Technical innovation in the legal services industry continues apace. Providers need to work hard to keep their clients ahead if the pack and will the latest techniques and thinking at their disposal. Anexsys, a UK-owned company, is one such company providing deep technical expertise and customer service to the legal profession since 2004.
In an interview with Insights Success, Rob Crowley, Managing Director of Anexsys shares some relevant details on how the company works hard to provide innovative solutions to support the legal, corporate and government sectors.
- Give a brief overview of the company, its solutions and services?
We are a UK-owned, independent legal services business, specializing in electronic disclosure, managed services, custom software development, and archive digitization alongside secure legal reprographics.
We are an independent legal services business. Our team of experienced consultants and developers provide specialist advice and technical support to law firms, corporations and public sector clients.
Our services include e-discovery consultancy, managed services and custom software development which we provide from five locations across the UK.
Innovation is at the heart of everything we do. Essentially, we are a group of passionate and highly motivated technologists aiming to push the boundaries of what can be achieved in the e-discovery industry.
- How do you diversify your ediscovering solutions in ways that would benefit your clientele?
As well as developing our own software to complement Relativity, we regularly collaborate with our clients to create bespoke e-discovery software solutions which are specifically tailored to their needs. We are driven by our desire to find simple, intelligent solutions that work. Having a small, dedicated custom development team allows us to be agile when translating our clients’ needs into software solutions. Our custom development team includes Relativity project managers and certified Relativity administrators, which gives us the ideal platform to understand the potential limitations of Relativity and the intended workflow.
- Describe the experiences, achievements or lessons learnt that have shaped the journey of the company.
For the past three years running, we have achieved Relativity’s ‘Best in Service – Blue’ designation from Relativity. We are one of a very small number of providers to have obtained this designation, which is awarded to firms who provide clients with an outstanding Relativity experience.
Consistently meeting that standard has given us an appetite for operating at the highest level, which has had a really positive knock on effect in other areas of our business. Last year we became part of the Crown Commercial Service RM3717 eDisclosure Framework which means that we are authorized to handle HM Government material at the highest Government Security Classification. Earlier this year we obtained the Cyber Essentials accreditation, which means that an independent assessor has verified the organization’s ability to guard against cyber threats.
Recently, we’re particularly pleased that our cutting-edge electronic bundling and batch printing solutions; Document Folio Exhibit and Document Folio Illuminate have had a very warm reception from our law firm clients.
- How does the company contribute towards making the industry better?
We speak our clients’ language so that they can work with us to help them find the best technical solutions. We also recognize the value in e-discovery software and the need to give future lawyers practical experience in using it. This motivated us to lecture as part of an e-discovery master’s course run by the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University London.
Students were introduced to the core features of the leading e-discovery review platforms and they were given insights into electronic data, filtering, applying analytics and implementing a review workflow. We are passionate innovators and we love developing new solutions to technical problems. It is essential that innovation, pace and acceleration is at the core of what providers do to support and shape the legal community.
- Tell us about the Founder/CEO/Management of the company and his experience and influences in this field?
Rob Crowley the managing director of Anexsys. Rob has 10 years’ experience in the fields of IT, computer forensics and e-discovery.
Rob started his career within the forensic technology team at the accountancy firm KPMG, before moving to Ernst & Young (EY). During his time at EY, Rob helped implement Relativity, and led one of Europe’s largest e-discovery engagements relating to a government IT arbitration.
Our Head of Technical Services is Jon Chan, a computer scientist. Jon was one of the first practitioners in the UK to gain Relativity Certified Administrator accreditation. With an extensive e-discovery and project management consultancy background at EY over four years; Jon led the technical approach for a global FCPA investigation for a Fortune 100 company involving several hundred custodians across over 20 countries.
Rob and Jon had a joint vision for an innovative, full-service specialist eDiscovery ‘house’ where all consultants could provide expert insight and solutions to end-clients – they joined the Hobs Group in 2013 and then began to grow the Anexsys vision – consistently growing the client-base and turnover every year since.
- Where does Anexsys see itself in the long run and/or what are its future goals?
The core of our long-term strategy is our commitment to innovation and development. This is not only through the custom software we develop inhouse but also via strategic partnerships with legal-tech companies like Ayfie, who we recognize will enhance the service we provide to our clients.
We see a future where our relationship with our clients is very much a partnership rather than the traditional ‘service provider’ model of delivery ediscovery services. We believe that in order to truly innovate, and to create solutions that our clients will benefit from, we must make that journey together in co-production and collaboration.
- Considering the rising number of e-discovery solution providers, how does Anexsys stand out from its competitors?
Being independently, UK-owned keeps us agile and focused on our market, giving our clients the benefit of all of our resources.
Our ability is to develop Relativity enhancing custom software is unparalleled, something that is recognized by our competitors, many of whom have licensed versions of our software.
