Case Studies
Four Oaks Legal Services is an independent niche law firm that specialises in providing comprehensive legal services to individuals, families and business owners / managers. Maximity started working with Four Oaks Legal Services to help the team learn how to get the most from its office software and work more efficiently.
The Challenge
Four Oaks Legal Services started using Microsoft Teams within the business when the pandemic hit and everyone had to work from home. Although they were using it daily, for online meetings and some other functions, they realised they weren’t fully utilising all the benefits that Teams could offer, due to lack of user knowledge about what the software is really capable of. The team booked on to Maximity’s Microsoft Teams training course to learn how to get the most from the company’s software investment in Microsoft 365.
Teams Training Excel Training Outlook Training Word Training
The Solution
Whilst Teams was a particular area that the Four Oaks Legal Services team needed help with, a few other training needs for other software packages including Excel, Outlook and Word had been identified. At the time of booking the training, Four Oaks Legal Services was able to take advantage of some available funding that enabled the business to book all the trainings they required through the grant funding scheme.
Maximity helped Four Oaks Legal Services understand what Microsoft Teams is capable of, to enable the team to evaluate their processes and use Teams to help them work more efficiently.
As most of Four Oaks Legal Services documents are held centrally on a cloud system, staff would regularly have to download documents and spreadsheets from the cloud to work on them locally, then upload them back into the cloud once any amends had been made and saved.
Although the team was used to working this way, their system had its limitations, for example, staff were unable to work on documents at the same time. This caused access issues when more than one person wanted to view important day-to-day documents, such as the client and office ledgers or the bills book.
Maximity trainer, Simon Ireson showed the team at Four Oaks Legal Services that by utilising Teams, documents could not only be accessed simultaneously by multiple users, but also be worked on by multiple staff members at the same time.
He also explained to the delegates how data held in Teams is very secure, and that an organisation can add extra security by limiting access to certain areas of the system depending on each individual’s role and seniority within the business. Four Oaks Legal Services now uses Teams as a central hub that provides access to all its data and documents, as well as using it as a tool for internal and external communication. Another bonus is the flexibility Teams offers, allowing people to access documents as easily when working from home as they can in the office, which is extremely useful when businesses are still working fluidly since the global pandemic.
Maximity helped Four Oaks Legal Services understand what Microsoft Teams is capable of, to enable the team to evaluate their processes and use Teams to help them work more efficiently.
As most of Four Oaks Legal Services documents are held centrally on a cloud system, staff would regularly have to download documents and spreadsheets from the cloud to work on them locally, then upload them back into the cloud once any amends had been made and saved.
Although the team was used to working this way, their system had its limitations, for example, staff were unable to work on documents at the same time. This caused access issues when more than one person wanted to view important day-to-day documents, such as the client and office ledgers or the bills book.
Maximity trainer, Simon Ireson showed the team at Four Oaks Legal Services that by utilising Teams, documents could not only be accessed simultaneously by multiple users, but also be worked on by multiple staff members at the same time.
He also explained to the delegates how data held in Teams is very secure, and that an organisation can add extra security by limiting access to certain areas of the system depending on each individual’s role and seniority within the business. Four Oaks Legal Services now uses Teams as a central hub that provides access to all its data and documents, as well as using it as a tool for internal and external communication. Another bonus is the flexibility Teams offers, allowing people to access documents as easily when working from home as they can in the office, which is extremely useful when businesses are still working fluidly since the global pandemic.
Business Benefits
Rebecca Head, Solicitor at Four Oaks Legal Services explains how valuable the training has been: “Despite having Teams installed on our computers for years, it’s only since the training that we now fully understand that the software offers so much more than just meeting and video functionality. It’s hard to believe that we’ve had access to this amazing software for so long, but just didn’t understand it enough to maximise the use of it in our business. There is so much in Teams to help our business processes that we were completely unaware of! We’re very grateful to Simon for taking the time to learn more about our business, which enabled him to highlight the areas of functionality within Teams that would be most useful to us. As a result, we’ve now been able to streamline some of our business processes by using these additional Teams functions, and it’s great that we can now work on documents simultaneously. The collaboration and communication opportunities within Teams has revolutionised how we work at Four Oaks Legal Services. It’s also improved how we work with our suppliers, as we now have the ability to safely share information and documents through Teams, plus communicate with them through the Teams software too.
“We’re delighted with what we’ve learned from all the training courses we’ve undertaken with Maximity, including Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook, as well as Teams. And we’ve been extremely impressed with Maximity as a training provider. We appreciated the choice of training options on offer, from in-person training to live online options, and it was all so well organised, with plenty of pre-training communications to help us prepare. The staff at Maximity are all so friendly and helpful too. Our trainer, Simon had a lovely manner and he was very patient with us when we were all at different levels with our software knowledge before we started. He presented the training really well, at a level that everyone could understand, so we all went away feeling empowered with our new knowledge and confident to start using the software in our daily roles.”
Tracy Pound, Managing Director of Maximity says: “It’s been a pleasure working with the team at Four Oaks Legal Services. Simon really enjoyed getting to know the team and helping them make best use of their existing software. We’re so pleased they’ve been able to put what they’ve learnt on the training in place, to benefit their business practices. “
“We’re delighted with what we’ve learned from all the training courses we’ve undertaken with Maximity, including Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook, as well as Teams. And we’ve been extremely impressed with Maximity as a training provider. We appreciated the choice of training options on offer, from in-person training to live online options, and it was all so well organised, with plenty of pre-training communications to help us prepare. The staff at Maximity are all so friendly and helpful too. Our trainer, Simon had a lovely manner and he was very patient with us when we were all at different levels with our software knowledge before we started. He presented the training really well, at a level that everyone could understand, so we all went away feeling empowered with our new knowledge and confident to start using the software in our daily roles.”
Tracy Pound, Managing Director of Maximity says: “It’s been a pleasure working with the team at Four Oaks Legal Services. Simon really enjoyed getting to know the team and helping them make best use of their existing software. We’re so pleased they’ve been able to put what they’ve learnt on the training in place, to benefit their business practices. “
