DUANE MORRIS
Summary Data
As a leading full-service law firm, Duane Morris LLP is dedicated to providing innovative and comprehensive legal solutions, empowering clients to navigate complex challenges and achieve their goals with confidence and integrity.
Industry
Law/Legal Consulting
Geography
USA
Consulting
Discovery
Implementation Services
Pre-Purchase Block of Support
Custom Development
technologies
SharePoint
Microsoft 365
Powell 365
Overview
Duane Morris was looking to migrate away from their legacy Intranet platform, which was over ten years old at the time the project started. Their team was looking for an Intranet solution that was both compatible with the Microsoft 365 technology that they had begun to adopt and wide-reaching enough to encompass the large number of active sites and pages across their organization. They required a sophisticated digital solution that could streamline communication while fostering a cohesive yet adaptable community.
With the goal of modernization in mind, Duane Morris came to Synergy to explore their need for a new Intranet.
Challenges/
Goals
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Migration from an old Intranet system & the amount of content requiring manual migration
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Developing a structure that respects the diverse departmental level autonomy
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Content creation and maintenance within their existing intranet was limited to a single team
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Improved site navigation and presentation of information
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Improved employee engagement
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Distribution of responsibility and maintenance of internal content creation
Solution/
Approach
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Creation of a centralized hub for information on firm resources and initiatives
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Manual migration of content from their legacy platform to the destination site
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Integration of their existing Microsoft investments in an intuitive, user friendly, easy-to-adopt way.
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After an extensive discovery process, Synergy recommended Powell 365, an intranet tool from Powell Software, to Duane Morris as the solution that would provide exactly what they were looking for.
"SharePoint is our entry point into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem"
- Ernie Coats, Manager of Software Development & Analytics at Duane Morris
Results
While still in the early stages of rolling out the tool and collecting feedback, the employee reception has been overall extremely positive. Now able to access a single, central repository for relevant content and information, the asset management department no longer must rely on continuous email threads as a part of their standard operating procedure. With everything available in just a few clicks, employee productivity, organization and effectiveness have already noticeably improved throughout the organization. Other improvements and positive benefits that have already been noted are:
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All employees are now utilizing the intranet portal
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Increase to IT knowledge base and training repository from 1-2 people visiting a month on avg to 260+ monthly visits
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Onboarding and training for new employees has become a more streamlined, effective process
Success Story
Duane Morris was looking to migrate away from their legacy Intranet platform, which was over ten years old at the time. Their platform was not as responsive as it needed to be, and the technology they were using was significantly out-of-date. Additionally, Duane Morris was beginning to embrace Microsoft 365 technologies, which led to their interest in reviewing the capabilities of SharePoint Online for document management and future intranet services. When they came to Synergy with their goal of modernization, it was determined that they required an interface that was both approachable and efficient for staff to access and share from, regardless of their location.
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During the project discovery, the team at Synergy quickly realized the scope of this project would be substantial, as there were over 1,000 active sites and pages in their existing intranet. The biggest value point discussed was the development of an overlay tool that allowed for a “design once, deploy many” strategy where templates could be built, packaged, and deployed across the organization without needing painstaking detail for each individual page. With this in mind, Synergy recommended using Powell 365 to enhance Duane Morris’ intranet, as its ability to simplify the user experience while integrating key SharePoint and Microsoft features was an important feature to their project team.
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Once the decision to implement Powell was made, Synergy’s team of senior solutions consultants went to work in meeting the Duane Morris team’s project requirements. Synergy’s design team was able to develop an intelligent, well-organized information architecture and relevant, meaningful templates within Powell 365.
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Duane Morris was quick to adopt the changes brought by their Powell intranet – their team remained proactive and engaged throughout the course of the implementation, which made the adoption process that much more seamless. Their employees were excited about the results they saw: due to the logical structure and design of the new site, transitioning into SharePoint Online was easy and efficient. Ultimately, the success the Duane Morris team found in SharePoint was the catalyst to their full adoption of Microsoft 365.
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Duane Morris is a valued client of both Synergy and Powell Software, and will continue to be fully supported with their new and improved portal. With the collaborative work between Synergy and Powell Software, Duane Morris can continue to be a vibrant, well-informed workforce that excels in the ever-evolving digital landscape with their modernized intranet.
