Website 101: Getting the Results You're Paying For

By Sheila Okabayashi, Director of Marketing, Web Developer

Despite dwindling budgets, virtually all companies today are finding that they require an online presence. A good Website can expand your customer base or market beyond regional borders. With the right Website, companies can capture and promote valuable strategic partnerships and sponsors, communicate with other field offices, create a flow of online purchases, and get their product or service out to millions of individuals who would otherwise not be exposed to their company.

Websites can be a fairly simple process to complete – if you stick with a plan that is aligned with your business needs. Unlike print media, the value of a Website is that its form can be changed to reflect a changing set of functional needs. Print material is static and unchanging; Websites are fluid, flexible, and interactive. If you plan your site well and utilize the right Web Developer, you can have the flexible, effective online marketing vehicle you need.

STEP ONE: PLAN

A good, solid Website plan creates a good, solid Website. Knowing how to manage this process is the key to getting the results that you deserve. The trick of getting the most out of your Web dollars is planning.

You need to know how to prepare for your present and future requirements. The following are some of the planning

LinkedIn – The Online Resume

By Doug Hafford

My recent article on Social Networking covered a lot of ground with respect to the new ways you can put yourself or your firm out there on the web. In this article we will focus on the professional side of Social Networking sites; LinkedIn.

LinkedIn was founded in 2002 and launched in May of 2003 as a professional networking site. As of today, Linkedin has more than 60 million users in over 200 countries worldwide. Looking at those statistics alone tells you how valuable the service is if you want to get noticed, or connect with other professionals.

You start by setting up your own LinkedIn page. The process is very simple and free of charge. As you are entering your business information and even a picture or two, you quickly see that you are building a resume’. You can fill in as much or as little of your professional life as you wish including things like current position, past positions, education, your connections and other information. One of the very nice features of LinkedIn is that you can then publish some or all of your information to people outside LinkedIn by using their “public profile” feature. When a web search is done on your name, this will generally be one of the first things that come up. Thus you can have control over the initial impression people have of you when they want to find out more about you.

Afinety’s 9 Easy Tips to Help You Practice Green Technology

1. Recycle Retired Electronics. If you're not sure where to donate out-of-use electronics, Recycles.Org can match you up with nonprofit agencies that use old equipment. By 2011, more than 400 million PCs will have been purchased as replacements for current home and office computers.  If you are an Afinety client and have HP hardware, recycling your unwanted or retired PCs and peripheral devices is even easier. HP takes their Green Technology policies very seriously. They offer various options for managing your used products. To read more, visit HP’s online recycling center today. 
2. Telecommute Once a Week. If all commuters worked from home just one day a week, we could save 5.85 billion gallons of oil each year. (Environmental Defense Fund ) – To read more on Virtual Office best practices and remote work options such as RAS, check out the Afinety Blog article today.
3. Recycle Your Printer Cartridges. Take your HP printer cartridges to Staples for recycling and you will get a $3 coupon for ink or toner. (Staples.com) Energy Star 4.0 is quite stringent, demanding highly efficient power supplies and very-low-power idle modes. (energystar.gov)
4. Stop Overcharging Your Laptop Battery. These days it's not uncommon for laptops to serve desktop duty. But here's the rub: If you leave the battery inside the system 24/7, it'll keep drawing power, even when fully charged. That's not only a waste of energy and money, but also bad news for the battery: Constant charging will reduce its capacity to hold a charge and its overall longevity.  Fortunately, there's a fast and simple solution: Pull the battery out. Most notebooks can run off AC power when there's no battery present, so take the latter out of the equation. It'll stay in pristine condition and save you a kilowatt or two. Estimated savings: A few dollars on your monthly electric bill and $120 on premature battery replacement.
5. Let One Device Handle the Workload of Three. Try an all-in-one device, such as HP’s LaserJet M3035 Multifunction Printer and handle your printing, scanning, copying, and faxing all in one device. This will save you space, electricity, and device maintenance and replacement costs down the road.
6. Give Your PC a Nap. Set the "sleep" (power management) settings on your computer to automatically turn your monitor, hard drive or entire system off after specific periods of inactivity, and ask your organization to implement a policy on it. Save money and electricity! 
7. Use Smarter Power Strips. Save money and electricity when they automatically turn off your accessories (i.e., monitor, speakers, printer) when you shut down your computer!
8. Eliminate the Fax Machine Altogether. Use electronic fax solutions, such as MyFax, and eFax, Internet-based secure fax services. Reduce your need for paper, toner and hardware and save money, paper and toxics in landfills!
9. Attempt At Least One of the Steps to Becoming a Less-Paper Office. It’s important to note that the “Less-Paper” office is all about reducing your dependency on paper through various emerging technologies and operational approaches. Try doing more emailing than faxing, use full-cycle document management solutions, or install PDF distillers on every machine. For more “less-paper” office tips, visit the Afinety Blog article today.

