Case study Herbert Smith
Herbert Smith is a leading and full-service international legal practice, with a 1,100-lawyer network across Europe and Asia.
The Challenge
Herbert Smith's website had become increasingly important to their business, allowing them to communicate with clients, employees and potential graduate recruits. In 2004, they decided to replace their old website with a portal solution that would look more professional, be easier to manage, and would provide a foundation for the future development of their online strategy.
The Solution
Using Microsoft Content Management Server, Snow Valley built a global portal for Herbert Smith that would allow them to achieve their short-term objectives and give them scope for future growth.
Working closely with a variety of stakeholders at Herbert Smith, Snow Valley identified the law firm's key target audiences and followed a persona-based process to deliver a site design and navigation that would suit all user needs, while retaining a clean and polished look.
A workflow system ensures that staff around the world at Herbert Smith can create and upload content, which is then approved or amended by a central editorial team before it goes onto the live site. This allows content to be updated regularly and easily, whilst also maintaining quality and accuracy. It also reduces the workload for the IT team, as non-technical staff can manage the process independently.
Complying with accessibility law is of paramount importance to a professional services firm. Snow Valley built the portal so that it complies with W3C standards. This not only makes the site accessible to any user, but it has improved the site's rankings on search engines.
The Results
The new portal has improved Herbert Smith's online branding, and given them the ability to expand their online presence in future. It has also made life a great deal easier for the web editorial team, whilst improving the frequency of updates and therefore the freshness of the site's content.