Global partnership for comprehensive mobile solutions

The customer

An integrated global law firm Clifford Chance is one of the world’s largest law firms. It advises financial institutions, commercial enterprises and state and regulatory bodies on complex and critical legal issues. With 33 offices in 23 countries throughout the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, Clifford Chance offers in-depth local knowledge and a uniquely global perspective.

Clifford Chance lawyers advise clients both internationally and domestically; under common law and civil law systems; in local and cross-border transactions; on day-to-day operations and the most challenging deals.

The firm is structured around six global practice areas:

• Banking and Finance
• Capital Markets
• Corporate / Mergers & Acquisitions
• Litigation and Dispute Resolution
• Real Estate
• Tax, Pensions and Employment

Each area comprises industry-focused teams dedicated to delivering incisive advice. Clifford Chance employs more than 6,800 people, including more than 3,000 lawyers.

The challenge

Keeping employees in touch

For a leading law firm like Clifford Chance, it is necessary to create and support a working culture that allows its people to offer consistently high standards of client service wherever they are. Its lawyers work with and travel to clients all around the globe and need to remain in constant touch with the office and their customers. Agility in responding to the needs of clients is absolutely paramount to the company.

The need for access encompasses both voice and data. In order to stay in touch with their clients, Clifford Chance looks for reliable cross-border mobile voice services. Lawyers regularly need remote access in order to stay on top of cases and deliver consistent customer service. The service should enable its staff to exchange information and electronic documents with the office and clients irrespective of time and place.

Because mobile voice and data communication services are essential to the international operations of Clifford Chance, the company requires reliable planning and budgeting in this area. Responsible managers must be able to identify unexpected increases in mobile communication expenditure to take action as early as possible.

To fill these needs, Clifford Chance requires an international expense management tool that helps the company understand the usage and expenditure of all mobile activities throughout its offices.

In concrete terms, this meant that the solutions had to meet the following requirements:

• Mobile access to e-mail in order to remain in constant touch with clients and the office while on the move
• Seamless international mobility with a single device
• Highly reliable services with a focus on quality and consistency across all Clifford Chance offices
• Clear breakdown of costs and information on usage and expenditure via a central reporting tool
• Teaming up with the best-in-class mobile providers and benefiting from a single point of contact to procure centrally
• Best value for money and creating economies of scale
• Global support for international service queries
• Transparency in communication and cooperation over the international footprint

The solution

Harmonised mobile services from Deutsche Telekom group and FreeMove

Harmonized mobile services from Deutsche Telekom group and FreeMove. Deutsche Telekom is able to offer Clifford Chance mobile managed services with substantial benefits, thanks to its transatlantic operations and membership in FreeMove.

Combined with an attractive pricing structure and, above all, a wide international roaming footprint, FreeMove enables Clifford Chance lawyers to communicate throughout the world wherever they need to. Overall, FreeMove simplifies the law firm’s business in 13 countries across Europe, in the US and the Asia Pacific region via its cooperation with the Bridge Alliance, continuing the company’s drive to grow abroad.

Further underlining FreeMove’s concept of simplicity on an international level, the appointed Global Account Manager (GAM) serves as the central contact person for the customer. As the central connection between customer requirements and the organization’s products and services he develops and presents an optimally tailored solution for the customer. The GAM for Clifford Chance introduced an aligned commercial approach across the relevant footprint in Europe and the US. Clifford Chance is also provided with the International Customer Support Manager (ICSM) – a dedicated central point of contact for all service-related issues including monitoring, controlling and reporting the service performance around the global footprint. To benefit from an excellent service and outstanding cooperation, the ICSM proposes and implements quality improvement plans.

Further part of the services offered to Clifford Chance is a customized central and regional expense management tool. The tool gives administrators the ability to choose how in-depth the report should be – from monitoring overall expenditure to detailed analysis of calls and costs. In addition, the solution has been integrated into the ServiceNow environment of Clifford Chance further enhancing efficiency and streamlining processes.

This tool consists of three different modules:

• Central Dashboard – offers centralised spend and usage analysis by region, country or site. Predefined KPIs and trends can be seen and downloaded in practical reports.
• Central Reporting – offers detailed overviews of all data relating to usage and spend related to mobile communication, which can all be sorted according to different variables like region, division, cost center, period

Clifford Chance is using all modules intensively while additional mobile-managed services are under discussion.