Following HBJ Gateley Wareing's acquisition of part of Halliwell's Manchester operations, the business has achieved another landmark, moving its entire IT infrastructure and over 200 staff from the Hardman Square offices to Ship Canal House with the help of end-to-end technology services provider Probrand.

Birmingham and Manchester based Probrand provided the very latest ICT equipment and used its technology delivery arm Icomm Technologies to profile, label, map,transfer and install everything from servers to 180 PCs.

HBJ Gateley Wareing employees were able to leave the Hardman Square offices on a Friday and be fully operational in Ship Canal House the following Monday.

The IT move formed part of a rapid brief that demanded 100% service delivery and a planning window of just four weeks. Icomm scoped, planned and managed the move and install, coordinating telecommunications and furniture suppliers to ensure complete end-to-end provision across 3 floors.

HBJ Gateley Wareing demanded the precision move, having taken on 40 former partners from Halliwell's Manchester office, comprising banking & finance, corporate, real estate, real estate litigation, corporate recovery, commercial litigation, intellectual property, employment, pensions and construction business units.

In total, 200 fee earners and staff switched to the firm, bringing total numbers to more than 750.

HBJ Gateley Wareing now has seven UK offices in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leicester, London, Manchester and Nottingham as well as Dubai.

IT Manager at HBJ Gateley Wareing, Dee Scarlett, said: "This project was a major infrastructure move across the city. The seamless integration of new resources into our business has been critical as it provides a platform from which we will grow business in the North West. This has been the last critical stage of that move.

"We needed total assurance and trust in a flexible supplier that we knew would go beyond the brief to deliver. The repercussions of getting it wrong would have seriously compromised business continuity, which in turn would have impacted upon staff retention, morale and financials. Failure was not an option.

"Probrand and Icomm have delivered flawless implementation of appropriate ICT solutions at the best price and in the shortest possible time. Beyond that, the team's accurate project management skills have required little intervention beyond the original brief. It couldn't have gone smoother!"

"Our business has been able to focus on what we do best – delivering an outstanding client-focused commercial legal service."