Award winning Chambers

Our client, a prominent and thriving chambers, has developed a reputation for excellence, intellectual rigour in insurance, re-insurance and all aspects of commercial litigation. Balreed rolled out a multi-device solution to streamline their printer needs.

The company
Their success in the insurance sector is irrefutable as they have won the Insurance Set of the Year Award numerous times and the Insurance Silk of the Year Award. The experienced Clerk has been with the chambers for many years and values the service Balreed provides to all his colleagues.

The problem
“Eight years ago, we replaced two old copiers with networked machines from a well-known manufacturer. At the time, scanning was just beginning to feature as part of our daily work. The copiers had the early capability to scan, but the function wasn’t easy to use and it was time intensive.

“With the continued success and subsequent expansion of the company, we invested in two new machines and upgraded the scanning software across the whole fleet. This was essential given the greatly increased volume of scanned document traffic we were seeing. Although the new scanning suite was an improvement, it was laborious and counter intuitive to use.

 “After a while, we started to experience major reliability problems and the older devices in particular became more and more problematic. The situation worsened, until 12 months ago, when we asked to discuss the problems with the manufacturer. There was no offer to compromise and it became obvious that the only real solution was for us to purchase new equipment. This was disappointing as it made me realise that we were only a small cog in a big machine and we weren’t getting the level of customer care we needed. This was despite a relationship that had been going for many, many years.”

The solution
“We invited several potential suppliers to come up with a solution to our printing, copying and scanning needs. Balreed was one of the contenders and I was immediately struck by their no-nonsense, plain talking approach. I was also most interested that Balreed were located within the Temple. This seemed to me to be an added bonus as we needed a company able to provide chambers with a good, reliable service.

“Importantly, they seemed to understand the workings of chambers and knew that a simpler scanning suite in particular would serve us well. It would have been easy for them to recommend a much more expensive but arguably superfluous option.

“One of my biggest concerns was that however frustrating our old equipment may have been, it was a system we were used to using on a daily basis. Any wholesale changes to the equipment introduced the possibility of major difficulties for the users.

“Balreed was also competitively priced which was a great bonus.

“On delivery day, as many as eight people from Balreed attended at some point. An experienced and careful delivery team, the sales consultants, IT and installation engineers were all in attendance. The approach to delivery and installation was so hands on that to my mind it ensured the whole process happened smoothly and without a hitch. I should add that our own IT department was very impressed with the knowledge and capability of the Balreed team.

“And, I needn’t have worried about chambers struggling to get to grips with the changes to the equipment and the various interfaces. As promised, the new machines are simple to use and the training provided has been excellent. Just knowing that we can arrange further training sessions and can even speak to the trainer direct at any time is extremely reassuring.

“Throughout the entire process Balreed have demonstrated a flexible approach and willingness to support and make sure our needs are satisfied – something that we felt was lacking in our relationship with our previous supplier.

“We’ve only had one problem with the equipment since installation. The front door of a device wouldn’t shut properly. Needless to say, it was fixed within 90 minutes.”