Business law firm Fidal designs a new future of work with 2,000 new Surface Laptops

Fidal is France’s largest independent business law firm, with more than 2,300 employees working on behalf of businesses, institutions, and organizations within France and internationally. Fidal aims to go beyond providing legal advice and become a trusted partner to its clients. That approach is reflected in the firm’s focus on “Inventing Tomorrow.” Stéphane Mariotto, CIO at Fidal, explains: “Working alongside our clients, in close proximity, we are focused on accessing all the ingenuity the law can offer to design the future.”

To deliver on its brand promise, Fidal needed to provide its team of lawyers with leading-edge hardware that could support a dynamic, highly personal, and flexible approach to working with clients. “Because they have to be efficient, our teams demand high quality hardware and IT equipment,” says Mariotto. In addition, Fidal takes pride staying at the forefront of technology. “That is key to achieving excellence and surpassing our competitors,” adds Mariotto. When it came time to upgrade 2,000 devices across the enterprise, Fidal chose Surface Laptop 4 and Surface Laptop 5 to support its “Inventing Tomorrow” approach to technology. “Surface laptops are technologically modern tools with state-of-the-art design that reflect our commitment to designing the future,” says Mariotto. 

In a feature comparison, Surface Laptops stand out against competitors 

When Mariotto and his colleagues in IT were evaluating laptops to replace Fidal’s existing devices, Surface stood out among a pool of three competitors that the company tested against various criteria. “We tested the hardware on different aspects: materials, processor, memory, design, battery, robustness, integration with our software, simplicity, and cost,” says Mariotto. It was an exhaustive list, but Surface laptops were the clear winner. “On most aspects that we tested, the Surface Laptops came either first or second and were the favourite overall.” Fidal worked with Insight, part of the Microsoft Partner network, to implement the new devices. “The Insight team was great, always available and ready to help,” says Mariotto. “We have great confidence in them.” 

While the functionality of the Surface laptops was top of mind for Mariotto, the look and feel of the devices was also an important consideration. “Our lawyers view the company favourably and see us as willing to be at the cutting edge when we provide laptops that are state of the art and also have a beautiful, modern design and ultra-readable screens,” says Mariotto. “This was very important to get right, because a well-designed laptop helps encourage adoption.” On these points, Surface delivered, and today 2,000 employees are excited to use their new Surface devices. “Employees are proud to use this laptop, which has a superb design,” adds Mariotto. And, employees also appreciate that the Surface laptops support a new, more mobile way of working that suits the busy, always-on nature of their profession. Says Mariotto: “Fidal lawyers are happy to be able to work on the go, from anywhere.” Often, Fidal lawyers must travel to and from locations, including meeting clients in their offices to present documents and analysis. “Compared to our previous solution, Surface Laptops better support seamless, flexible work and are more reliable,” says Mariotto. 

Simplifying management with a unified technology ecosystem 

Surface Laptops also represented a new, easier-to-manage landscape for the IT team at Fidal. “As part of the Microsoft ecosystem, including Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Intune, Surface Laptops have benefits in terms of integration and ease of use,” says Mariotto. Today, the business uses Intune to simplify the remote installation of applications and device management. “We no longer have any problems with application compatibility as we did with our previous solution,” Mariotto adds. Remote device management with Intune and a simplified IT landscape has resulted in fewer support requests at Fidal. “The move to Surface devices and Intune has improved the level of support by reducing the number of people needed for level 1 support,” says Mariotto. “That, coupled with the fact that we no longer need to maintain servers associated with our old solution, represents an immediate return on investment.” 

Fidal has also used the move to Surface as an opportunity to boost security. “We have put in place additional layers of security on the PC, including Microsoft Defender for Endpoint,” says Mariotto. “In this way, we are modernizing security with a cloud-native solution to be more responsive and protect our network.” 

Ease of use and improved flexibility with Surface Laptops 

For employees using their new Surface Laptops, the change has been characterized by an intuitive user experience. “Employees have reported almost no problems with their new devices,” says Mariotto. “They can work anywhere without any problems, with all their software and applications at their fingertips,” he adds. For a business supporting clients around the world in a fast-paced environment, the ability to work on the go is a big differentiator. “The Surface Laptops, with their modern design, coupled with the ability to work more securely and flexibly, creates a highly professional and trustworthy image for our clients,” says Mariotto. 

Fidal continues to stay at the forefront of technology by exploring the potential for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 to help streamline daily tasks and is also utilizing Azure OpenAI to drive efficiencies. “We currently have a proof of concept with Azure Open AI to help lawyers with their consultancy work, which is already yielding promising results and some very encouraging practical examples,” concludes Mariotto. 

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