Eversheds Sutherland Data Platform

Eversheds Sutherland Accelerates Access to Business-Critical Insight

Reducing report load times from minutes to seconds and cutting environment deployment times by around 50%.

About the Customer - Eversheds Sutherland

Building a Data-Driven Future

Eversheds Sutherland is a global law firm providing legal services to an international client base, including many of the world’s largest organisations. From a Data & Analytics perspective, Eversheds Sutherland ambition is centred on enabling better decision making across the firm. As Naomi Hawker, Head of Data & Analytics, described it:

“My overarching mission is about getting insights into the hands of our end users as quickly as possible. Data is the enabler that supports the business acting on insights to drive business value. Everything we build behind the scenes, including the platform, skills and governance, is there to support that mission.”

Compared to many firms in the legal sector, Eversheds Sutherland has embedded data and analytics into day-to-day decision making, helping them to operate at a more advanced level of data maturity.

While the legal industry remains at an early stage of AI adoption overall, Eversheds Sutherland has taken a deliberate approach focusing first on building strong data foundations before scaling analytics capability and exploring AI and agentic technologies.

Watch how Eversheds Sutherland has created the data foundations needed to support future AI innovation and evolving business priorities.

The Challenge

Eversheds Sutherland Telefonica Tech Minimised

A Business-Critical Platform Under Pressure

Eversheds Sutherland faced a number of interrelated challenges as it looked to modernise its data platform and support a major practice management system (PMS) programme.

The data platform underpins core firm operations, including finance reporting, partner remuneration, billing, utilisation and leadership decision‑making, meaning delivery confidence, performance and reliability were critical. The PMS programme itself was high‑pressure and highly visible internally, with fixed timelines and complex datasets that needed to be aligned accurately to support the business.

Key challenges included:

Business‑critical reporting dependency
Any instability, delay or lack of trust in reporting had a direct impact on the functions of the business.
High‑pressure, high‑visibility PMS programme
The practice management system reporting programme carried significant internal scrutiny and required accurate delivery against fixed deadlines.
Highly complex data landscape
Eversheds Sutherland data estate is structurally complex, making data alignment and transformation particularly challenging within the context of the PMS migration.
Platform performance constraints
Reporting and processing workloads were slow and resource‑intensive, with some outputs taking hours or days to complete.
Capacity limitations
The existing platform was reaching capacity limits, restricting scalability and increasing risk as demand for reporting and analytics grew.
Manual and inconsistent delivery processes
Lack of standardisation across environments and deployment processes increased delivery risk and reduced confidence during periods of change.
Operational overhead and cost inefficiencies
Legacy architectural decisions and accumulated complexity were driving unnecessary operational effort and platform cost.
Need for trusted external expertise
Eversheds Sutherland recognised the need for specialist data platform expertise to review its existing approach, stabilise delivery and evolve the platform in a way that would support both immediate operational needs and longer-term data and AI ambitions.

The Solution

From Stabilisation to Long-Term Data Innovation

Eversheds Sutherland sought an experienced technology partner to help tackle the immediate challenge while supporting its longer-term technology strategy. The legal firm’s complex datasets required a detailed understanding of both the business and the legal sector to deliver an effective solution. Following an initial advisory engagement, Telefónica Tech has continued to support the organisation through professional and managed services, becoming a key contributor to the firm’s data and analytics journey.

Rather than treating the programme as a single transformation project, the approach taken was deliberately phased; stabilising the platform first, then modernising and optimising it, before evolving into long‑term operations and future AI readiness.

01 Phase 1 – Advisory & Stabilisation

The initial approach was to provide architectural and DevOps guidance, reviewing the existing data platform and delivery approach, with a focus on understanding how the platform had evolved over time and identifying where inconsistencies and delivery risks were emerging.

Key activities included:
• Reviewing platform architecture and delivery processes
• Identifying inconsistencies across development, test, UAT and production environments
• Highlighting areas where manual processes and lack of standardisation increased risk
• Advising on improvements to governance, deployment and operational consistency

The primary objective of this phase was to reduce immediate delivery risk and rebuild confidence, while allowing Eversheds Sutherland to assess Telefónica Tech’s expertise, ways of working and cultural fit before expanding the scope of their engagement.

01 Phase 1 – Advisory & Stabilisation

02 Phase 2 – Practice Management System (PMS) Reporting Delivery

Following the first phase, Telefónica Tech went on to support one of the programme’s first major delivery milestones: the successful implementation of the PMS reporting.

This involved aligning a highly complex dataset and delivering reporting outputs under significant pressure and internal visibility. The PMS reporting programme was business critical, with fixed timelines that directly supported finance operations, partner remuneration and leadership reporting.

Telefónica Tech worked closely with Eversheds Sutherland internal teams, integrating directly into day to day delivery, ensuring that reporting was delivered on time and with confidence.

02 Phase 2 – Practice Management System (PMS) Reporting Delivery

03 Phase 3 – Managed Service & Enablement

Telefónica Tech transitioned into a managed service model, supporting Eversheds Sutherland with the ongoing operation of the platform.

