The Travers Smith difference
Travers Smith is a law firm that goes beyond simply practising the law. Offering a wide spectrum of advisory, contentious, regulatory and transactional services the firm prides itself on acting as a fully inclusive team that encourages independence of thought and treats their clients’ business as their own. Headquartered in London, the firm has built carefully cultivated relationships with leading independent law firms around the world.
Shifting expectations of top talent and clients
Many organisations face similar challenges in terms of attracting and retaining top talent and new clients. For legal firms in particular, the expectations of both employees and clients are changing. New users expect to be able to work collaboratively regardless of where they are physically located; they also want the flexibility of working from home, office, coffee shop or airport lounge. Similarly, clients are now insisting on real-time status updates and information sharing, and to be able to consult with their legal teams using the latest applications.
As the team at Travers Smith was experiencing, all of the above can put pressure on existing network infrastructure and internal technology resources. They wanted to implement new communication and collaboration tools to enhance the user experience, and needed a technology partner to support them as they modernised the network to accommodate this.
A broader view of the network and security landscape
Following an initial meeting the team at Nomios UK promptly identified a number of ways of improving the reliability and performance of the network. Based on these recommendations, it became apparent that a more comprehensive assessment of the network environment could potentially uncover further opportunities to align the IT infrastructure at Travers Smith with its broader business goals.
The Nomios UK team undertook a full network security assessment just two weeks later. Shortly afterwards consultants from Nomios UK returned to share their findings with senior members of the technology team at Travers Smith.
The assessment showed that overall the network was well configured and stable, but that there were modifications that could be made to improve its reliability and ability to support increasing demands moving forward.
“Right from the outset we were extremely impressed with the team at Nomios UK. They not only demonstrated a high level of technical skill but also seemed to understand our goals and how we like to work straightaway. We also liked the fact that they’re independent – their first priority has always been to understand what we‘re trying to achieve as a business,” - David Cassidy, Head of Technology, Travers Smith.
A tailored managed solution
As a result of the knowledge and technical expertise demonstrated during the assessment senior members of the technology team at Travers Smith then wanted to investigate how Nomios UK could support them on an ongoing basis. Following an in-depth evaluation of the technology and broader business needs of Travers Smith, Nomios UK proposed a tailored managed service for the day-to-day running of the network, including performance and configuration enhancements, updates and patch management, and issues resolution.
In one instance, a potential network issue was identified by the team at Travers Smith over the weekend. Within two hours 12 people from Nomios UK were on a call, had identified the issue and found a solution.
“With Nomios UK taking responsibility for the daily management of the network we have been able to focus more resources on impactful, customer-facing projects” commented David Smith, Infrastructure Manager at Travers Smith. “As a company, we’re on a journey to empower our employees and deliver even better services to our clients. Nomios UK is helping us to do that both by managing our core network and advising on future projects.”
Planning for a secure and flexible future
Following the successful introduction of the tailored managed service, the team at Travers Smith is now engaged with Nomios UK on a number of future projects. This includes a full LAN refresh, as well as a potential managed security service covering Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and User Entity Behaviour Analytics (UEBA). Other solution areas that Nomios UK is advising on include Privileged Account Management (PAM), Secure Web Gateway (SWG) and Network Access Control (NAC).
As a result of an initial request for help with its Skype for Business deployment, Travers Smith is now working closely with Nomios UK on a number of future projects designed to ensure that employees, clients and associates of the law firm can work in a flexible and agile way, and that they are protected from the host of cyber security risks that face all organisations. In addition to technology-based solutions, Travers Smith also recognises the crucial importance of educating its users and ensuring that IT security awareness is part of the culture of the business.
“We know that technology is only part of the story when it comes to being more collaborative and secure. Making sure that our people and our data are protected is of paramount importance to us. The team at Nomios UK recognises this, and by working as an extension of our own IT team they are instrumental to helping us achieve it,” summarises David Cassidy.
Do you have a project you would like to discuss?
Give us a call or leave a message. We are looking forward to learn about your security project, infrastructure challenges or any other inquiries.