Case Study: Eurotunnel
Successful email-driven working with Iken Matter Management
Since its historic opening in 1994, the Eurotunnel Group has been responsible for the successful operation and management of the Channel Tunnel rail link between Folkestone and Calais. A popular travel choice thanks to the quick journey time and frequency of services, the tunnel sees over 270 trains pass through it each and every day.
Providing legal advice to such a dynamic, high profile company results in a highly diverse workload for Eurotunnel’s legal team, as Legal Director Ken Morrison explains.
“The legal work we undertake here is hugely varied. We advise on everything from consumer issues, to purchase of trains, to litigation disputes, and it’s made more challenging by the fact that we’re dealing with issues in both English and French law.”
With the legal department split over two locations, one in England and one in France, Ken was keen to explore ways to unify the team, whilst dealing more effectively with the emails that make up the bulk of their correspondence. After reviewing several software systems, the team selected Iken Matter Management software as the solution best placed to meet their needs:
“Our whole team of lawyers was involved in the decision making process, and we all felt that Iken was the best and easiest to use of the systems that we saw. It was important to us that the software integrated seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook, because that really is the base for everything we do.”
In this case study, Ken explains the benefits that Iken has delivered to the legal team so far.
“With Iken we can keep complete virtual files”
As the vast majority of their work is received and progressed via email, Eurotunnel’s legal team finds that efficient control of this correspondence is key to productive daily working.
“Emails are central to our work – they are the first thing we check in the morning and the last thing we look at before leaving the office. Iken’s real greatest benefit is that we can store everything centrally in complete electronic files, so they’re easy for any team member to find and we have a complete audit trail if we need it.”
“It supports effective collaboration – even between different countries”
The legal team deals with some matters which span both French and English jurisdictions, meaning members of the department working at different locations need to work closely together.
“Because everything’s filed in one place, Iken definitely assists English and French lawyers in working together. In fact it helps with joint working irrespective of the geography, whenever one team member needs to share with the others what they’re doing.”
“It’s easier to cover for absence and changes in staffing”
For Eurotunnel’s proactive legal team, the ability to provide continuity of service is a high priority – and they successfully remain responsive whatever the circumstances, with Iken’s support.
“Nobody now would hesitate to use Iken to read an electronic file in order to understand what’s going on with a matter, whether it’s because someone’s on holiday or because a member of the team has left. For example, we’ve had a new staff member join us in the last few weeks, and she’s immediately got into the habit of looking up matters, going to the start of the list of documents and reading the email chain to get up to speed, which is very useful.”
“Detailed management information lets us keep the wider organisation informed”
With their services in high demand, one of Eurotunnel’s original objectives in implementing a Matter Management system was to gain a more detailed insight into how the legal team’s time was being spent. Iken’s optional integrated activity monitoring comes complete with a comprehensive suite of management reports, so managers can review departmental activity in detail.
“The Eurotunnel Group is growing and developing, so lots of areas of the organisation need our advice. Iken has helped us quantify a variety of things, such as the time we’re spending on these different areas of the business, so we’ve got a clearer idea of what everyone’s working on. This has meant we’re able to produce charts which show departments what matters we’re working on for them and which lawyers are actually undertaking the work, which have been well received.”
“Iken’s an integral part of the way we work”
When asked whether he would recommend Iken software to other corporate counsel, Ken answers:
“I would certainly be singing Iken’s praises to anyone who doesn’t have a centralised system for storing their emails. We’ve become very dependent on Iken – it’s very much a part of what we do now and the way we work.”
For more information on Iken Solutions for Corporate Legal teams, visit our website: www.iken.biz/corporatelegal or call us on: 44 117 373 0790, or on 0845 450 9201
from the UK.