Wilson Nesbitt improves client’s digital journey with introduction of Focis portal
Wilson Nesbitt is a leading law firm in Northern Ireland, boasting a large portfolio of clients across the Real Estate & Construction, Banking & Financial Services and Individual & Family Life sectors. Wilson Nesbitt is also one of the largest independent law firms in Northern Ireland specialising in conveyancing and lender instructed remortgage cases.
Plans were in place in early 2020 to redevelop the underlying platform behind the firm’s client portal and case tracking facilities. The core aims of the redevelopment were to provide enhanced security as well as providing modern and intuitive tools allowing the client to easily track their case progress and communicate with the firm. The arrival of the pandemic made these aims even more important.
While in the process of developing the enhanced client portal it was also recognised that a mobile app would further enhance the digital journey for clients and customers.
The case tracking portal and mobile app were developed and launched during subsequent lock-downs.
Client adoption of the online portal and mobile app has been staggering, with over 70 percent of clients actively using these tools since launch. Crucially, the firm now has in place a technology foundation to further build on its digital communication programme.
Wilson Nesbitt have worked hand in hand with Focis as their technology partner, utilising their platform and significant sector experience to develop and continue to grow their digital offerings.
Proactivity in the hour of need
With the almost overnight shift to home working in 2020, foreseeing the challenges for service delivery and the long-term disruption to the business environment that the pandemic potentially posed, Wilson Nesbitt proactively explored new communication measures and ways of working for the benefit of staff, clients and partners alike.
Ian Creighton, Conveyancing Director at Wilson Nesbitt, explains:
“We had been providing case tracking via our website for over a decade, and the time had arrived to make another leap in how we communicated and engaged with our clients. The hurdles posed by lockdown helped to shape the functionality of the new web portal and mobile app, and what Focis have delivered has helped modernise our approach to meet clients’ ever developing expectations and preferences for delivery of customer service.”
The firm devised a digital communications strategy, with an online portal and a mobile app among the first deliverables of the programme.
Solid foundations
Efficient business processes, workflows and clearly defined key stages are fundamental for the creation of portals and mobile apps. As a long-time and mature user of Visualfiles, Wilson Nesbitt already had the key workflows in place. Significant development effort has taken place over a number of years to develop efficient processes to support the client and customer journey. Visualfiles underpins the business as the core case management system with all types of cases – from conveyancing and remortgages to recovery and debt management – managed end-to-end throughout the case lifecycle. The firm also integrate directly from their case management systems with a number of lender and commercial clients.
Natasha Adamson, Partner and Director of Lender Services at Wilson Nesbitt comments:
“A quality and adaptive case management system allows us to process large volumes of work efficiently and proactively and ensures that our clients receive a seamless service. It also allows us to connect with our clients’ and panel managers’ systems to ensure real time instructions and updates are communicated automatically without the need for manual input, as well as enabling us to transfer data and documents between our systems to maximise efficiency, reduce errors from manual data entry and enhance the end user experience.”
Introducing Focis Portal
Wilson Nesbitt selected Focis, a data portal and bespoke development provider for law firms and to implement these modern communications tools. Focis hand-held the firm through all the phases of the project.
Focis wrote custom APIs to seamlessly integrate their portal and mobile app with Visualfiles. These APIs take data from the portal and run Visualfiles scripts to insert that data into the Visualfiles Pro2SQL real-time data warehouse, where the information is stored. This process then automatically initiates starts the workflows to take the cases through the various stages to completion.
With Visualfiles being the core data source for both the tools, case handlers continue to work from within the case management system, sharing information and communicating simultaneously via the portal and the mobile app. For example, case handlers are able to securely share key documents with clients directly from within Visualfiles that show in the portal and the mobile app.
Similarly, Focis built in new messaging functionality. This new messaging workflow takes the messages received from clients – be they via the portal or the mobile app – into Visualfiles and enables the case handlers to respond back directly from within the case management system. Regardless of the tool used by the client, the user experience is exactly the same.
