Business and Management.

Emma Palmieri

Registration managers, schedulers, title checkers, team leaders, systems manager, administrator and the head of lender services who is again a solicitor and associate to the company. The Insurance department employs legal executives, litigators and their support staff like the ones mentioned above (team leaders etc). Family law and criminal consists of solicitors specialised in those fields. Human Resources employ customer service staff and payroll staff and then they have a head of H.R and H.R officers. Financing and accounts consists of the company's accountants. I.T employ a head of I.T and I.T technicians and telecommunications team. Facilities consists of a facilities manager. Administration consists of Legal secretaries and administration officers.

> Buildings - Hugh James have 5 buildings, one of these buildings are head office and is located in Cardiff, South Wales. The other 4 buildings are spread across South Wales and all of their work is carried out evenly in each of them.

> Equipment - Hugh James use computers, telephones, Internet, photocopiers, stationary and fax machines to communicate with their customers. They have desks; chairs, vending machines and security doors to ensure their staff are comfortable and motivated. They use filing cabinets to store files, trolleys to move files from place to place and in and out trays to file through the work. They also have shredding machines to provide confidentiality.

> Finance - Hugh James Solicitors are financed from the profit of the service's they provide.

> Information Technology - Hugh James Solicitors use the most up to date technology and servers and networks, computers are used as a vital part of their work, and they use an intranet service and internal emails for staff to communicate.

Emma Palmieri

I have decided to compare "Hugh James Solicitors" to a marketing research company called "Research and Marketing LTD" based in Cardiff. They provide Market research services; direct mailing services and Data processing and management. They are very different companies, Hugh James is a steadily growing offices over South Wales and looking to build more in the rest of the UK and provide services in law whereas Research and Marketing are a small marketing research company with one building based in Cardiff. Research and Marketing don't have as many staff as Hugh James, they have a little over 100, and they don't need as many staff as Hugh James because they reach their customers through a different method. The resources Research and Marketing use are 1500 sq ft warehouse space, 80 workstations (telephone based), which includes a 26 workstation CATI (computer assisted telephone interviewing) unit, 12 port voicemail system and medium sized printing and mailing systems along with photocopiers, fax machines and photocopiers, the main difference between these resources and Hugh James is the amount of buildings, as mentioned this is because Research and marketing reach their customers via a different method, Hugh James have a few buildings spread around South Wales so that they can provide law services to local people whereas although Research and Marketing has to reach the whole of the UK for their opinions, they can do this from one building because the type of communication with the customer expected is different in each company, Research and Marketing need to make the most of the their time and need to reach a lot of people so the telephone is the best means of communication for them, yet when people are looking for Law services they don't want to call up someone out of town, they want someone local who they can meet face to face, Hugh James need to build up a bigger form of trust with their customer than Research and Marketing do. As already mentioned the staffing of Research and Marketing is quite different too, they have managers of each dept and then just have their mailing staff, warehouse staff, telephone interviewers and data entry clerks. Although the companies sizes and utilities are quite different they both have good performance, Hugh James is a growing company they are becoming better known and fighting bigger cases such as ones against companies like

Emma Palmieri

'Glaxo-Smith-Kline' for complaints about the anti-depressant, Seroxat and for their case against 'Quorn' for the allergic reactions it causes in asthma sufferers. They are also launching a new business centre in the New Year and looking to expand into the UK and won the Large Welsh Law Firm of the Year award at the Western Mail's Welsh Law Awards. Their profits have also rised considerably in the last 5 years. Research and Marketing were accepted into membership of the Cardiff chamber of commerce for the years 2003/2004. They were awarded The Quality Standard For Mail Production (QMP) certificate on 09 August 2003 and has built up a good steady client list including companies such as local councils, retailers such as Iceland, Next and Sainsbury's and Housing associations etc.