Hoowla customer success story: Martin Elliot & Co.

Martin Elliott & Co is a small local firm in Colchester. With over 30 years in practice, the firm has built a reputation for delivering sound legal advice and support to its clients in the Colchester area.

The firm provides services that include residential and commercial conveyancing, wills, probate and lasting powers of attorney.

As well as wanting to embrace the advantages that technology offers, all at Martin Elliott & Co are committed to providing a personal touch. They understand that every client is unique and work hard to ensure that all clients receive the individual attention they deserve. This approach has helped them build long-lasting relationships with their clients, many of whom have been with the firm for years and have often recommended the later generations of their family.

As one of the first four firms in the country to be accredited by the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) in 2011, Martin Elliott & Co is committed to upholding the highest standards of service and professionalism. This prestigious accreditation is a testament to the firm’s dedication to providing clients with excellent legal services and their commitment to ongoing professional development.

Martin Elliott & Co has, since 2019, integrated Hoowla’s case management software into its practice to enhance commitment to client service.

With Hoowla’s case management software, Martin Elliott & Co has been able to utilise automated workflows to manage correspondence quickly and efficiently. The smart software identifies the required forms and documents for each case, auto-populating these documents wherever possible and reducing the need for manual drafting.

In addition to leveraging Hoowla’s case management features, Martin Elliott & Co has also been able to make the transition to its user-friendly Accounts system. This system allows the firm to efficiently manage their office and client ledgers, bill clients promptly, and reconcile accounts with ease.

The Accounts system offers custom nominal codes, enabling the firm to tailor their accounting to their unique needs. The system also provides real-time data and analytics, offering deep insights into the firm’s financial performance.

Overall, all at Martin Elliott & Co have been pleased with their transition to the Hoowla case management system and tell us about it below:

Hoowla is the third case management system that we have used over our 3 decades in practice. We find case management a necessary tool in managing our legal cases and accounts processes. Some of us are so old that we started out our careers with manual typewriters and Telex! Then, moving on to embrace the wonders of WORD and over time, used two different case management products, both based around creating documents in WORD.  These products served us well in their day but when these products were retired we found ourselves in the market for a replacement system. We very nearly went back to typewriters and Telex as the legal tech market had exploded with very sophisticated management tools that were too expensive and too overblown for a small firm. Hoowla was a bright spark offering an affordable solution in a scaleable way.

Hoowla is very different in that it is cloud-based, web-based and PDF based. No sign of Microsoft or WORD.  It has taken some getting used to but we have done it with excellent training and help from the team at Hoowla throughout.

Hoowla have always been helpful and proactive in responding to our exacting demands – not least of which is our constant requirement to drag the technologists back to printed output – we are not paperless (yet!).

Hoowla has lots of neat and useful features that we like to use – our Accounts team love the journal previews and the ability to output almost all data which gives freedom to create whatever reports they like. Some of our conveyancing staff enjoy using the Enquiries Management tool, which helps to keep on top of the pre-contract Enquiries process. Some of our conveyancing staff don’t like using it, and that is fine too, there are always other options with the Hoowla system.

The workflows can be as simple as you like or as complicated as you like. The workflows use highly customisable rules enabling us to create unique processes that suit our way of working.

Hoowla bring out new features and tools regularly and are always keen to have our feedback for suggestions and improvements. We find the pricing system to be simple, transparent and fair.

The portal for the clients is very easy to use – again it is customisable – so we can share as little or as much as the client wants via the portal.

No transition to a case management system is without its headaches and challenges and no system is perfect but the team at Hoowla have served us very well, and collaborated with us in creating a customisable system that helps us to efficiently deliver our legal services to our clients.

This article was submitted to be published by Hoowla as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.