Find out how Knights trebled their business in three years and took InfoTrack with them.
"We rolled out InfoTrack 25 times!"
Knights is a legal and professional services business with more than 1,400 employees delivering high-quality services to clients from 25 locations across the UK. Investing in the best talent and the latest technology, the firm is focused on understanding their clients’ drivers and building strong, longstanding relationships.
As a business that has trebled in size in just three years, Knights has ambitions to continue their growth through increased recruitment and further acquisitions. The key to their success has been to create structure through a modernised approach.
InfoTrack joined the firm on its journey, building a relationship that fosters premium service and hyper-growth. Richard Wollacott, Client Services Director at Knights shares how the business has effectively rolled out InfoTrack 25 times.
The challenge: finding a solid foundation for rapid growth
Change often meets resistance, and this was no different for Knights, as the firm faced several new challenges as the firm grew. Richard and the team in Nottingham had been using InfoTrack in a limited capacity for their Land Registry work before being acquired by Knights. At that point, the firm had a much smaller number of offices and their conveyancing process varied from office to office.
As more businesses were acquired, the inconsistency grew. With 10 different conveyancing service providers, it was proving challenging for the finance team. Managing change and the adoption of a single provider across the entire business became a priority.
Richard shares, “There were numerous offices doing residential property but all doing things differently. They didn't all use the same case management system, they didn't use the same search provider.”
“As a business we recognised we had to move on to one provider for the finance, accounting, and reporting side. But people don't like change. So, even though they're told it's going make their life easier, it's doing something different and it takes a while to change hearts and minds.”
Finding a solution to bring their conveyancing process together across all offices and teams was crucial if Knights were going to improve internal operations and prioritise premium service delivery for their clients.
The solution: a single platform for truly digital processes
The search for a provider that would fulfil the firm's needs started by reviewing their case management system. Integration was essential to streamline the entire conveyancing process and they were already using InfoTrack integrated with their CMS for Land Registry services. Impressed by the way it made everything easier, they began exploring InfoTrack’s digital onboarding solution, eCOS. Initial plans for a slow transition to digital onboarding were quickly accelerated due to pandemic lockdowns, which Richard says “made the rollout happen overnight”.
Embracing digital onboarding has been instrumental in showcasing how dedicated the firm is to delivering top-tier service. “Using the latest technology demonstrates to agents, referrers, and clients we’re serious about what we do. A client can instruct at nine o’clock on a Monday morning and by lunchtime they're fully signed up - ID verified, source of funds sorted, and we're well underway. That used to take a couple of weeks! To be able to show that we can do that is crucial in this market, people want speed,” remarks Richard.
The adoption of eCOS fuelled the wider implementation of InfoTrack services because it made life easier for everyone when they couldn’t access printers and go into the office – for both staff and the firm’s clients. From there, the move to roll out all InfoTrack services across 25 offices gained traction.
Change management and adopting digital for the better
Richard acknowledges that change management is one of the biggest obstacles professional services businesses face when switching to digital. He recommends finding those team members who are eager to try new technology and have them champion change internally. “It’s about changing people's habits by finding those who are digitally savvy. For example, we had our digital champions start using Property Report. We were then getting them to move through each office and showing their colleagues the advantages, then rolling it down slowly,” recalls Richard.
“It takes a few people to have a go, and we find it’s easier with new people coming into the business because you teach them that’s how it’s done and so they tend to lead the adoption of new services and products. There needs to be constant education to explain the benefits of new bits of software that you add and then there's a slow uptake,” he adds.
Two of Knights’ residential solicitors worked closely on the development of Property Report with InfoTrack which helped to drive internal advocacy. Richard shares how being involved from the start added an element of trust. “Those staff could explain what Property Report was internally, and how they had worked with InfoTrack on the drafting, feeding back to the product team about the wording. So, there was less scepticism from everyone else because it was someone they knew that had worked as part of the team developing it,” he recollects.
Over time, this approach has led to team members embracing new features as they’re added to the platform. Knights Paralegal Susie Preston was delighted by the AP1 extract from Deeds feature saying, “It’s quite brilliant! It rather blew my mind when my colleague Will first showed me how to use it. It’s very clever; quick and accurate too.”
The outcome: premium service with amplified growth
Knights is focused on upholding its commitment to clients. Coupling great technology with a targeted growth strategy, they’re offering a premium service that is geared towards the expectations of their clients. “To be able to work in that premium market, we must be at the forefront of technology and have the best systems and the best processes. You can't say you're a premium provider of conveyancing if you're still posting documents to a client and asking them to fax or post them back,” insists Richard.
On the journey to 25 offices and still growing, he recalls, “We've grown alongside InfoTrack. As the platform has increased its portfolio, we've gone from one office to 25 and from a team of about 20 to 130 in our conveyancing team. It's a relationship that’s grown - we've become bigger and worked together from day one. It has all come together and we've been involved in the development of the products and software and it's a nice relationship. I can pick the phone to anybody and it's very much a two-way thing.”
Using InfoTrack, Knights has been able to unify the way they work, ultimately saving time, creating consistency in their workflow, and automating processes for their finance team.
“With InfoTrack, it's just so easy, especially because it’s integrated with our case management. It's quick and there's the extra bolt-ons that many in the conveyancing industry are talking about. But we're already doing it through InfoTrack, so it seems a bit weird that other people are discussing digital conveyancing when it’s already here,” Richard says.
All of this has also contributed to Knights finding that managing their compliance and preparing for the PI renewal has been significantly easier. “We could show very clearly we were secure and safe, and things weren’t going to be missed,” Richard confirms.
Why do Knights recommend InfoTrack?
According to Richard: “InfoTrack is the latest technology. It's easy to use and integrates with case management, saving us a lot of time and hassle. It just makes life easier.”
