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West Northamptonshire Council

Consolidating Legal Processes Amid Change

West Northamptonshire Council faced a larger caseload and data migration challenges. To modernise operations, they transitioned to Iken Cloud, streamlining legal processes with scalable, secure, cloud-based management.

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Local Government

Iken’s interface Screenshot for West Northamptonshire council case study about consolidating legal processes

Case Study

Consolidating Legal Processes During Transition

West Northamptonshire Council’s Success with Iken Cloud

Overview

West Northamptonshire Council was formed in 2021 after the merger of several borough and district councils into a single unitary authority. This change brought new challenges for the legal department, as they had to manage a significantly larger and more complex caseload, whilst coordinating the migration of legal data from multiple predecessor councils. To address these challenges, the Council made the decision to transition to Iken Cloud, a flexible, browser-based legal case management application. Iken Cloud provides the scalability, security, and ease of use that West Northamptonshire Council required, allowing them to modernise their operations and streamline many of their legal processes following the merger.

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Key outcomes

Seamless Data Migration

West Northamptonshire Council needed to successfully consolidate legal data from three predecessor councils into a single, centralised system. Iken’s migration process ensured minimal downtime, allowing uninterrupted access to vital case files and much needed management information.

Seamless Data Migration

Improved Productivity and Service Delivery

Iken Cloud’s intuitive interface and cloud accessibility enables staff to respond to urgent legal matters swiftly and confidently, with the team benefitting from faster case processing, time recording and a reduced reliance on their colleagues in IT for system management, enhancing service delivery and responsiveness to urgent legal matters.

Improved Productivity and Service Delivery

Reduced IT Dependency

With Iken Cloud’s self-service capabilities, the legal team can manage their user accounts, system settings and updates without IT involvement. This independence has lightened the load on the Council’s IT department, enabling the team to make user management adjustments quickly and operate far more efficiently.

Reduced IT Dependency

Business Continuity

Iken Cloud’s cloud-based infrastructure ensures legal work can continue without disruption caused by on-premise server maintenance. This reliability allows the Council’s legal team to maintain uninterrupted service delivery, particularly important for time-sensitive case work and court deadlines.

Business Continuity

Scalability and Cloud Adoption

As West Northamptonshire Council became a unitary authority, the scale of its operations has expanded dramatically. The Council’s legal team is now responsible for managing a much larger volume of cases across a greater number of departments, all of which required modernising the team’s supporting technologies. Moving to Iken Cloud provided the flexibility and scalability needed to handle this increased workload without the limitations of traditional on-premise infrastructure.

Judy Goodman, Legal Practice Manager explains that the Council was looking for a system that would evolve alongside their team and provide long-term stability without requiring frequent upgrades or costly server maintenance.

By adopting Iken Cloud, the Council has embraced a modern, cloud-based approach that aligns with their broader IT strategy of moving away from managing physical servers. This decision not only reduces costs but also ensures that their legal team could work without interruption, even if server issues occurred elsewhere in the Council. This move to the cloud is seen as a crucial step forward in ensuring that the Council’s legal team remains adaptable to future growth.

The Council aimed to streamline its legal operations to improve productivity and engagement among its legal staff. By adopting Iken Cloud, the Council has significantly reduced the time spent on administrative tasks, allowing fee earners more time to focus on their core responsibilities. The system’s comprehensive reporting suite has enabled the Business Support team to speed up the production of billing data and provide a richer set of management information on demand.

With Iken Cloud, fee earners have greater autonomy and can manage their own cases more effectively. Iken’s user-friendly interface allows users to open cases, track progress and generate reports independently. This has fostered greater engagement, with fee earners feeling more in control and accountable for their workloads. As one fee earner remarked:

“We’ve gone from being a small borough to a large unitary council, and we needed something that could keep up with the times. Iken Cloud allows us to do that without worrying about servers or upgrades.”

