DJ O’Meara Solicitors have seen many changes throughout their 130-year history and have learned a thing or two about how to adapt. Switching to cloud-based servers seemed like a no-brainer for the firm, and when COVID-19 hit, their pandemic-proof system turned out to be a godsend for business continuity.
The Challenge
David J. O’Meara & Sons Solicitors, based on the main street of Mallow, have been representing clients since 1889. The practice continues to be operated by the O’Meara family, with third-generation partners David and Kevin O’Meara currently owning the firm. The office has four other solicitors and twenty employees in total.
Their legal practice is very broad, working on everything from debt collection in the lower courts, right up to the most serious of cases in the Supreme Court. Families have been turning to DJ O’Meara for their legal needs for generations. As you can imagine, this creates plenty of paperwork, countless files, and a lot to manage in terms of GDPR requirements.
Solicitor Fiona O’Sullivan came to the firm in 2006 as a college student and has worked almost every role in the office since then. Her understanding of how the practice operates was beneficial to the consideration of how a cloud-based solution could improve the workflow for the practice, and as an existing client of Radius, it was easy to make the change.
The Solution
“When moving to the cloud, the customer service we received was just excellent,” says Fiona, from the first day, Radius was prompt in dealing with problems head-on. They did whatever needed to be done”. Having the system up and running when the first wave of the pandemic hit meant that DJ O’Meara could pivot to remote working easily with no effect on business continuity.
“When we all went home in March, it only took ten minutes on the phone to be set up to work from home. It was brilliant to have that flexibility to shift to home working so quickly” says Fiona.
As we all learned to live with the virus over the past year, asynchronous working has become more common, to maintain social distancing between employees in workplaces with a reduced capacity.
Radius Cork Regional Director, Kevin O’Regan, said: “Thanks to their cloud-based system, DJ O’Meara were not only able to facilitate an emergency “lift and shift” of staff to remote working in March but can now accommodate employees’ schedules which incorporate a mix of remote and on-site working. Everyone can move seamlessly from home to office through the working week, without any loss in productivity”.
Security is key for a legal business, like many other service providers, and DJ O’Meara found comfort in the ISO9001 and ISO27001 accreditation of Radius Technologies, with Dublin-based cloud servers located in a BT Data centre.
“Any remotely suspicious emails are picked up before we even see them, which is very reassuring,” says Fiona. “Transactions such as money transfers can also be conducted securely, and without the need to transport hardware or paper documents, all our files can stay safe.”
Beyond the security and flexibility that the cloud gave the firm, Fiona was at pains to stress the excellence of Radius’ customer service: “From the first day, the engineers were prompt in responding to minor issues and dealt with problems head-on. Kevin, in particular, was very proactive in the cloud transition process,” says Fiona. She commends the efforts that Radius Technologies made during the cloud migration process.“They did whatever needed to be done. I can’t say any more than that,” said, Fiona.
For more information on the benefits of moving to the Radius Cloud and how we can help with business continuity, speak to our sales team on 0818 592 500 or email sales@radius.ie.