Email – The Godzilla of Network Challenges

If your firm is like most others, email is becoming a larger challenge every day. Most firms find that 80% or more of their communications are via email. Yet email is rarely managed; leaving firms in a situation where the bulk of their valuable data is handled on a haphazard “per user” basis.

Most of the firms we work with have at least one (and sometimes more) partner who has an enormous inbox. Our current record holder had something on the order of 18,000 mail messages in their inbox! Microsoft’s official stance on this type of thing is very negative and there are numerous tech notes and articles describing the problems with large single folders in Outlook.

The primary problem with a single large folder is performance. Outlook is slow when you have a huge inbox, and user complaints are nearly constant. These same users however are often not willing to do anything about the situation, insisting they need this very large inbox to work efficiently. The second issue is corruption. Larger mailboxes have a much higher likelihood of corruption which can result in either downtime while the corruption is repaired, or worse, data loss.

The user feels the need to keep a large inbox in order to find mail messages easily. So what they do is to locate a message from a particular sender, then hit the “sort” button to arrange all mail in order of sender. Once this is accomplished, the user can then move up and down through the messages to find the one they want. As the mailbox grows, these sorts are slower and slower. The movement within messages also slows so the user becomes more and more frustrated.

The answer to these problems is rarely system based, but many firms go out and buy the biggest, nastiest email server they can fine and expect it to fix a desktop problem. This is not to say that an old or overburdened server cannot be responsible for performance issues, but more often the problem is user habits.

The key to solving the problem however involves a combination of both solution and policy decisions. The policy decisions are much harder for firms to deal with so whatever the firm chooses as its solution to the email dilemma it has to be easier for the user and not harder. At Afinety we are always looking for products and solutions that make it “easier to do the right thing.” This leads to universal adoption, better performance and user satisfaction.

There are some very good answers available however, and at our upcoming seminars we will present some of the solutions to the email monster. We look forward to showing you how you can not only tame the monster but more importantly, leverage the single most valuable communication tool in your firm.

Getting Equipped: Technology for Lawyers

Lawyers face a daunting challenge in the world of technology. Choosing the right technology to fit a firm or individual’s practice is not only crucial but also complex. The reason for this is simple; most attorneys must run a wide range of products, all of which have to work together, to fulfill their daily needs. Unlike other industries, where one or two main applications solve 90% of the firm’s needs, law firms might need 10 or even 20 diverse applications.

Once the attorney or law firm has chosen the applications required, then the other parts of technology such as desktop computers, network servers, printers and handheld devices follow suit. The important thing to consider here is that the software determines the hardware and not the other way around.

Examples of the types of applications an attorney might need are shown below:

• Time & Billing
• Calendar & Docketing
• Case Management
• Client and Contact Management
• Document Management
• Court Forms
• Jury Instructions
• Deposition Transcript
• Table of Authorities
• Citation Checking
• Legal Research
• Family Law
• Macros and Template

Choosing the right applications can dramatically streamline the workday and allow an attorney to compete with larger firms who have nearly unlimited resources. Choosing the wrong application suite can mean cumbersome, time consuming days fighting technology instead of gaining from it.

There are two basic approaches to selecting your application suite, both starting with the type of practice you have. For example a Family Law attorney would use a different suite than a Business Litigation attorney. While there are some overlapping applications, the two in this example quickly diverge in their needs.

The first approach is to find and All-In-One software suite that fulfills most or all of the firm’s needs. Examples of these types of packages would be Prolaw (www.elite.com/ProLaw), AbacusLaw Gold (www.abacuslaw.com), Perfect Law (www.perfectlaw.com), TABS with Practice Master (www.tabs3.com) and Lexis Total Practice Advantage (www.lexisnexis.com/.../practice.../total-practice-advantage.aspx). In this case, a high premium is placed on full integration. The value of this is significant in terms of work flow and collaboration.

In an integrated package a client and matter are entered a single time and then can be accessed from any part of the application. If a case is headed for trial, the important dates can automatically be generated, linked to the matter and then communicated to the concerned attorneys and staff. Thus a single entry creates multiple access points and cases can be viewed from a number of different angles all within the same consistent application. Starting at the client level an attorney could examine all matters, a specific matter, correspondence, dates, trail notes and even email correspondence.

