Stephensons Solicitors LLP, a North West law firm with over 25 partners, identified the need to improve their procedures relating to the issue and control of cheque payments.
Jim Thirkettle, Director of Operations at Stephensons contacted Norwel, their practice management system partners, to discuss possible solutions to this problem.
Norwel, having recognised that their customers were looking for improvements in this area, had already partnered with Advanced Secure Technologies, to provide their Digital Cheques Solution as an additional facility for the Norwel system.
At Norwel's request, Advanced Secure met with Jim and his team to determine their exact requirements. These included;
- The issue and control of 150 cheque payments per day
- Reduction in time spent by partners signing cheques
- Improvement on distribution of each cheque to fee earners
- Easier sorting for countersignatures
- Improved laser printed quality
- Elimination of different cheque stocks
Digital Cheques is a secure software application, designed to improve both the efficiency and security of corporate cheque payments. It also applies partners’ digital signatures using a process approved by the Law Society.
The efficiency improvements gained by Stephensons were so significant that Jim Thirkettle commented: “When we looked at purchasing Digital Cheques, we were able to justify the capital expenditure by showing a payback for the system in less than 12 months. This meant that the improvements in security were effectively achieved with no additional cost.”
Alan Richardson, Sales Director, Norwel stated: “We (Norwel) had previously worked with Cobbetts, another customer of ours, who had already successfully installed the Digital Cheques Solution. This install had been very good for their business and therefore in-keeping with our marketing strategy to offer class leading technologies, we had no hesitation in agreeing a product partnership with Advanced Secure.
Advanced Secure Technologies Director, Georgina Lee concluded: “Our work with Cobbetts had shown how well both Norwel and Digital Cheques worked together, and as such when we were contacted by Stephensons we were confident of successfully delivering our solution.”
About Stephensons:
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The latest edition of Legal 500 ranks Stephensons as a top 100 UK law firm and the fifth largest legal practice in the North West.
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The company has over 25 partners and 400 staff in five locations, including Manchester, Wigan, Bolton, Leigh and St Helens.
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In the year to December 2007 the total value of transactions the company completed exceeded £3.7 billion.
