailblazing deal to outsource its library services to Integreon, but like many of its contemporaries, DAC Beachcroft has ended its relationship with Integreon.
Unlike Osborne Clarke, which after calling time on its extensive outsourcing relationship with Integreon in 2013 brought back 80 Bristol-based staff into the firm, DAC Beachcroft last week announced that it is continuing to outsource its library services and has entered into a new deal with U.S. specialist library and information management company LAC Group.
Through its Library as a Service model, LAC will deliver onsite support backed up by a distributed network of specialists. The services delivered to DAC Beachcroft will include legal and business research, information resource management, research training and guidance and current awareness. LAC will look after DAC Beachcroft’s subscriptions such as Butterworths and LexisNexis, including negotiating rates with publishers.
Jeffrey Ng, operations director at DAC Beachcroft, who led an extensive review of library services providers, told the Legal IT Insider: “The scope of the services is the same. The people tuped to Integreon have been tuped to LAC. If our lawyers want research done they can phone LAC’s helpdesk and get it done.”
Integreon in and around 2009 agreed a string of outsourcing deals with major UK law firms but was hit by a series of reversals in 2012 and 2013, when TLT Solicitors and CMS also ended or scaled back their outsourcing arrangements.
However, the U.S.-headquartered outsourcer continues to work with CMS’ know-how department and in 2013 signed a three-year library services deal with Kennedys. Chief executive Bob Gogel said: “Integreon has seen an increase of over 30% during the last 18 months in UK market demand for our professional support services. This demand comes primarily from the legal and banking sectors and includes our shared library services, for which we have one of the largest legal and business research centres in the UK.
“An advantage of our centre is the ability to leverage specialist offshore teams as needed to ensure round the clock support and rapid team scaling. At this time, our UK-based library and knowledge services are actively supporting six law firms and three global banks. We are unable to comment on specific client relationships by name due to the confidentiality of those relationships.”
Integreon has recently been working with its in-house strategic research consultancy, Grail Research, to build a smart research hub to provide clients with increasing levels of flexibility.
DAC, meanwhile, is no stranger to outsourcing across its business, including its reception services.
Ng added: “It’s not necessarily about cost but providers with more expertise, which allows the firm to focus what we do best – law.”