Microsoft Dynamics CRM Selected by Reed Smith

Microsoft and Client Profiles chosen to deliver global CRM initiative.

REDMOND, Wash.— After extensive evaluation, Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM and CRM4Legal by Client Profiles Inc. have been chosen by Reed Smith LLP to provide innovative CRM technologies and consultancy services. The technology and services from Microsoft Corp. and Client Profiles are designed to complement and enhance the firm’s ongoing commitment to advancing its reputation as a global leader in client service among law firms. Reed Smith is one of the 15 largest law firms.

Reed Smith has more than 1,500 lawyers in 21 offices throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East, and has been repeatedly recognized for its excellence in client service. In 2007, Reed Smith was once again named to the BTI Client Service A-Team, ranking fourth among law firms in the United States for developing and maintaining superior client relationships.

Gregory B. Jordan, firmwide managing partner at Reed Smith and chairman of the senior management team and executive committee, leads the firm’s commitment to client services excellence. “We are dedicated to being one of the leading client service firms in the world and recognize that understanding our clients’ legal needs is critical to award-winning client service,” Jordan said. “We are partnering with Microsoft and Client Profiles on a firmwide, global CRM initiative to use technology to help us identify new opportunities for strengthening, broadening and deepening our existing client relationships. The technology will also enable the firm to streamline our methodology for integrating new attorneys that join laterally or through combinations with other firms.”

According to Meirion Jones, executive director of the firm’s Clients & Markets Group and CRM selection committee member, the goal of the comprehensive evaluation and selection process was clear. “The primary purpose of this initiative is to realize our vision of becoming the world’s leading relationship law firm. Microsoft, with its global software and services bandwidth and success with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Client Profiles, with its solid track record of implementing law firm business applications, have demonstrated the ability to collaborate with us on this important effort,” Jones said.

CRM4Legal for Microsoft Dynamics CRM will deliver distinct business benefits to Reed Smith, aligned with the firm’s vision of client service superiority:
•

Works the way law firms work. Microsoft® Office has become the law office desktop standard for more and more law practices, so having a CRM solution that is tightly integrated with the tools that law firms are already relying on represents a high-tech advantage. This approach allows lawyers and their staff to accumulate valuable business development knowledge by capturing information through day-to-day workflow.
•

Offers the flexibility to fit all types of practices. Client Profiles’ more than 20 years of experience in the development and deployment of law firm technology, as well as its reliance on Microsoft technology architecture, ensures that Reed Smith will have the ability to configure and customize the new Microsoft CRM, introducing technology that fits specific practice areas.
•

Helps ensure faster and easier deployments. Microsoft architecture and the native integration capabilities help ensure faster and easier deployments than are customary with stand-alone CRM systems. Reed Smith will be able to simplify technology installations and utilize common configuration and customization tools to make the software much more applicable to specific practice groups to further reduce resource constraints.

“The path to CRM success is often blocked by poor user adoption, largely due to CRM systems that are unfamiliar and difficult to use,” said Brad Wilson, general manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM at Microsoft. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM works the way people work, through familiar Microsoft Office and Outlook® interfaces, which helps ensure active adoption and broad applicability to a wide variety of users and teams within organizations like Reed Smith.”

“Our CRM4Legal initiative has been very exciting, and working closely with Microsoft to develop this application has allowed us to deliver a solution that clearly represents the next generation of relationship management and practice development tools for the legal community,” said Whit McIsaac, president and CEO of Client Profiles. “Having the support of Reed Smith, along with its unique approach to client service, business development and growth strategies, is a huge benefit for Client Profiles and Microsoft. We are looking forward to working with the Reed Smith worldwide team in establishing a new benchmark for law office CRM implementations.”

CRM4Legal for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is designed to provide the firm with a global, firmwide database that combines contact data, relationship information, client-matter specifics, practice group specialties, lawyer experience and competencies, opportunity management, client plans and analysis, as well as key financial information. This will provide Reed Smith with a core system that facilitates the following:
•

Capturing and sharing of client and contact relationship information, and delivering intelligence for identifying new business opportunities
•

Maintaining a sophisticated mailing list for use with distribution and event management tools
•

Tracking and reporting on the effectiveness of marketing initiatives
•

Production of legal service notices, and industry-sector and geography-specific segmented marketing communications campaigns
•

Enrichment of client data by enabling clients to respond electronically to marketing communications and online surveys