Case Study: Starfield & Smith, PC.
Prominent law firm taps into Ricoh’s Hosted Legal Desktop services and Microsoft 365 to streamline IT support, communication and cyber security
About our customer
Starfield & Smith, PC. law firm assists Small Business Association (SBA) lenders — commonly banks — with all aspects of SBA lending, including documentation of new loans, preparing for and responding to SBA audits, and support in managing enforcement actions by a variety of federal regulators. With a team of experienced lawyers, they provide lenders peace of mind by conducting loan-level SBA compliance audits and assisting lenders with a strategic plan to mitigate identified risks and develop compliant closing processes and procedures. The law firm has three offices in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Florida with over 50 employees and has been a long-time Ricoh customer for 15 years and counting.
“The service and communication are why we have been with Ricoh for so long. We spend our time focusing more on our legal operations, our customers, and continuously improving the ways we do business.”
— Margaret Smith
Chief Operating Officer
Starfield & Smith
Challenge
VOIP phone system contract was costly with poor service, and up for renewal
Limited resources to manage IT infrastructure and looking to outsource
Customers required proof of data compliance and security protocols
Years before, as a small and growing business, Starfield & Smith was managing their own IT and desktop environment with support from a small outside vendor. Everything was hosted on-premises, which came with inherent risks. The team wanted to focus on their clients and the law, not worry about a technical team and legal operations.
They knew that moving to the cloud and using the many benefits of IT support and managed services for their environment and ticket system would remedy the situation, especially with remote and hybrid work becoming more common. Subsequentially, remote and hybrid work raised the need for advice on protecting their data and personal information, as this was critical to their highly regulated banking customers.
Starfield & Smith also used a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system that didn’t work well and getting tech support proved to be difficult and slow if any response was even received. Simultaneously, the company was charging them lease fees for the physical phones but would not provide new phones when the lease was up. “We were paying a ridiculous amount of money for a service we were unhappy with,” stated Margaret Smith, Chief Operating Officer.
Solution
“We are a hybrid organization today because we were able to transition seamlessly to remote work when we needed to do that — and that was because of our Hosted Legal Desktop.”
— Margaret Smith, Chief Operating Officer, Starfield & Smith
Deployed Ricoh’s cloud-based Hosted Legal Desktop, a fully managed, secured IT solution
Integrated Microsoft 365 Teams and Outlook for streamlined workflow and communication
Added another cyber security layer with SentinelOne to unite endpoint, cloud and identity threat protection
“Ricoh’s Hosted Legal Desktop is a virtual environment with all the legal and office applications we need at our firm — built right in. Because we have the solution in place, we don’t have to worry so much about server management, help desk support for our users, security, or file storage — because Ricoh manages it for us,” explained Smith. “We reap the benefits of IT support in many ways.”
The team experienced immediate “quick wins” with Ricoh’s Hosted Legal Desktop — specifically, reduced costs of managing the network, devices and files on-site as well as security risks. It was easier for attorneys and other associates to log in and work from anywhere with a secure VPN.
“We are a hybrid organization today because we were able to transition seamlessly to remote work when we needed to do that — and that was because of our Hosted Legal Desktop. As long we have a good internet connection and enough monitors, our solution works wherever we are,” said Smith.
Starfield & Smith turned to Ricoh to replace their outdated phone system, resulting in using Microsoft 365 Teams for voice and video communication and Outlook for email. Not only were security measures built into the solutions, but the team could manage their data and information better and easily collaborate. “We already trusted Ricoh and knew they had the staff ready to set up everything smoothly. Through our conversations, the choice became clear to me — the Teams implementation ended up being the absolute right decision for our voice and communication needs.”
Finally, because security is essential to their financial services customers, the law firm would often be asked to fill out vendor questionnaires and provide security and data audits. Legally, Ricoh, who is SOC compliant, consults with Starfield & Smith on the vendor questions. “Our customer’s data privacy is a top priority. I don’t have to worry about this because Ricoh has this locked down on off-site servers,” said Smith. “Ricoh also suggested endpoint protection software through SentinelOne that allows us to run reports and mitigate any risks.”
Results
End-to-end legal and IT applications transformed workflows, security and efficiency
Achieved cost-savings and ROI in the first year by switching to Microsoft Teams for their phone service
Enhanced collaboration and communication with Microsoft Teams and Outlook
Received excellent IT support and service with no downtime
Continued with a coveted level of trust with Ricoh
“The service and communication are why we have been with Ricoh for so long,” expressed Smith. “We spend our time focusing more on our legal operations, our customers, and continuously improving the ways we do business." Starfield & Smith have five dedicated remote Ricoh team members for IT services and support with an option to have someone on-site if needed.
“Everyone loves Teams and is happier with the phone service. The implementation was seamless. Everyone had advanced notice and training, and it worked well. Teams empowered our attorneys and staff to stay in touch better, especially by being on camera with remote workers.”
Learn more about the ways you streamline operations and benefits of IT support with our IT Legal Services and Hosted Legal Desktop.