Osprey Approach legal software trusted by Preuveneers for two decades

About Preuveneers

Preuveneers began in 1978 with Mr Preuveneers who was a sole practitioner for some time before the practice became a limited liability partnership in 2004. Since 2008, Managing Partner, Kelly Cirillo, together with joint owner Satbir Sethi have helped to grow Preuveneers LLP into a well-established high-street firm offering an extensive range of legal services including property, family, shared ownership, wills, and probate to hundreds of clients in South London.

Streamlining operations with a centralised platform

For over 40 years, Preuveneers have been providing a professional and friendly service to clients in South London. And for over two decades, they have used Osprey Approach to manage their matters and run their practice in the cloud. Kelly explains, “I’ve used Osprey ever since I’ve worked here. Osprey started out as an accounts software but has developed a lot to where it is now. I use it extensively to manage all areas of the firm and can adapt the software to benefit us including creating letters and configuring the workflows. I tailor it to whatever I need which is great.”

The firm uses Osprey to manage their cases and business accounts in the cloud, assisting them in providing clients with consistently high-quality legal services and maintaining their Lexcel accreditation. “We pretty much run the entire firm through Osprey. Letters are generated from Osprey, we work with the Outlook add-in too so all emails are exported to Osprey. Every time I create a letter more than twice, I save it as a standard letter so the firm can return to it again. We have hundreds saved, otherwise they’re never the same if you do it by memory and we like to provide a consistent, quality service.”

Utilising workflow automations to increase efficiency

Osprey provides firms with time-saving automations that increase efficiencies throughout the firm. Preuveneers take advantage of the document production features as well as the workflows which help to speed up admin-heavy processes and ensures everyone is following the same procedures. This was particularly helpful through COVID when their team was furloughed, leaving just the two managing partners working from home.

“When we first went into lockdown, we had to furlough our entire team and it was just me and my partner who ran the business. This meant we were suddenly burdened with every administrative task that before we had a team of ten who had their own roles. We had to take calls, do all the typing, communicating with clients and creating documents.

“We had to assess how we were going to cope with this workload so we started looking at the technology we had and how we could utilise it better. Luckily we’ve always worked efficiently. We’ve always looked to streamline key processes so you can save time for other tasks that need it.

“But COVID meant we all had to adapt to different working methods so quickly and the fact that Osprey is in the cloud and so user-friendly meant we could work anywhere we needed to.

“With the workload we have experienced recently, I don’t know where I’d start without the Osprey workflows. We were doing the work of 10 people, whilst home schooling, so the efficiencies in Osprey were a lifesaver in helping us continue to serve clients.

“The workflows meant that with a click a button, all the letters were created and everyone who needed to be updated was, and that was really helpful and where we could really save time. Workflows, document production, and the different time saving features in Osprey make our tasks at least three times faster each day.

“With Osprey, everything is there in one place, so you can easily view files, previous emails, if a letter had been sent before and if there was money on account. You didn’t need the paper files which meant we could easily work from home.

“We’re relieved to have our team back in the office, but Osprey helped us get through lockdown with minimal disruption.”

Embracing technology to drive the firm forward

The future of law firms looks hybrid and it’s having the technology foundation to support efficient and adaptable operations that helps make a firm successful. “We’re looking to stay hybrid for the future. We’re looking to recruit, and people are asking if they can work from home and we’re more flexible to that now and Osprey will continue to support us in the future as it always has.

“Osprey has effectively scaled with us over the years and there have been a lot of developments that have continued to improve the software. We aren’t fully utilising what’s on offer now so as we become more hybrid and paperless in the future, the software will become even more effective.”

Adopting new software solutions is a barrier to many firms looking to modernise their processes but the benefits to clients, staff and overall profitability are significant. “You don’t know how good it is until you’re using the new software or features, and you think to yourself ‘why didn’t I embrace this earlier!’ You holdback for so long because people don’t like change, but technology will make your life easier.

“It can feel overwhelming, but you have to be brave enough to give it a try. You’re supported too with Osprey, they provide software training on everything and they’ll continue to do sessions with your until you feel confident.”

With Osprey at the core of their firm, Preuveneers are able to continually improve their efficiencies and focus their time on delivery quality customer service.