Explaining why Focis Portal was instrumental to Wilson Nesbitt’s communications strategy, Paul Ryan, CEO and Founder of Focis, says, “Having worked in Law Firms in Systems and Development Management roles and then in other sectors exploring portal and data integration I saw the need for a heavily customisable platform independent data portal to improve client communication and connect clients to workflow. Firms have invested huge sums in the hard part of process automation. Our portal lets a Law Firm connect their clients to that automation. It saves the firms time and improves the client experience
User adoption speak volumes
Wilson Nesbitt launched the branded portal in May 2020 with phenomenal success. The mobile app followed in March 2021. Today, client adoption sits at more than 70 percent.
Adele Summers, IT Director at Wilson Nesbitt comments:
“As a firm, we are always striving to utilise technology to improve and develop our client and customer digital experience whilst maintaining the highest levels of security. The speed with which Focis developed the portal and mobile app to sit alongside our existing applications is commendable. It made a material difference to our service during 2020.”
Security of data is of key importance to Wilson Nesbitt, demonstrated by its Cyber Essentials Plus and ISO 27001 accreditations. For the client portal, security is assured as digital access to information goes beyond traditional log in process via email and password. The utilisation of two-factor authentication ensures an extra level of protection.
Today, clients and customers are enjoying a significantly enhanced quality of service, and a consistent experience across the portal and the mobile app. They have real-time visibility of the status of their cases.
Mobile app users can also opt for push notifications, alerting them to new activities or messages on their case. For queries and clarification, clients are able to use the instant messaging feature, which has proven to be very popular, reducing the number of incoming calls to case handlers by over 25 percent.
Feedback from clients and customers speaks volumes on the benefits provided by the portal and app:
“Access to the app was so helpful to track the progress of the case…”
“…Particularly satisfied with the online system which was updated daily”
“The app was particularly useful and allowed me to keep up-to-date with our remortgage process. Messages via this were responded to in a timely manner. Thank you.”
“We completed a full remortgage including additional borrowing without as much an appointment and never had to make contact with anyone about updates thanks to the online case system. Couldn’t have been completed easier.”
The overwhelming positivity towards Wilson Nesbitt’s customer service is reflected in its recent awards win at the ESTAs in which estate agents and conveyancers are awarded based entirely on client feedback.
Case handlers’ productivity has also been significantly enhanced. They continue to work from within the in-house applications and seamlessly communicate across both the tools. For instance, they can select the documents they need to share from within the case management system, and with the click of a mouse, make available to clients in the portal and the app. Similarly, they can respond to instant messages directly from within Visualfiles.
Digital springboard
Wilson Nesbitt has ambitious plans to build on the functionality of the portal and mobile app. In the immediate future, the firm is looking to implement Focis Web Form Module to allow clients to self-populate key client information. These will be automatically stored in Visualfiles, automating and speeding up the on boarding and case initiation processes.
There are also plans to create customised portals for different key clients and contacts, complete with branding. For example, for individual broker clients, the firm is looking to create portals that allow the specific organisations to have a complete view of their business with Wilson Nesbitt.
With the right foundations and a strong platform in place, Wilson Nesbitt will work with Focis to enhance and develop the digital journey for clients and customers at every opportunity.
Focis Futures
Focis hope to match the ambitions of clients like Wilson Nesbitt in their drive for better client service. Paul Ryan concluded
“Finding the right people to work with is really important for us both in terms of law firms and other legal tech suppliers. We bring our huge experience working for both suppliers and law firms to ensure our Products complement rather than dictate what solutions a firm already has in place. We will relentlessly look to enhance and improve how clients of legal services engage with their firms. That will bring a document signature and AML integration early next year. We are just completing our third Web App launch in the last six months and with a great platform our approach will always be to blend standard product and bespoke development to get the right solution”
