Tag Archives: MSC

Oct 21

Hosted IT – "Do it, but learn from experience"

Posted on by

Over the past 2 years, we have generally advised all clients reviewing their IT that they should at least explore the option of using some form of hosted IT. Some have decided to make the move to hosted; others decided against. This article provides direct candid feedback about the experience – warts and all – from some of the users in law firms (from 6 to 150 users) who chose to make the move. How it has gone, whether they recommend it, what they would do differently and plans for the future? 

In their own words – These summaries of conversations with senior people in each legal practice are a fair reflection of all our discussions. They paint a consistent picture of their experience overall. In essence, most say that there were inevitable issues that it took time to address; also that there is a tendency not to prepare quite enough, both on the part of the legal practice and the supplier. However for all of them, the business benefits have been justified in spite of the challenges they have had to deal with in making the transition.

“I didn’t want to spend a lot of capital up front …some teething problems, but there would be whatever changes you make on IT … one loss of connection in 8 months that stopped us working for ¾ of a day but worth it for the other benefits … access for the accountant cuts their costs to us … more flexibility in how we develop the business … easy to grow a virtual office… more remote working … 24 hour support … disaster recovery … no doubt we will stay hosted, although we may want to get more dedicated support as we grow, which will cost more but make good sense … convinced me to look at other outsourcing options to enable us to focus on doing the work and developing the business … yes it was the right decision for us. (c. 8 people practice, moved to hosted 1½ years ago.)

“Staff were pulling their hair out … printing was a problem for 2 weeks … digital dictation was a challenge but has been resolved as things have moved on … if we did it again, I would insist on more pre-planning on implementation but [the supplier] does that now anyway … we would have communicated more to our people about what we were doing … we now use everything hosted and wouldn’t do anything else … just added CRM … know exactly how much IT will cost … we can control costs at £x per person … we don’t have to take on and manage IT people … link performance of the business to costs … just renewed our contract … yes it was the right decision for us.”  (c. 150 people practice, moved to hosted 2½ years ago)

“It was the right decision … there were problems at the beginning though that have been resolved … fee earners don’t have the downtime we had before … not sure about the cost, but there is more competition now, so we will look at that on renewal … it has enabled us to focus on training our people to use the system … we may still look at other suppliers though on renewal … yes, we would recommend it.” (c. 150 people practice, moved to hosted 2 years ago).

“[Moving to hosted was] Like flicking a switch … went well … we should have briefed the staff to help them better understand the concept of how it works … I can’t explain how important the disaster recovery solution it gave us is to the business now … not using VoIP as there are still some issues on quality when being used by over 10 users, so we use other solutions and I am sure this will be resolved in the future … yes, we would recommend it.”  (c. 40 people practice, moved to hosted 3½ years ago).

Conclusions

All the practices we interviewed were happy with the decisions they made and satisfied that they have got it right for their business, but that doesn’t mean they all found it easy.

Experienced suppliers now appear to have adopted better routines to manage the move and have learned to anticipate the pitfalls – making it easier for the firms that follow in the footsteps of the pioneers. These early adopters have however benefited from making their move early; so they are now better prepared to extend their use of their systems faster in the future, having already gone through an important pain barrier.

On the other hand, the firms who decided in the end not to go for a hosted IT solution are all equally satisfied that – having explored the options – they made the right decision for their practice for now, although most would be willing to revisit this on their next major review, when solutions have developed further again.

Allan Carton

Aug 18

Hosted PMS suppliers and users … in a nutshell

Posted on by

There is a wide variety of hosting options available now to enable legal practices to introduce “Cloud Computing” using practice management and case management systems (PMS and CMS)  as “Software as a Service”. 

They include:

Specialist hosted solutions providers, who host the firm’s entire IT environment, which includes a particular PMS that is capable of running in a hosted environment. Specialist hosting providers active in the legal sector include e-know.net (www.e-know.net), Intercept IT (www.intercept-it.com) and K-Cloud (www.k-cloud.com) with other providers like Onyx Group (www.onyx.net) edging into the legal market.

PMS suppliers like DPS (www.dpssoftware.co.uk), Quill Pinpoint (www.quill.co.uk), Pracctice (http://www.pracctice.com/) and Iris (www.iris.co.uk/legal) who host their own applications and manage them directly for at least some of their clients, but who may also have clients using their software hosted by any of the specialist hosting providers mentioned above.  Quill, Pracctice and DPS started ahead of the game by investing in hosted solutions early on.

Some PMS suppliers can offer a comprehensive hosted solution from a specialist hosted service provider that incorporates their PMS.  For example, e-know.net with Lexis Nexis to host their Axxia PMS, Visual Files and InterAction, K-Cloud with Pilgrim and Intercept IT with SOS “Virtual Practices” (www.soslegal.co.uk).

Firms can rent rack space in a hosted environment provided by the likes of InTechnology and Civica where the hardware and applications can reside, to be managed either by the IT staff at the law firm or by the provider of the hosted environment, with variations possible in the extent of responsibility that each party takes on board.