Judy Goodman

West Northamptonshire Council

Efficient Data Migration and Streamlined User Management

One of the biggest challenges for West Northamptonshire Council was consolidating legal data extracted from the previous systems of Northampton BC, South Northamptonshire and Daventry DC into one centralised database. Iken’s expertise in data migration ensured that this process was managed successfully and without disruption to the legal team’s day-to-day work. Judy noted that the migration was managed with clear communication and a well-structured project plan, making what could have been a difficult transition much easier to manage.

In addition to the data migration, Iken Cloud’s self-service capabilities have ****allowed the legal team to manage user accounts and system updates independently, freeing up IT resources. This is particularly important for a fast-growing council, as it has allowed the legal team to respond quickly to staffing changes without needing to wait for IT support.

This flexibility in user management is a prime example of how Iken Cloud empowers legal teams to be more productive and independent, enabling them to focus on legal matters without being delayed by technical issues.

“The migration from South Northants was really easy … considering the large number of files and documents, the downtime really wasn’t long … We can set up our own users now, which means we don’t have to involve IT at all. That’s been a huge help.”

Judy Goodman

West Northamptonshire Council

Training and User Adoption

For a legal team with many long-serving staff members, transitioning from their familiar desktop system to a new cloud-based one was a significant change. Iken recognised the importance of providing tailored support and training to ensure a smooth transition. Judy praised Iken’s approach to training, particularly the live training sessions and the ability for staff to ask questions in real time. This hands-on support helped staff quickly gain confidence in using the new system, making the transition far smoother than anticipated.

By recording these sessions, Iken ensured that new staff members could easily access training materials, which was invaluable as the Council’s legal team expanded. Judy noted that many of the new starters found Iken Cloud much easier to use than other systems they had encountered, which significantly reduced the time needed for onboarding and training.

This focus on user-friendly design and accessible support showcases Iken’s commitment to ensuring that its clients feel well-supported throughout the adoption process, helping legal teams work more effectively from day one.

“Roger was great at training — he didn’t rush it and made sure everyone understood. The virtual training room was also invaluable … We’ve had about 20 new starters since Iken Cloud was introduced and they’ve said this is one of the easiest systems they’ve ever used.”

Judy Goodman

West Northamptonshire Council

In conclusion

West Northamptonshire Council’s transition to Iken Cloud has been a transformative experience, providing the legal team with a modern, reliable, and scalable system to manage their growing caseload.

Iken Cloud has enabled the Council to consolidate legal data from multiple sources, improve productivity through self-service management, and maintain business continuity even in the face of technical challenges. With expert support and tailored training from Iken, the Council’s legal team is now well-equipped to handle the demands of their expanding operations while working more productively and securely.

Cardiff City Council’s successful migration to Iken Cloud demonstrates how adopting the right legal software application can lead to significant improvements in service delivery, team collaboration and productivity.

By maintaining stakeholder engagement throughout the project, coupled with a robust support service available to end users from day one, Iken has enabled the Council to modernise its legal processes, integrate with other technologies and prepare the team for future challenges. The Council’s journey also illustrates the value of choosing a supplier that prioritises the needs of its clients and is always seeking opportunities to collaborate and share ideas.

“After evaluating our needs and reflecting on the strong performance of Iken in the past, we decided to continue with Iken. The transition to the cloud has been smooth, and we’ve seen huge benefits in terms of productivity, user management, and system reliability.”

Judy Goodman

West Northamptonshire Council

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© 2025 Iken Buisness Ltd. First Floor, PS21, 21 Prince Street, Bristol, BS1 4PH, UK
Registered in England & Wales | Company Registration Number:- 2776536 | VAT Registration Number: GB 609526041

Contact

Get started

© 2025 Iken Buisness Ltd. First Floor, PS21, 21 Prince Street, Bristol, BS1 4PH, UK
Registered in England & Wales | Company Registration Number:- 2776536 | VAT Registration Number: GB 609526041