This includes:
• Day to day platform monitoring
• 24/7, 365 day operational oversight
• Rapid diagnosis and resolution of issues
• Support to ensure reporting is available first thing in the morning for users around the world

This phase has been key to reducing operational risk and ensuring the platform can be relied upon as a core business capability rather than a project based system. Telefónica Tech continues to work closely with Eversheds Sutherland to provide not just operational support, but ongoing enablement and optimisation as requirements evolve.

03 Phase 3 – Managed Service & Enablement

04 Phase 4 – Target Architecture, Modernisation & Optimisation

Once the PMS reporting was stabilised and delivered, attention shifted to defining and progressing towards a long term target state data platform. This phase focused on addressing the underlying challenges that had built up over time, including performance bottlenecks, capacity limitations and architectural complexity.

Telefónica Tech supported Eversheds Sutherland in:
• Defining a scalable target state architecture
• Refactoring years of accumulated logic and complexity within the platform
• Improving report and data pipeline performance
• Addressing capacity constraints that limited scalability
• Reducing inefficiencies that were driving unnecessary cost

A key principle throughout this phase was right sizing the solution. Rather than introducing unnecessary complexity, the focus was on delivering a platform tailored to Eversheds Sutherland business needs combining performance, reliability and cost efficiency with the flexibility to support future growth and innovation.

At the time of capture, approximately 80% of Eversheds Sutherland reports are in the process of being migrated to the new platform, with the final stages expected to complete shortly.

Eversheds Sutherland is keen to gather feedback from its internal customers as adoption increases, using this to guide further optimisation.

04 Phase 4 – Target Architecture, Modernisation & Optimisation

05 Phase 5 – Analytics Automation → AI → Agentic Readiness

With a stable and optimised data platform in place, Eversheds Sutherland has begun progressing into the next phase of its journey: evolving from analytics and reporting into AI enabled and agentic capability.

Eversheds Sutherland has already taken a number of concrete steps to prepare for this transition. Internally, the firm has established an AI task force, invested in AI enablement and training initiatives, and begun trialling AI tools and assistants across parts of the business. These initiatives have helped build awareness and capability, while also highlighting the need for strong governance and oversight in a regulated legal environment.

In parallel, analytics automation has played a critical role in enabling this next phase. Improvements to data pipelines, processing performance and reporting reliability mean that analytics outputs are now faster, more consistent and available earlier to the business. This has reduced manual intervention, increased trust in outputs, and created a reliable operational baseline on which AI enabled capabilities can be safely built.

To support the next stage of this journey, Eversheds Sutherland engaged Telefónica Tech focused specifically on AI and agentic readiness. Rather than accelerating directly into deployment, this work was deliberately positioned to assess readiness and ensure that the foundations required for responsible AI adoption were in place.

As part of this engagement, Telefónica Tech supported Eversheds Sutherland in:
• Reviewing existing analytics and reporting processes to identify where AI driven automation or augmentation could add value
• Assessing how potential agentic capabilities would integrate with the existing data platform architecture
• Exploring governance requirements, including risk management, oversight and human in the loop controls
• Considering how monitoring, auditability and control would apply to agentic behaviour
• Ensuring alignment between data foundations, analytics outputs and emerging AI initiatives

Importantly, this phase is not viewed as a single delivery milestone. Instead, it represents an ongoing evolution moving progressively from analytics automation into AI assisted insight and, over time, into carefully governed agentic capability where it makes sense for the business.

This approach ensures that any future AI or agentic solutions are not standalone experiments, but a natural extension of the data platform strategy built on trusted data, robust governance and operational maturity.

05 Phase 5 – Analytics Automation → AI → Agentic Readiness

Read the full story behind Eversheds Sutherland's agentic AI initiative with Telefónica Tech.

Read here

The Outcome

Turning Data into Business-Critical Insight

As Telefónica Tech’s engagement with Eversheds Sutherland has evolved, outcomes have progressed from initial platform stabilisation into measurable operational, technical and strategic impact. What began as support for a critical Practice Management System programme has developed into a broader strategic relationship, with Telefónica Tech working closely alongside the internal team to support the firm’s data and technology objectives.

Platform Performance & Reliability

One of the most immediate outcomes was the successful delivery of PMS reporting on time, despite the complexity of Eversheds Sutherland data and the high level of internal scrutiny.

“Telefónica Tech provided valuable expertise during a period of significant delivery pressure and business visibility. They worked closely with our internal team and helped us stabilise and evolve the platform while maintaining momentum on key strategic initiatives.” Naomi Hawker

As the platform evolved, Eversheds Sutherland saw measurable improvements in performance and reliability, including:

• Earlier completion of overnight processing and semantic models – Target state semantic models complete by ~05:00, compared with ~08:30 in the current state ensuring business users have access to up-to-date data and reports at the start of the working day

• Significant reductions in report load times – Report load times reduced from minutes to seconds

• Improved scalability through removal of platform capacity constraints – Platform no longer hitting capacity limits that previously restricted growth.

