A step ahead through innovative use of IT
Kimbells has been always an early adopter of new technologies which can contribute to the efficient provision of legal solutions. For example, a secure client portal was available ahead of many firms. Online access to data has two main benefits for clients:

• Client reporting – allowing automatic generation of status reports to a secure website. This is based entirely on what clients want to know, to enable them to keep up to date with budgeting and the progress of instructions.
• Provision of an online deal room. This secure portal gives access to all parties to documents relating to a live transaction with proven benefits in speeding up deals involving parties in different countries and time zones. Alternatively stored items such as deeds can be accessed for reference purposes.

A central practice management database ensures information is shared across the firm. For instance automatic alerts are generated to advise solicitors when financial milestones have been reached to ensure there is no overrun on quoted costs. Internal programming expertise has been used to customise systems to meet specific requirements in the storage and retrieval of data.

Security
We take the security of our data seriously and have a strict IT policy and technologies in place, including the use of dual firewalls. We employ Verisign issued certificates, delivering 128 bit https encryption to our data, for both remote email collection and the client portal access. We also have the ability to encrypt our email traffic upon client request.

As many of our solicitors use laptops to facilitate working out of the office, we recognise that clients may have concerns about privileged information relating to their businesses falling into the wrong hands. To address this issue our laptops are all protected by a market leading security product safeguarding all information relating to any cases or instructions that we are working on.

We have comprehensive Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans in place and have also been members of the Milton Keynes Business Resilience Forum from inception allowing us to monitor developments in this area.

Our Systems Manager continually monitors new technological developments in the legal sector to ensure Kimbells can deliver service to clients which remains a step ahead, through intelligent use of technology