This type of integrated package is thus highly valuable due to its single point of entry and multiple points of access. There are however drawbacks to this approach. Much like a sports team, you can draft players who fit well together and often have a very good team. Other teams might choose the “best available player” for any particular need and then try to fit things around their stars. The same concept applies to an All-In-One package.

Prolaw for example shines on the front end in terms of navigating a case, its calendar-centric approach and accessibility of information. It is also extremely complex on the back end where time entry and accounting take place and many find it cumbersome in this area. AbacusLaw is very simple and intuitive but lacks features for fairly common time and billing needs, and has only rudimentary court rules embedded in its calendar.

The trade off for an All-In-One is that not all parts are as strong as a firm might like them to be. So a choice is made to either live with the way it works and reap the benefits of a single integrated package, or to choose the best player in each area and integrate those as much as possible. The second is the more common approach because most firms or individuals make decisions one at a time, rather than examining the larger picture. Of course some firms simply make the choice to get the best of each application and this is certainly not a bad thing.

Let’s look at an actual boutique Family Law Practice. This particular firm handles well known clients needs and so they not only have to handle the client carefully and professionally but must often work against firms who may have more size or resources. This firm uses the following suite of software:

• Dissomaster – Dissolution of Assets and Support calculation
• MS Office – Outlook Email
• WordPerfect – Word processing
• PC Law – Time, Billing and Calendaring
• Legal Solutions Court Forms
• LiveNote – Depositions
• Adobe Acrobat Professional – Transmittal of documents and Court filings
• Paperport for Scanning

Each of these products stands essentially alone and each is one of the top choices for a firm of this practice area and size. This particular firm puts a high value on personal interaction and relies on a few strong applications such as Dissomaster and PC Law heavily. There is little need for a collaborative approach or multiple points of access since each client is essentially confined to a single attorney. This suite works very well for them and they find it easy to use since they are very familiar with each application.

Let’s look at a larger firm with a Litigation based practice. This firm has two offices and a diverse practice in 4 basic areas of law. Primarily it is a business litigation firm.

• Microsoft Office – Word processing, email
• iManage – Document and email management
• TABSIII and Practice Master – Integrated Time, Billing and Case Management
• TimeMatters – Calendaring and Case Management
• Jury Instruction Selector – Jury Instructions
• HotDocs – Document Assembly
• Legal Solutions – Court Forms
• Equitrac – Cost RecoveryBlackberry Enterprise Server

As you can see this firm has taken a hybrid approach using both an All-In-One (TABSII and Practice Master) and some other players to accomplish its goals. The end result is outstanding document management through iManage, a consistent word processing program and then other applications to fill its needs in diverse areas.

This firm requires, within each practice area, a high degree of collaboration. So it is clear why they need things like document management and case management, allowing them multiple points of access to centralized matter information.

In both cases the firms are faced with integration of a number of disparate packages and thus the choice of desktops, handhelds, servers and peripherals must fit the application needs.

Before moving on from this topic it is important to note Timeslips. This is a small firm or individual time and billing software package that is as robust as anything on the market. Timeslips ONLY does time and billing so you need an accounting package, a calendar etc. to go with it and while it can integrate with other things it basically stands alone. We see Timeslips in small, medium and even larger firms and despite its drawbacks it is extremely capable in time tracking. For attorneys starting out on their own, it is the de-facto standard in the industry and thus worth a mention.

For an individual user, an attorney would commonly have either a desktop with single or dual monitors or just as often a laptop, docking station combination with a full sized monitor, keyboard and mouse. The best selling of these are the HP and Dell lines and it is our opinion that only business class computers are acceptable for a professional.

In the case of the desktop a common configuration would be as follows:

• HP 6000 Pro Desktop
• Core 2 Duo processor
• 4GB of RAM
• 160GB or larger hard drive
• DVD-Writer (although rarely used)
• 22” flat panel wide screen monitor or dual 19” square monitors

Approximate cost of this computer is about $800.00 to $1,000.00 for dual monitors.

For a laptop, the most common selection is as follows:

• HP Elitebook 6930p
• Core 2 Duo processor
• 4GB of RAM
• 160GB or larger hard drive
• DVD-Writer (although rarely used)
• Docking Station with full sized keyboard and mouse
• 22” flat panel wide screen monitor or dual 19” square monitors

Approximate cost of the laptop setup is about $1,400.00 or $1,600 for dual monitors.