Go here for more about who is hosting which practice management systems for which legal practices.

Feb 10

Why use hosted IT services?

Posted on by

The key benefits are set out here, from research conducted  by IDC.  These ring very true from our real-life experience of working with law firms who have gone down this route.

Q: Rate the benefits commonly ascribed to the “Cloud” / on-demand / SaaS model

This chart show respondents ranking each benefit at 4 or 5 where 1=not important and 5=very important.

Source: IDC Enterprise Panel, August 2008 (242 respondents)

But one of the main benefits is not included here – it allows IT people to focus their time and effort on improving business processes to streamline the way people work and how the business is run; also on training to help lawyers make better use of what they’ve got. If you want to explore options to have your IT hosted or managed by a third party, call us on 0161 929 8355 or complete this form

07779 653105 or email me at acarton@inpractice.co.uk

Jan 10

Outsourcing law firm IT – Good idea or bad idea?

Posted on by

Extract from a discussion on the UK Legal IT Group on LinkedIn – from Andrew Simmans at Inpractice UK

I have worked with several law firms where the IT has been “outsourced” in different ways.  Getting an external supplier to build the systems which are then run by an internal IT help desk has worked well with one of my law clients (300-400 staff) – they did this in 2000/2001 and then repeated this (using a different supplier) in 2006/2007.

Another law client (about 100 staff) I became involved with in 2007 was just in the final stages of completely outsourcing everything (using Citrix) so that they no longer have any IT staff – this had some issues in making the transition – lots of data needing to be transferred and some problems with WAN connectivity. However nearly 3 years later the Managing Partner is extremely happy with how it has worked and is just renewing the contract.

One of the big advantages with this arrangement is that when the recession hit they could save money quickly (all payments – including MS Licences are per user). Also when they have wanted to take on a new service (for example Sharepoint and more recently Microsoft CRM / CRM4Legal) it has been very easy to do – with the outsource company havign all the technical resources (both people and hardware) to be able to do this “at the drop of a hat”.

In my opinion the full outsourcing is going to become more and more of a “no brainer” for medium sized firms as it moves costs from capital to revenue, can provide DR and secuirty arrangements far beyond anything you can do in house and means you have highly skilled technical resources that know “your” infrastructure.

Clearly you have to pick your outsourcing partner carefully and some people woprry about the risk that the partner goes bust – however in my opinion the risk that your key IT staff leave / fall ill and you suddenly have no-one to run your systems is much higher!

There is a log of good information on options at MSC.

You can contact Andrew at asimmans@inpractice.co.uk

Dec 17

Richard Blasdale's predictions to the Society for Computers & Law for 2010 and beyond

Posted on by

Law firms, IT managers and IT Directors that are going to be successful from this point (particularly the mid-market firms) will be under pressure and driven harder to find more efficiency and productivity improvements and/or cost reductions. All of which is totally justified because there is still plenty of scope for radical improvements if IT, lawyers and managers would just start to talk the same language. Who is holding who back varies from firm to firm - but CEOs and Managing Partners, who may now be better equipped (because they are getting better) to be more understanding of the issues, will be less tolerant of failure to manage projects and achieve change in working practices to improve results .

As IT people slowly get more involved with business strategy, it’s more likely that any investment in IT-related projects will be backed up with some kind of ROI-driven business case (now that more commercial IT minds are coming into the sector - and not before time). Historically, few firms have done this; and even fewer firms measure actual cost savings achieved, post implementation. In 2010, there will be more frustration with more decision-makers in each firm who expect a strong ROI-driven case to be made prior to project authorisation being given. Information and benchmarks will continue to be hard to find – so there needs to be more serious thought, research and innovation in this area, which has huge potential to lead radical improvements.

With improving options available, heads of IT who are keen to take a more strategic position in the business will begin to promote use of more specialist support from third-party managers of IT - from outsourced and managed services and, increasingly, from hosted providers of solutions. Use of some elements of managed services will become an aspiration in many more IT strategies, with the objective of enabling IT people to adopt a more effective project management approach to new initiatives that improve the business – not just keep it ticking over. Projects need to involve participants from all areas of the practice; enabling IT to focus on development and use of legal and business processes.

Too many firms will fail to make effective decisions in these areas. There will be a steep increase in acquisitions of the weaker legal practices that have failed to get their house in order, where partners will suffer financially as a result because they cannot negotiate a deal from a position of any strength.

A selection from the predictions posted at www.scl.org will appear in the SCL magazine, arranged by topic. Check back regularly for more predictions – they will be posted in batches throughout December.

Dec 03

Unified Communications (UC) and Hosted Solution Providers getting closer.

Posted on by

Take-up of unified communications – the merging of IP telephony, conferencing and collaboration, messaging and communications tools – is on a “steeply rising curve”, according to analysts.  Spending on UC among businesses worldwide is expected to rise from just $302m last year to $4.2bn in five years’ time, according to industry watchers ABI Research.

