This Philadelphia-based, AmLaw 100 firm has over 650 attorneys in 15 offices.

Historically, the firm's back office equipment decisions had been decentralized, providing a great deal of autonomy to each office to select equipment and service providers that best suited each offices’ needs.

As the firm grew and experienced several acquisitions, the resulting situation in the firm’s equipment fleet was less than desired: machines were in various states of functionality as well as a mix of manufacturers and financial obligations. Some of the offices possessed gear that was long past life; in others, the firm was only nearing the halfway point of equipment leases. Then, in 2018, the firm acquired another regional, Minnesota firm which owned their equipment outright, but also introduced an entirely different fleet of MFD's into the ecosystem.

In total, the firm had four (4) different equipment platforms, four (4) different lessors, and six (6) different service providers. The firm’s Director of Office Services identified this complexity as a significant opportunity to improve operations. He comments:

“As our firmwide strategy evolved, we started asking questions: could we operate more effectively as a unit? Could we create a firmwide experience that created tangible value for our attorneys? Could we gain synergies such as shared knowledge and valuable efficiencies through a firmwide experience while also creating some cost savings?”

The Firm Selects Mattern’s Robust RFP Management

The firm considered the pros and cons of gaining leverage and capacity by having an outside entity lead the project, solicited proposals from a number of consulting companies, and selected Mattern to run the equipment Request for Proposal (RFP).

The Director of Office Services explains:

“We had previously worked with Mattern on several projects. Mattern does a great job on RFP projects and has consistently demonstrated this for our firm over the years. Most organizations are not disciplined in their RFP responses and it’s complex and challenging to align competitors the way you want.

Mattern excels at this. It would have been hundreds of hours of our work for us. Instead, we saw the value of handing the work to Mattern whose breadth of experience created value, efficiency and more than we could have done so ourselves.”

THE PROCESS
Mattern and firm leadership met at the outset of this engagement to clearly define the firm’s objectives. Mattern reviewed key operational data, mapped the workflow at the firm’s larger offices and interviewed key users. Based on the objectives and data, Mattern developed a RFP that would offer the firm various pricing and configuration options with a projected 18% decrease in costs. The firm selected 4 companies to receive the RFP which included these components:

Fixed monthly cost – no annual increases
Month to month renewal
Cancellation for convenience
Zero-based contract
Flexibility to upgrade, downgrade and delete units at any time during the contract
No return cost at the end of the contract
Penalty-based performance and service reporting Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Penalties for failure to deliver timely and accurate invoices
Penalties for failure to deliver timely and accurate monthly service reporting
Placement of more color MFD's where appropriate
Recommended guidelines for routing output
Reduce number of printers (HP 3015s) to increase the staff to printer ratio
The Director of Office Services comments:

“The holy grail for us was service. These were known providers to our firm and the cost was fairly net-neutral; however, we were very firm that we were executing a firmwide strategy to prioritize standardization of experience. We wanted regional offices to be provided the same level of service as Philadelphia. This was the real differentiator.”

Mattern helped focus the firm and the RFP participants on the main business objective—service levels—and drilled into which of the four competitors could meet the new service standards for all offices all the time.

RESULTS
Service Goals Achieved, Plus Nearly Double Savings Projection

After reviewing the responses from all service providers, the firm held service provider interviews with 2 of the vendors. After these meetings, reviewing the Best and Final responses, and additional follow up, the firm selected Stewart Business Solutions to provide the MFD's and service the firm nationally. The firm achieved all of its service level objectives in addition to savings of 31%, nearly double the projection.

The Director of Office Services concludes:

“This project was run like clockwork. Out of the 90 devices, I think the firm now has 65 of
the same device. That level of consistency is simply unheard of, and importantly, that
creates the downstream consistencies. It means all the same drivers and tech issues, all the same User Interfaces for attorneys. All the same toner. When optimal efficiency and time are of such critical value, these all add up to a great value.

But our greatest achievement was the service levels. Many said this project was impossible, between the service levels we were seeking and because of the timing as a Q4 project. Without Mattern leading the project, maybe it would have been impossible. Mattern kept the firm and the vendors aligned, responsive and responsible. I already have a full-time job, it’s not my primary focus to run a $5 million project. Mattern did a great job from project start to end and because of the value they consistently prove, we’ve retained them to implement the new fleet and assist the firm in managing the Stewart contract."

PART 2 – THE TRANSFER
To get the best overall contract/terms/pricing and/or improve service, sometimes it is necessary to consolidate your inventory with one service provider. Pricing/terms/service aside, one of the Firm’s goals in this project was to get an accurate inventory of what was stored offsite since there was an ongoing discrepancy between the Firm’s records and the offsite provider’s database. This led to the belief within the Firm that it was being overcharged. The idea of a transfer became more palatable, however it involved transferring more than half of its offsite inventory.

The mention of a transfer can strike fear in a records manager’s heart. There are countless stories of lost boxes, inaccurate counts and descriptions (or no descriptions at all) uploaded to the online inventory, non-payment of permanent withdrawal fees, to name a few of the issues.

“A well-managed transfer is a manageable transfer” – Ben Schmidt, former Mattern consultant.

As with any project, success is usually predicated on a sound plan, good management practices, accurate reporting and experience. It also helps immensely to have detailed contract terms dictating performance standards, payment terms, and penalties for non-performance.

CURRENT STATUS OF TRANSFER
The transfer from three separate warehouse locations started in April 2024. One location has been fully transferred to Iron Mountain, one location is projected to be completed in December of this year, and the final location that held 60% of the Firm’s records is projected to be completed in June 2025. In total, 70% of the Firm’s inventory has been moved without issue.

At the outset of the transfer, Mattern, the Firm, and Iron Mountain met to review the inventory to be transferred, determine the necessary information to be imported into Iron Mountain’s database, and establish a regular meeting cadence to discuss the transfer and head off any issues.

As part of the transfer agreement, Iron Mountain agreed to reimburse the Firm for all permanent removal fees paid to incumbent providers. As part of the process, Mattern has led efforts between the Firm and Iron Mountain to ensure that all fees, payments, and volumes are properly documented, reconciled and submitted for reimbursement.

As of today, the Firm has been fully reimbursed for every permanent removal fee paid and every box has been accounted for.

As the Firm’s record manager recently stated “Thanks to the contract terms Mattern and the Firm negotiated, our recurring off-site storage expense has decreased, the transfer has been smooth and our costs are covered.”

Once the transfer is complete and the Firm has an accurate count of their boxes, the Firm will receive a credit from the previous service provider for any volume that they were charged and cannot be accounted for. Also, with Mattern’s assistance, the Firm will identify gaps in knowledge of what each box contains, strategies to complete inventory review processes in the most cost-effective manner, and assist the Firm in developing a road map to further reduce its holdings by utilizing the Firm’s retention policy and destruction allowance.