Taylor Vinters will shortly roll out iManage onto all of its Blackberry 10 mobile devices having partnered with Surrey-based enterprise mobility management company Appurity.
The technology, investment and private client-focussed law firm, led by director of IT Steve Sumner, spoke to Appurity around six months ago after conducting a wider evaluation of its mobile device options.
Having decided to stay with Blackberry and upgrade to Blackberry 10, Sumner used a simple internet search to find Appurity, which through its Rubus iManage connector app offers send and file capability, enables fee-earners to search for matters from their phone, and syncs work that has been done while offline.
The Rubus app has been built as a native Blackberry app and sits on the Blackberry Enterprise Server, using the BES security and infrastructure.
Active files reside locally on the mobile device so that fee-earners are able to search for and work on documents regardless of whether there is signal – a bonus for lawyers who spend potentially ‘dead time’ commuting to and from the office.
Sumner, who was impressed with Appurity’s competitive rate, knowledge and flexibility, envisages that it will be of use for fee-earners who travel between the top 140 Insider firm’s London and Cambridge offices. Taylor Vinters also has an office in Singapore.
“It’s like having your PC on your phone,” Sumner told Legal IT Insider
“Lawyers can edit documents, save and re-attach to the matter. If they are offline, when they go back online the file will sync.”
Sumner has been trialling the new arrangement with just two commercial technology fee-earners to ensure that it works flawlessly when it is rolled out to the wider firm, after an attempt to roll out iManage onto Blackberry five years ago resulted in a number of performance issues.
He said: “If you ask lawyers what they want from mobility, it’s to see what they see on their desktop – what’s current and what they are working on – on their devices. Now they’ve got what they want.”
Appurity, which partners with Blackberry, Apple, Samsung and Windows phones, has been operating for four years and Rubus was launched in May this year. According to director Steve Whiter, the Farnham-based company is in talks with around 25 law firms, including three top 20 global 100 firms as well as a high profile financial institution.