Case Study

The Situation

Macpherson Kelley (M+K) is a mid-sized legal firm specialising in the Australian manufacturing industry. It also provides legal services to foreign-owned subsidiaries, the media, motor dealerships, real estate agents, and the accounting industry.

M+K has offices in three states and is the Australian member of the Multilaw global network. As such, the firm is heavily dependent on reliable and secure communications — between offices, with international counterparts, and with clients.

However, M+K’s ability to function efficiently was undermined by an outdated communications system with limited capability, a lack of internal flexibility, minimal scalability, and no network visibility or centralised control. Hot desking – to facilitate activity-based working – was impossible, network connections could not be established when moving between offices, and Citrix sessions were prone to dropping out.

Another consequence of using the archaic system was that M+K lawyers and paralegals were spending an unacceptable amount of time traveling interstate and overseas when far more efficient solutions were available.

The Challenge

Macpherson Kelley’s outdated ICT infrastructure was impeding efficient communications between offices, between colleagues, with clients, and with international partners.

The Solution

Having worked closely with M+K to analyse their strategic needs and potential future challenges, Brennan deployed a best-in-class Cisco unified communication solution incorporating Cisco Meraki network devices and cloud-based management. The Meraki suite includes:

• Cloud-managed wireless LAN for faster connections, greater user capacity, more coverage, and fewer support calls;
• Cloud-managed switches providing performance, true zero-touch provisioning, network visibility, and remote troubleshooting across any location; and
• Cloud-managed security, which provided several features such as a next-gen firewall, an integrated Sourcefire intrusion prevention engine, and seamless updating across every site.

With Cisco Meraki deployed, all M+K’s networking devices can now be centrally managed by Brennan from the cloud through a single dashboard, so the firm gets the seamless visibility, flexibility, control, and remote support it so urgently needed.

This leading-edge networking environment provided the foundation infrastructure on which a Cisco-based UC solution could be run. Thanks to this perfectly matched technology, M+K staff are now empowered to work when and where they want to, in a totally secure and flexible manner.

In tackling the secondary challenges of excessive business travel and low-grade video conferencing, Brennan incorporated a Cisco virtualised voice and video call control system into the solution. It delivers premium collaboration services for up to 1,000 end users, consolidating voice, video, mobility, messaging, conferencing, instant messaging and presence, into a single centrally-managed platform.

This network and UC system is managed by Brennan Managed Services on a scalable basis, providing M+K with bespoke support that satisfies its specific needs and budgets.