DWF will shortly roll out Canon’s managed document service and inbound digital mailroom nationally after its acquisition of claims manager Triton out of administration in January effectively put its existing agile and space management agenda on steroids.
The top 25 firm formally went agile last week (6 March), with up to 600 out of 2,700 staff now working flexibly, after its merger with Triton meant that it didn’t have enough office space for everyone.
In three weeks, DWF folded Triton’s existing sites in Leeds, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Dublin into its equivalent sites. However, in London there wasn’t enough space and chief technology officer Richard Hodkinson, who has long been working towards a virtual platform for homeworkers, told Legal IT Insider: “After the merger with Triton we simply couldn’t get everyone in, there weren’t enough seats. We asked people to work in an agile capacity and everyone dipped in and did a great job.
“We’ve installed a couple of hundred Surface Pros and softphones so we’ve got people working in a very agile way and hot desking.” The move was coordinated by Hodkinson and director of facilities and property Karl Warmbold, who Hodkinson says “is ace at this stuff.” Desks are now grouped into neighbourhoods, with hot desks in each and each neighbourhood managing their own desks.
Hodkinson says: “Clearly agile working suits some teams better than others and there has been a decision among partners that some groups may need more supervision than others.” He adds: “It’s a function of a growing business that you need to be flexible and agile.”
The firm, which in London has been using Canon’s managed document and print services and inbound digital mailroom to scan work direct to files, is about to roll the venture out nationally in a further bid to reduce filing cabinets and manage its space. Hodkinson said: “We’ve been doing it for a year or two in London but will now roll it out across the UK.”