| Top global law firm moves in Rendezvous |
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| Clifford Chance is one of the world’s largest law firms, with offices in most major cities.
In May June 2004 the New York office moved its 77 partners, 300 lawyers and hundreds of associates and support staff into new state-of-the-art office space, complete with its own in-house conference centre. Early on, the team, headed by Cynthia Jacquet, the assistant manager of Conference/Concierge Services, decided that their in-house legacy system could not cope with expanded meeting room and conference management.
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The team knew they needed a conference centre system to match the sophistication of their new space.
The choice: Rendezvous, the next generation browser-based solution from NFS Hospitality. “Actually we knew way back that our system was not sophisticated enough so we were looking for a system that had all the functionalities that a law firm of our size and calibre requires,” says Heidi Hodges, Conference Services Assistant. “This includes a search function and the ability to input new bookings with ease. It also includes an efficient confirmation procedure and the ability to specify times of service for catering.”
The list goes on: “We needed a system that would enable us to input set-up and breakdown times and to specify status (such as confirmed or pending). We also wanted to attach our contacts and track other properties, such as offsite offices or meeting rooms. We all knew we needed an integrated system,” she says.
The search for an integrated system
The search began well in advance of the move. “We looked at other systems, including other browser-based systems, but our head office in London used a system from NFS and we were soon convinced,” Heidi says. “Rendezvous is a robust system that meets all our needs.”
Edward Ryaboy, IT liaison at the firm, said that other browser-based systems still required local installation or new PC components. “We aimed for zero client installation – and we got it,” he notes. “In a big firm like this, everyone needs access and we wanted as little disruption as possible. With Rendezvous, we needed no local installation at all and no new hardware. We had great support from NFS so the installation went very smoothly.”
At present, eight to ten people have full access, with Heidi and Cynthia having exclusive administrative rights. A number of others have read-only access.
In the new premises Clifford Chance has 20 meeting rooms and another 20 in a fourth-floor conference centre. The rooms accommodate from four to 50 people and can open up to seat 120 for a meeting. For receptions the capacity is about 200. The firm has its own in-house catering staff.
At present attorneys still use e-mail or the telephone to request meeting rooms but the firm is looking forward to implementing the Enterprise User Interface (EUI) in Rendezvous. This works like a corporate Intranet to allow requests online.
Enhanced integration
Clifford Chance also like the linkage provided in Rendezvous. For enhanced user convenience, the system permits integration with Microsoft Outlook and Active Directory. The firm is already using Active Directory and is looking at the possibility of linking to MS Outlook. Billing is exported to the firm’s accounting system.
“For a busy place like this, with so many people and visitors, this system has made every aspect of booking much easier and enabled us to manage the entire meeting room process much more efficiently,” Heidi says. “We look forward to using even more Rendezvous functionality.”
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