International law firm Simmons & Simmons has announced the selection of IT services provider Plan-Net to help in the firm's complete IT infrastructure refresh.

The strategic aim of Simmons & Simmons is to create a world class IT service equipped to meet and exceed its future demands on a global scale. However the firm, which employs 2,000 staff in 20 offices across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, had worldwide disparities in its infrastructure with most individual offices across the globe using their own local hardware and having local IT support.

This was quickly identified as inconsistent and costly, something Abby Ewen, IT Director of Simmons & Simmons clarifies, "We identified the need to invest more time into upgrading our IT in order to ensure the firm maintained a fully up-to-date, world class IT system."

With this in mind, Simmons & Simmons will undertake a complete overhaul of the IT systems currently in use, selecting Plan-Net to aid them in the adoption of best-practice standards as well as providing a structured framework to help drive service improvement, deliver efficiencies and reduce costs across the globe.

After evaluating Simmons & Simmons' existing service support and service delivery working practices, Plan-Net proposed a rapid implementation of ITIL-aligned best-practice processes, designed to support the strategic aims of the firm.

Paul Whitlock, Head of Service Management Consulting at Plan-Net explains the benefits. "This initiative will drive improvements to the service being delivered to Simmons & Simmons' demanding users, as well driving efficiencies within IT globally that deliver demonstrable cost savings to the firm."

Abby Ewen identified that, due to the pressing need for a firm such as Simmons & Simmons to offer its fee earners the highest possible level of support, the roll out for the upgrade would be implemented on a ‘big bang' level, with all new procedures being put in place as soon as possible, something which led to careful deliberation when it came to selecting an IT partner suitable for the task.

"Over the past 12 months I have worked with many large IT companies that did not visualise the project in the way Simmons & Simmons had hoped. I found Plan-Net to be a breath of fresh air and an integral part of this project. It is immediately apparent that each member of the Plan-Net team has copious experience in this type of project; everyone at Plan-Net who worked with us has encountered this firsthand. They have all worked within this industry and within the service delivery environment and are consequently able to offer real-world experience and practicality. I do look forward to working with Plan-Net during the implementation" concludes Abby Ewen.

By engaging Plan-Net to assist in this efficiency driven project, Simmons & Simmons will be in a strong position to deliver support in a far more cost-effective manner, directly helping to increase the firms' ‘profit per equity partner'.