And it seems that suppliers of unified communications applications are now working closely with providers of hosted VoIP services, leading to several flavours of unified communications now emerging from the cloud.  Not a surprise as this combination can produce very significant benefits for your business.

Solutions now include versions featuring a “hybrid mix” of customer-owned equipment with managed or hosted services, which target medium-sized businesses; fully hosted offerings with smaller businesses in mind; and revamped broadband telephone services targeting small office/home office users. The shift to a more cloud-centric approach can be seen in the way vendors are now positioning UC as a service rather than a product.

UC implementations bring together a variety of digital communication tools to make it easier for users to collaborate and improve business processes. UC, for example, might mean bringing together instant messaging, presence information, videoconferencing, as well as email, SMS, fax and voicemail to improve productivity, and potentially trim the cost of an organisation’s IT infrastructure.

The move towards higher mobile data allowances will also see the extension of unified communications to smartphones and other wireless data devices, according to the analyst.

There is also a rumour that email is turning into “grey mail” with older generations now more likely to use email than younger ones (98 per cent of people aged 65-plus, compared to 86 per cent of 15 to 24-year-olds). According to TalkTalk, young people prefer technologies that allow them to contact whole groups of friends rather than individuals one at a time.

Lawyers should be keeping an eye on all of this as there are many opportunities to reduce costs and improve productivity to impact on bottom line profits.

Read more at www.managedservicesconsultancy.com

Jul 06

Should an expert manage (some of) your IT?

Posted on by

Reliance on technology (and the need to make sure it work hassle-free more of the time), the need for business continuity, the complexity of the range of IT used day to day in a legal office, more focus on development of IT solutions (rather than just keeping systems up and running) and the need for absolute security for online communications are all factors driving law firms towards more use of managed and outsourced IT and communications; alongside the growing number of providers and better solutions available.

E-technology has taken over the way in which lawyers think about delivering services and communicate; within firms, with lawyers in other firms, with clients and other professionals. Technology has become so critical to lawyers ability to provide a service that disaster recovery and business continuity – which were scarcely on the agenda seriously for most firms just 3 years ago – has become an essential measure for all firms; reflected in its inclusion as a requirement in Lexcel accreditation.

Online services which all rely on e-technology – now used routinely – include:

  • Email – no practice can cope for long without it now.
  • Property searches – Local Authorities, Land Registry, drainage
  • Online billing – Legal Services Commission.
  • The courts – issuing proceedings
  • Banking – managing accounts, reconciliations, BACS
  • Document submissions – Inland Revenue (SDLT), Land Registry
  • Remote access to the office from home / anywhere
  • PDA’s, Blackberries – email, diary, text, web, dictation
  • Dictation – from anywhere to anywhere via digital dictation 
  • Websites – with many now providing a significant flow of enquiries 24/7/365
  • Online tracking – clients, introducers of business
  • Telephones – which all rely, like the Internet on the national and global networks

“Convergence” of documents, data and voice technologies creates many of the growing opportunities to capitalise on new technology. An example of the inter-operability of these three media, which have historically been regarded as quite separate – but which have all become just “packets” of data when they are transmitted electronically – is the option to have your emails and attached documents read to you and for you to speak your email reply while you drive your car. There is now also very little distinction between sending emails on the computer in your office or from your mobile phone – you can choose what is most convenient for you; equally there is little difference between sending a text to a mobile phone compared to an email … and the distinction between mobile phones, cordless and landlines is disappearing too – enabling everyone to work more flexibly from anywhere any time.

… and how quickly this has happened, mostly without much planning on the part of lawyers and law firms, many of which are ill prepared for the challenges that all these new methods of working and communicating present. Equally, few firms are equipped to capitalise on the opportunities to develop a more capable and profitable practice that all of these initiatives present.  The reality is that most IT managers in most law firms cannot possibly keep up to speed on the wide range of IT, telecoms, multiple channel networking and security skills needed to provide a full service today. They need more help to get to grips with all the issues and solutions available.

A law firm can no longer operate without effective, stable and secure technologies and an assurance of minimal down time, with close to zero security breaches, even in the event of a disaster. Commercial clients in particular, but also the general public, have raised the bar as they have recognised what can go wrong based on their own failings and plenty of publicity when things do go wrong.

The principal concept behind outsourcing or managed service is that the responsibility for the management of the infrastructure and support of a professional services organisation can be given to a specialist organisation in part or as a whole to enable the remaining IT resources of a business can focus on adding value to the firm through enhancing business processes and providing a better service to clients.

There is a general lack of appreciation of what “outsourcing” and “managed” services encompass and of the components and benefits that can be derived from these initiatives.  If you would like to know more about the options available, take a look at the web site of MSC who are dedicated to reviewing the potential of managed services for professional services organisations and facilitating the change.

For more information contact Bill Kirby on 07946 251277 or bkirby@managedservicesconsultancy.com