From chasing invoices to a 15-minute onboard.

The Situation

When a five-person Christchurch law firm came to us, they were already paying for IT support from one of New Zealand's largest providers. The coverage looked fine on paper. The reality was a different person every call, generic answers to specific questions, and no one who could actually resolve anything.

The clearest example was an invoice dispute. The firm spent months chasing it. Every contact led somewhere else. It took an embarrassingly long time to reach the right person and get a straight answer. For a practice where time is billed and client matters can't wait on hold, that's not a support model - it's a liability.

One of the partners decided enough was enough.

The Transition

His biggest concern when we met wasn't the cost of switching. It was the process. He'd been through IT transitions before and expected the worst - disruption, downtime, being pulled into decisions he had no time for.

We were straightforward with him. We'd handle the transition. We needed his authority and a brief introduction to get started. Beyond that, we'd only come to him when it genuinely required a partner's sign-off.

That's how it went.

What We Found

After the transition we ran our full onboarding audit - a checklist of nearly 100 items covering security, licensing, backup, and day-to-day operations. The findings weren't a shock to us. We see this pattern regularly with firms coming off large national providers. But they were serious:

• No off-site backup. Client files, correspondence, matter records - none of it protected if something went wrong.
• Licensing gaps. That left the firm exposed both legally and technically.
• Security that amounted to basic antivirus and nothing else. No EDR, no email filtering, no DNS filtering, no staff security awareness training.

We went through everything with the partner, prioritised what needed sorting immediately, and put together a roadmap so the firm knew what was coming and what to set aside budget for. Four years later, every item on that list has been dealt with.

Where They Are Now

The firm has grown since we came on board. New staff get set up and ready to work within 15 minutes - laptop on the desk, a short personalised intro from one of our team, and they're running. The partner submits a quick request through our client portal or rings us. That's the full extent of his involvement.