Burness Paull Case Study

700+

Employees

Legal

Industry

Workday

Solution

Selection

Service

About the project

Top ranking Scottish law firm, Burness Paull recently went through the major task of selecting new HR software for their business.

For their HR team, it had been nearly 12 years since a true overhaul of their system had happened. This had left them with a significant appetite for change, but a gap in knowledge around the current market. Understanding that this project would impact every single one of their over 700 employees, they knew they’d need outside help, which is where Silver Cloud came in.

The challenge

Burness Paull had been trying to keep their system and their people management tools up to date, but, in a situation all too familiar to the legal industry, had only been able to improve them with piecemeal additions. This is a challenge many, if not most, law firms face with regard to technology. To achieve everything a modern HR team needs to, it can be easy to keep adding new pieces of software and integrations.

Once the Burness Paull team decided it was time to review their systems and consolidate into a single, more capable system, they realised they had another challenge. It had been over a decade since the original implementation of their HR software and the market had changed considerably. Without any internal expertise in the current HRIS world, they knew they needed support in this area.

The solution

Seeking outside knowledge and influence to inform their HRIS search, the team at Burness Paull chose Silver Cloud to help guide them through the selection process. To help them find the right HR software for the business, we took them through our Selection Process. Beginning with understanding how things are currently being done and creating a vision for the future state, we helped Burness Paull understand exactly what their requirements were for this project.

From that point, we started the process of assessing and short-listing vendors. The Burness Paull team appreciated being able to progress with the short-list based on what they needed, rather than having to start at the beginning. Another aspect of working with Silver Cloud they enjoyed was vendor management. There were several areas where Silver Cloud was able to act as an intermediary, supporting the goals of Burness Paull and preventing them from having time taken up by sales calls and early-stage pricing negotiations.

Ultimately, Burness Paull chose Workday, a robust HRIS that suits their needs well. The capability that Workday provided enabled them to strip back the number of programs they were using. This freed up budget and made the transition more comfortable. They are currently in the implementation phase and, so far, are pleased with the results.

The future

As Burness Paull continue to work through their implementation with Workday, they are excited about what the future holds for their people team and, especially, their people data.

Instead of relying on manual processes and clunky systems that struggle to talk to one another, the single source of truth that they’ll get from their new HRIS will be a turning point.

They look forward to making better data-driven decisions, automating tasks that no longer need human interaction and having the time and energy to be even more thoughtful and strategic about their human resources activities.