When MAx at MFC IT Services first started working with Gordons Partnership, the legal firm had just 15 employees. Now the business has over 80 staff, working from two offices and from home. At regular intervals, MFC IT Services has recommended and installed new IT equipment, increased server capacity and scaled-up the firm’s back-up systems to accommodate the steady increase in IT users.

“MFC has been with us along our journey of growing our business,” says Hamish Ferguson, Managing Partner at Gordons Partnership LLP. “MFC tells us exactly when we need to upgrade and expand our systems. It’s very much like having our own in-house IT team.”

As well as managing the IT infrastructure at Gordons Partnership, MFC IT Services also provides a responsive IT support service for the firm. The IT technicians will troubleshoot any problem, whether there is a complex failure in IT hardware or a user who needs help to format a document.

In more than 20 years of working with MFC IT Services, Gordons Partnership has experienced very little downtime. “Problems are resolved immediately or within a very acceptable timeframe,” Hamish says. MFC IT Services constantly monitors IT system health remotely for Gordons Partnership, which enables it to detect and resolve issues before they begin to have a serious impact on business operations. “There have been a couple of occasions when we came into the office in the morning and noticed that something wasn’t quite right,” Hamish recalls. “When we called MFC, they knew exactly what the problem was and were already working on it.”

A few years ago, MFC IT Services recommended a voice-over-IP telephony system for Gordons Partnership, a technology that has since reduced costs and improved business flexibility. MFC IT Services has also recently migrated Gordons Partnership’s emails to Microsoft 365. “We tend to go with MFC’s recommendations,” Hamish notes. “The Microsoft 365 project went very smoothly and we have had no problems at all with email in the cloud.” According to Hamish, MFC IT Services is able to make good IT recommendations because it takes the time to really understand how Gordons Partnership works.

“What I like about MFC is the very good balance between proactivity and reactivity,” he says. “MFC understands what our business does and comes forward with new ideas and recommendations that will help our business; it doesn’t just fix problems.”

As part of the contract, a technician from MFC IT Services visits the Gordons Partnership head office once a week, and the firm really values having an IT support company that is local enough to be able to do this. “Weekly face-to-face contact has helped us to build a trusted relationship with MFC,” says Hamish.

“We feel that MFC isn’t just in it for the money; they are in it for the joy of providing a good service.” Gordons Partnership estimates that its contract with MFC IT Services is around half the cost of employing an in-house IT manager, which represents very good value for money for the firm. “I have absolute trust in MFC,” Hamish concludes. “They are nice, sensible people who know what they are doing. They have great integrity, and we have a really good working relationship with them.”