Logicalis

World’s Leading Intellectual Property Management Firm Enhances Business Agility with Logicalis

The Client

Founded in 1969, CPA Global is now the world's top intellectual property (IP) management specialist and a leading provider of outsourced legal support services. With offices across the United States, Europe, Asia and the Pacific, CPA Global provides attorneys and corporate clients with a diverse set of legal and IP specific needs.

The Challenge

Operating in the legal services industry, the speed and efficiency of handling millions of time-sensitive documents is critical to the success of client services at CPA Global. However, with a manual paper-based system in place, managing the sheer volume of documents had become a complex and resource intensive task. Simon Webster, Business Operations Director at CPA Global, comments:

“With over one million pieces of paper in use at any given time, finding, tracking, recording and storing documents throughout their lifecycle was a manually intensive task that we knew could be improved to increase our productivity as a business. Our customers are making time-critical decisions on sensitive patents and trademarks round the clock; our agility is key to this process.”

CPA Global looked to increase the efficiency of its business processes by centralising and standardising its systems and automating the manual processes of document management across the organisation.

Having previously developed a trusted partnership with Logicalis on a number of smaller projects over the past seven years, CPA Global looked to enter into a more collaborative approach with Logicalis for this long-term project.

“Our experience with Logicalis meant we were confident they could provide the innovation and service we required for this large scale business intelligence project,” says Webster. “Taking the decision to automate all our internal processes from paper-based to digital was a big step, and we knew it was critical for us to work with a partner that could do more than just implement IT in order for us to truly realise the business benefits we were looking for.”

The Solution

Working closely with CPA Global, Logicalis began the global implementation of an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solution, initially focussing on the company's patent business.

Logicalis designed and implemented a best of breed solution for CPA Global, inclusive of IBM Content and Records Manager. By digitalising all paper processes into an automated workflow system, the solution immediately improved the accessibility and availability of documents across the organisation. In addition, Logicalis implemented intelligent scanning software, enabling CPA Global to scan and automatically upload all documents to a central database ensuring information can be better shared, stored and managed.

The Outcome

The new ECM infrastructure has significantly contributed to increasing the speed and efficiency of CPA Global's time-critical patent business operations, increasing customer responsiveness, business agility and ultimately, business profitability.

Webster comments, “With a central data depository, content and records management and scanning tools in place, users can share digital information 24/7, providing customers with the time-critical and accurate responses they require, whenever and wherever they are in the world.”

Faster document access and automation of mailroom processes has helped accelerate CPA Global's global reach, and freed up resource for more client interaction. Furthermore, re-use of the ECM platform has resulted in rapid benefits in the finance department and cost savings for planned business projects.

The new system has also provided CPA Global with a resilient approach to disaster recovery and compliance regulations, as Webster explains:

“Digitalising our processes has radically reduced business risk. For example, fire or water damage would previously have destroyed critical documentation and caused real problems with data tracking and recording requirements, especially as compliance regulations require us to keep documents for 10 years. Similarly, it has simplified our storage strategy and the accessibility of all our data; easing management complexity and allowing us to better utilise our time.

“Logicalis' professional services credentials were second to none and the project was business-led from the outset, they clearly understood our needs and objectives and delivered a level of consultancy that far exceeded our expectations.”

The Future

To date, Logicalis has rolled-out the ECM system for all CPA Global's users in the UK and Jersey. The system will scale to accommodate up to 10,000 users worldwide by 2013 and will be integrated across all of CPA Global's trademark and IP business operations moving forward.

In addition to this project, Logicalis will also be providing a fully managed service for 24/7 support of CPA Global's ECM IT infrastructure worldwide.