16th December 2022
Scottish Government Legal Directorate (SGLD) is on a journey to improve and modernise their services
Back in 2020 the Scottish Government Legal Directorate (SGLD)) created an Improvement Programme, focused on improving and modernising their legal services. This was aligned to the Scottish Government (SG) vision which puts the people they serve at the heart of everything they do, using digital thinking and approaches to strengthen their work and always searching for new ways to learn and improve..
A priority of the SGLD Improvement Programme was implementing a cloud-based Legal Case Management System
Investigation
Working collaboratively with their IT services support division, iTECS, and their framework contract partner, market leader in GovTech software and services provider Civica, was selected as the best partner to develop and implement a legal Case Management System (CMS) to streamline litigation and employment law case management within SGLD.
ALISON WILSON,
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME MANAGER,
SGLD
In order to fulfil our Directorate's purpose of providing a high-quality legal service, we require the appropriate tools to be in place. The new system will transform the way our litigators and employment law solicitors manage their casework by increasing efficiency and consistency, while mitigating risk.
Preliminary
The CMS implementation began in earnest in October 2021 with the project being led internally by a team of ‘super’-users in the Business Division of SGLD who have worked with Civica to develop their skills to support this change. The system is initially being implemented in the Litigation and Employment Law teams.
"The new system increases consistency in the way that work is managed across the Directorate and enables cases to be easily tracked, assigns tasks and flags up essential deadlines automatically, meaning solicitors can focus on the case, rather than a long list of administration.” Alison Wilson admires the efficiency of the system, also its flexibility “when colleagues go on leave, another member of their team can more easily pick up and progress the case.”
SHIRLEY FERGUSON,
DEPUTY DIRECTOR,
LITIGATION DIVISION, SGLD
The new system will transform the way we work, this is a really exciting time for SGLD as everyone in our Litigation and Employment Law teams is fully engaged with the project and reaping the benefits. I am really grateful to Alison and the team for all their hard work to get us to this significant milestone.
Taking into consideration the cooperation needed to integrate the CMS with the cybersecurity, email and document retention systems, iTECS Customer Relations Manager, said "I'm delighted with the way iTECS has collaborated with SGLD and Civica to ensure that the system integrates with the SCOTS network; it's an excellent example of utilising a Cloud-based system to help achieve business goals." He appreciates “The project has demonstrated to me the value of collaboration and regular, open communication to overcome hurdles and reach solutions.”
Appealing
Civica Legal Case Management ensures all SGLD users have access to a modern secure, responsive cloud-based solution that provides value for money and enable remote working from anywhere, resilience and high-availability.
Helming the project on behalf of Civica, Business Development Manager Richard Beard utilised all his experience to advise “while it is vital to define all objectives and requirements early in the process, the plan must remain agile enough to develop as circumstances require.” He also recommends getting “full input and involvement from all involved, including senior project sponsors, your in-house or managed service provider, for wider IT integration, and all users and internal stakeholders. This allows buy-in and can add value to the process from an early stage.”
Raising the bar
Looking to continue to simplify the system accessibility, iTECS leveraged the existing cloud-based Identity and Access Management platform (Okta), to allow for secure password-less access for all users of the Civica CMS, which can integrate with third-party solutions.
Cross-examination
Moving into 2023 SGLD and Civica are planning User Group meetings at Scottish Government premises for those at all stages in the legal CMS lifecycle; This provides the opportunity for in-person local training, networking, and sharing of user best practice.