Biggart Baillie is one of Scotland’s leading commercial law firms, working with clients throughout the UK and internationally from its offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The firm employs 280 staff in total across these two sites, many of whom have a frequent requirement to work remotely.
Until recently, a cumbersome remote access system made it hard for solicitors to access data such as client case notes when off-site. As a result, Biggart Baillie decided it needed to migrate to a more secure and cost-effective remote access connectivity solution.
Angus Mackenzie, director of IT and facilities at Biggart Baillie, began to look for a system, that would allow staff to retrieve case loads, work on business critical applications and access applications remotely through the Microsoft terminal server desktop. In making this choice, security, functionality and compatibility were all of paramount concern.
To drive productivity, the solution had to be accessible from any location. Biggart Baillie decided to assess Whale’s Air Gap solution, now integrated into Microsoft Intelligent Application Gateway (IAG) 3.6, a browser-based secure socket layer (SSL) VPN solution. Part of the Microsoft Forefront™ line of business security products, IAG 3.6 provides a secure, remote access gateway to applications and files.
Having received positive feedback on the quality of the product and the flexibility and productivity it provides, Biggart Baillie approached Microsoft Security Partner of the Year, Sapphire for a demonstration of the product’s functionality and an assessment of how the hardware could best be integrated into its network.
Turning to Sapphire for advice was a first step for Biggart Baillie. Sapphire is well known within the Scottish legal community for the security services it delivers and consultancy it provides. After a short evaluation, which enabled Sapphire to demonstrate how the technical features of the solution would work in practice, Biggart Baillie took the decision to implement the system.
Biggart Baillie believed that the solution had proved its functionality and fully justified the business case behind its purchase during the evaluation process, so it consequently did not feel the need to review any other remote access technology. Having chosen to install it, the firm then worked with Sapphire to deploy the solution. Since installation, Sapphire has been providing ongoing service and support.
Benefits
Arguably, the most important benefit Biggart Baillie has achieved from Microsoft IAG is flexibility. Previously, staff were restricted to using their own laptops to access the corporate network over a rudimentary virtual private network. With Microsoft IAG, the firm’s remote workers are now able to access client case notes and other business applications from any browser at any location at any time.
This flexibility has raised the firm’s productivity. And users can obtain similar access rights to the office environment through a simple log on. In addition, the solution provides controlled access for suppliers supporting telephony and IT hardware, enabling them to monitor equipment 24×7. By doing this, it reduces the need for third-party support companies to be on site and saves Biggart Baillie money as a result.
The ability of the firm’s partners to access client case notes remotely has meant that actions that could have been delayed due to travelling time can be resolved immediately, ultimately improving the firms customer service levels and response times. Solicitors can respond to email messages from any location instead of having to return to the office to do so.
Equally, the system allows them to provide a more professional service by accessing information directly from their clients’ premises and by providing on-the-spot status updates. By using Microsoft IAG, Biggart Baillie can be certain that information is being sent and received securely, a particularly critical consideration due to the confidential nature of much of the firm’s work.
As the solution was easy to deploy and use, the IT department has experienced fewer helpdesk calls and found the transition to be relatively smooth and seamless. Microsoft IAG’s ability to identify the virus protection status of any device wanting to connect to the corporate network and to grant access rights accordingly provides an additional layer of security. In addition, the ability of Sapphire to support the IAG solution means that the time previously spent by the in-house team at Biggart Baillie on support and maintenance is significantly reduced, enabling them to focus on other core IT tasks instead.
Future
In summary, Sapphire’s implementation of the Microsoft IAG solution at Biggart Baillie has been a success. It has allowed Biggart Baillie to send and receive information securely from any location and it has increased the functionality of the legal firm’s remote access solutions without the need for additional work from the IT department.
As Biggart Baillie’s Mackenzie comments, "Microsoft IAG gives the firm’s users the freedom to access data from virtually anywhere. Security technology is no longer a barrier between solutions and their ability to work productively."
