Case Study - Husch Blackwell LLP
Husch Blackwell makes big efficiency and productivity gains by switching to Kiteworks for transferring legal documents to clients and opposing counsel.
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Husch Blackwell LLP is a full-service litigation and business law firm with offices across the United States. The firm represents global leaders in agribusiness, food and beverage, energy, financial services, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and other industries. The firm’s history reflects almost a century of excellence, delivering the highest standards of legal services.
Struggling With Inefficient File Transfer
Husch Blackwell felt weighed down. Documentation for client cases and other data- intensive files put a huge stress on the firm’s email system. To offload a large percentage of the volume, the firm used hard drives, thumb drives, and DVDs. These file transfer alternatives, however, were inefficient, unsecure, and therefore unsustainable. “Our priority was offloading large file transfers to reduce the strain on our email system,” explains Blake Rooney, director of IT for the firm. “Once the need was outlined, we began zeroing in on solutions that would fit our business requirements.”
Husch Blackwell wanted to select a single solution for file sharing both internally and externally. One of the firm’s requirements was security—including data encryption and file notifications. Husch Blackwell’s industry peers recommended Kiteworks in product forums, and Husch Blackwell decided to evaluate the solution themselves.
Kiteworks stood out for its ease of use, high performance, and deployment
“Kiteworks brings a new level of accountability to our interactions. Thanks to the solution’s automatic notification functionality, I know when someone has received what I’ve sent. It’s a quick, secure and cost-effective way to send information.”
– Rodney Herbel,
Director of Litigation Services, Husch Blackwell
flexibility. “We chose Kiteworks in large part because it met twocritical requirements: the ability to share large files, and deliver a high level of security,” recalls Joel Peterson, systems manager for the firm. “Often clients couldn’t receive our files because of size limits within their email systems. Kiteworks eliminates that problem and as a result it’s proven to be a great solution for us.”
Deploying a Better Solution
The ability to send large files straight from email saves time Husch Blackwell’s litigation support team formerly spent copying content to a disk or thumb drive, and then mailing it to recipients. Additionally, the firm benefits from Kiteworks’ file notifications confirming exactly when documents have been received and downloaded by opposing counsel. “Kiteworks brings a new level of accountability to our interactions,” says Rodney Herbel, director of litigation services support. “Thanks to the solution’s automatic notification functionality, I know when someone has received what I’ve sent. It’s a quick, secure, and cost-effective way to send information.”
Case Study
Husch Blackwell Enhances Communications and Increases Productivity With Secure File Sharing
The set-and-forget technology and straightforward user interface have resulted in valuable time savings for Husch Blackwell. Kiteworks usage has not only reduced the need to burn documents to CDs and/or saving them to flash drives, but it has also unclogged email servers. “It’s a low-support implementation that didn’t create loads of help desk calls, and the product works as advertised,” Rooney relates.
The ability to send massive amounts of data digitally has also given the litigation support team extra hours to complete projects. Burning digital documents onto a CD or thumb drive and overnighting the package to opposing counsel is costly, both in money and man-hours. Now the litigation support team can work right up until the deadline to deliver the content. And with Kiteworks’ automatic notifications, the team knows the documents have arrived in time.
“Having a few extra hours to work on a project is sometimes critical,” Herbel concludes. “Kiteworks gives us that ability as we produce content for our clients’ cases.”
Needs
- Protect email system performance by offloading large files
- Provide safer and more time-efficient file transfer method than physical media
Kiteworks Solution
- Kiteworks Secure File Transfer
Business Impact
- Improved time efficiency by eliminating the need to burn to physical media and send in mail
- Enhanced security and accountability for content communications
- Improved governance via automatic notification of file transfer receipts
“We chose Kiteworks in large part because it met two critical requirements: the ability to share large files, and deliver a high level of security.”
– Joel Peterson, Systems Manager, Husch Blackwell