These improvements have enabled finance and leadership teams to access trusted data earlier in the day, improving decision‑making and confidence in reporting.

Operational efficiency & delivery velocity

The modernised platform has also delivered tangible improvements in engineering efficiency and delivery confidence:

• Environment deployment times reduced by ~50% – Average deployment time reduced from ~30 minutes per environment (current state) to ~15 minutes for the largest data product (target state)

• Standardised delivery processes across environments – Reduced risk during deployment and change

“Telefónica Tech’s pragmatic approach during this phase has been helping Eversheds Sutherland simplify and right‑size the platform rather than over‑engineering solutions.” Naomi Hawker

Adoption & platform maturity

The platform has become a core business capability, underpinning operational, financial and strategic decision making across the firm.

At the time of capture:

• Around 3,000 fee earners use the platform to understand performance against targets and monitor business performance.

• The Financial Analytics team relies on the platform to review firm performance, identify trends and support strategic planning.

• Approximately 80% of reports have been migrated to the new target-state platform, with the remaining migration continuing.

• 12 data products and five semantic models are now supporting reporting and analytics across the business.

Operational resilience & managed service impact

With Telefónica Tech providing 24/7, 365‑day monitoring and support, operational resilience has improved significantly:

• Faster recovery when issues occur, rather than waiting a full reporting cycle

• Reduced risk of prolonged reporting outages

• Greater confidence that reporting will be available first thing each morning, globally

Foundation for AI & agentic capability

A further outcome of the programme is that Eversheds Sutherland now has the data, performance and governance foundations required to responsibly pursue AI and agentic capability.

This includes:

• A performant, scalable data platform suitable for AI workloads

• Increased automation and reliability across analytics processing

• Clear direction on governance, monitoring and control

• Alignment between analytics, engineering and emerging AI initiatives

Strategic Business Impact

Beyond technical improvements, the platform has become a trusted source of insight for senior leadership. The firm’s Chief Financial Officer actively uses the platform to access critical financial insights, with the data underpinning strategic planning and business decision making across Eversheds Sutherland.

By providing trusted, timely and consistent reporting, the platform enables leaders to make informed decisions with greater confidence while supporting the firm’s continued growth and operational performance.

Watch how Eversheds Sutherland transformed its data platform to deliver trusted business insight.

Looking Ahead

Building Towards the Next Generation of Data and AI

Eversheds Sutherland data and AI journey is firmly positioned as a long‑term, continuously evolving programme, rather than a one‑off transformation. With the move to the target‑state data platform expected to continue through to around 2027, the current focus remains on completing the migration, optimising performance and cost, and embedding the platform as the firm’s central source of trusted insight.

As the data platform matures, Eversheds Sutherland plans to onboard additional data domains, extending beyond core finance and practice management into new areas of the business. A particular priority is ensuring that these new use cases can be delivered in a more agile and proportionate way, enabling smaller, high‑value initiatives to progress without having to move through heavy, enterprise‑scale processes.

Alongside this, Eversheds Sutherland is actively exploring alternatives to routing every analytical requirement through a traditional data warehouse model. This includes assessing how smaller, more targeted datasets can be accessed and analysed more quickly, while still maintaining appropriate governance, auditability and control.

From an AI perspective, the firm is continuing to build on the foundations already in place. Internal enablement, training and experimentation are helping teams understand how AI can support productivity and decision‑making, while ongoing work around governance and oversight ensures that adoption remains responsible and aligned with the firm’s risk profile.

The agentic readiness engagement has helped shape this direction, providing Eversheds Sutherland with greater clarity around where agentic capability could add value, what guardrails are required (particularly before any large-scale deployment), and how such capabilities would sit alongside existing data and analytics processes. As this work progresses, Eversheds Sutherland expects to move selectively from experimentation into carefully governed AI‑assisted and agentic use cases, where they deliver clear and measurable benefit.

Today, the platform is embedded within day-to-day operations across the firm, supporting approximately 3,000 fee earners, finance leadership and executive decision makers. As Eversheds Sutherland continues to evolve its data, analytics and AI capabilities, Telefónica Tech continues to provide specialist expertise, helping the firm optimise performance, support future growth and adopt new technologies with confidence.

What the Customer said

“

Telefónica Tech provided valuable expertise during a period of significant delivery pressure and business visibility. They worked closely with our internal team and helped us stabilise and evolve the platform while maintaining momentum on key strategic initiatives.

Naomi Hawker

Head of Data & Analytics, Eversheds Sutherland
“

Telefónica Tech helped us move beyond the hype surrounding AI and focus on where agentic capabilities can deliver genuine business value. Their structured approach provided us with a practical roadmap for adoption, grounded in governance, measurable outcomes and trusted data foundations.

Sue Chick

Digital Transformation Program Manager, Eversheds Sutherland