Customer story

Innovative digital workplace gives Holla Advocaten the foundation for further growth

Holla Advocaten has to be able to rely on data being available. Ctac delivered an IT environment that provides every employee with fast and secure access to all the applications they need.

Ready for success

Jamie Broeren

Data Advisor

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Customer

Holla Advocaten

Label

Integratie, Modern Work

Reading time

Modern Workplace

Microsoft Office 365

Integration

Holla Advocaten has offices in 's-Hertogenbosch, Eindhoven and Utrecht. The approximately 120 employees advise business clients of all sizes, from SMEs and mid-cap companies to multinationals. "Holla is one of the fastest growing law firms in the Netherlands. Since March 2020, we have been working closely with UK law firm TLT so that we can also offer clients seamless cross-border legal service delivery." Bart Vastenburg - Holla’s Managing Director

The request: professionalisation and growing pains

“Holla is essentially underpinned by two fundamental elements”, explains Vastenburg. “Our legal specialists with their knowledge, experience and skills form the first. Data is the second. Our IT landscape is the key link between these two elements. It’s therefore essential that our IT systems run smoothly. Sharing information, researching data and digital communications are at the heart of our operations.”

“As our firm has grown in recent years, so have our IT needs, demands and capabilities. We wanted to be able to access the same digital facilities as the largest professional service providers in the Netherlands. That’s why we’ve constantly been implementing new, best-ofclass applications in recent years. But as we kept adding new applications and replacing old ones, we hit the limits of our IT landscape.”

Holla set up this landscape together with an IT partner in 2013. “It’s met our needs all this time”, says Vastenburg. “But it ran aground when we tried to take it a step further. Applications seized up, or we couldn’t open files quickly at critical moments. This meant we lost valuable time. We also noticed that our requirements and questions were becoming too complex for our partner at that time. We’d simply outgrown each other, and that’s why we started looking for a partner and a solution that could grow with us.”

The solution: services, integration and a challenge

In 2018, Holla issued a call for tenders in which the office was looking for a new system and a new IT partner to manage its digital workplace and application landscape. Vastenburg: “We were looking for a partner with a good track record, and one who was also able to meet our demanding requirements. We expect issues to be resolved in five minutes. In addition, we were looking for a scalable solution that would keep running if one component were to falter. We’d already chosen our core applications, and were therefore looking for a party that could integrate and combine these applications on a new managed platform.”

According to Vastenburg, Ctac’s pitch stood out in a number of ways. “Ctac listened carefully to what we wanted, and had a complete story that included consultancy, sales and service. The solution they outlined appealed to us because they challenged us. We asked them to offer two solutions: one under our in-house management and one in the cloud. But they said very firmly: ‘You don’t need to put your applications back under in-house management.’ They therefore immediately backed their cloud proposal. In the meantime, we were also ready to do this.”

"Thanks to the redesign, our landscape is now running extremely stable. Applications work faster, there are no more service interruptions and we always have access to our files. Our customers also benefit from this." Bart Vastenburg, Managing Director bij Holla

The impact: stability, speed and accessibility

The result of this proposal is now in place. Holla has a new, fresh IT infrastructure allowing the office to collaborate and communicate digitally and efficiently. “Thanks to this restructuring, our landscape is now extremely stable”, says Vastenburg. “And our employees have noticed this. Applications work faster, there are no more service outages, and we always have access to our files. Our customers also benefit from this.”

The modernisation actually came just in time, according to Vastenburg. “We went live just before the coronavirus outbreak. So when we suddenly had to work mainly from home, we changed from an office-based organisation into an almost ‘virtual organisation’ within three hours. We would never have been able to do that a few years back. Employees now have well-equipped laptops with cloud access and central support. Among other things, they’re reaping the benefits of Microsoft Office 365, Teams and our document management system iManage.”

The collaboration: an IT partner who grows with you

Vastenburg is pleased with Ctac’s role in the process. “The implementation and migration went smoothly and without any problems. Ctac worked well with our old IT partner as part of this. What also appeals to me is that Ctac continues to challenge us in a proactive way. This includes organising innovation sessions, where we exchange ideas and get to learn about new tools or ways of working more efficiently. Ctac helps us get more from our IT. They also provide an excellent service to our internal IT managers. Ctac also takes over first-line support if they’re absent. And that gives us peace of mind.”

“In the next few years, we want to continue with rapid growth and professionalisation at Holla Advocaten. This includes having a reliable, active IT partner. We’ve found that partner in Ctac.”