Probably just as important or perhaps more important in today’s mobile world is a handheld. There are two very basic choices and then a huge variety in those categories. The first is the venerable Blackberry from RIM. There are a few different models of the Blackberry but they all share some common traits. The first thing you notice about a Blackberry is how sturdy the device is and the standard models can really take a beating.

The differentiator with a Blackberry is that it is built for the corporate world. When a law firm supplies Blackberry devices to its attorneys they generally support them through what is known as BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This is a software package that resides on a server at the main office. It pushes out email, contact and calendar updates to the firm’s Blackberries.

The thing that law firms love about the Blackberry Enterprise / Blackberry solution is the security aspect. If a Blackberry is lost or a user departs the firm, the unit can be wiped remotely via the Blackberry Enterprise Server administrator. Thus potential sensitive information such as client lists emails and other firm data can quickly and easily be removed without having the device in hand.

The Droid, iPhone, Palm Pre and other handhelds can also be supported via a firm’s network but with less security. With these devices integration is done directly with the firm’s email server but the device is essentially just a client and cannot be manipulated from the main office. A user’s email could be disabled, but the device would retain contact information for example. Thus while these type handhelds might be more aesthetically pleasing, they are not nearly as desirable for a security conscious law firm.

Most attorneys go to extraordinary lengths to service their clients. This means that they must be able to work remotely as well as within the office. There are a number of ways to accomplish this, but for the remote user all that is required is a home or laptop PC. The basic types of remote access are:

• VPN – in this case the user logs in to a network from a remote computer, accessing shared drives, but using locally installed software to perform tasks.
• Remote Control – examples of this are GoToMyPC, VNC and LogMeIn. The remote computer simply remote controls an office computer so that on the remote PC only screens and keystrokes are passed and all data remains in the main office.
• Terminal Server or Citrix Server – this is similar to the solution above except it is hosted by a server at an office location. This is generally the fastest and most secure of the remote computing choices.

Much of the discussion thus far has centered on a law firm as opposed to an individual. With a handheld, a computer and some reasonable software an attorney can be in business as a sole practitioner. This can simplify things and create some challenges at the same time. Generally however there are some simple steps to getting setup that make sense, and keep cost down.

A sole practitioner may be alone, or have an assistant but in either case certain services must be provided that would otherwise be part of a larger firm’s IT department. Two examples of this would be an email system and a backup process.

A typical sole practitioner, with one assistant might look like this:

Software

• Timeslips – Time and Billing
• Quickbooks – Accounting
• U.S. Court Forms – Online court forms
• Microsoft Office – Word Processing and Email interface
• Carbonite – Online Backup System
• Google Apps (Gmail) with Outlook Integration – Email, calendar, contacts

Hardware

• Desktop Computer for Assistant
• Laptop Computer for attorney with docking station, mouse, keyboard and monitor
• All-in-One Printer, Fax, Scanner, Copier
• Ether switch to connect all components
• Handhelds for both attorney and assistant Infrastructure
• Internet Connection (DSL, Cable, T1, other)
• Phone System
• Voice Mail

Most of the items above are relatively low cost and it is important to note that hosted applications like email, backup and even voicemail can offer a big savings while providing excellent results.

Often we see small firms start out with a system such as the one described above. If the attorney is successful, the firm can grow rapidly and quickly a system like this can be outgrown. Once a firm reaches about 5 attorneys and staff, it is generally time to add a main file server. This will then provide some of the services that are hosted online above, improving the way things work, speed and provide for all users as well as providing shared drives and potentially collaboration tools.

To summarize, there are a myriad of choices for law firm technology but all of them boil down to a few simple needs. The challenges is to get things in the right order (software first) and to make wise choices on each part. Keep in mind when you select hardware and software that an application such as Timeslips with thousands of users will be better supported and offer more features than a very small company’s software. For hardware, get business class machines from major manufacturers so you have a good warranty and support when you need it. Don’t take chances to save a few dollars because in the end, it is your time that is paramount. If you keep that simple fact in mind, your technology choices will nearly make themselves.

TECH TIP: Outlook 2007

Quick Parts
 When in an e-mail, you can build a library of "quick parts" (formerly "auto text") that are accessible only when you are in an e-mail.

Merely type in the e-mail the phrase or sentences you want to have as a "quick part," highlight the words and click the Insert ribbon tab, then Quick Parts, then Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery. You can name it whatever shortcut name you wish.

When you want to use the Quick Part in an e-mail, merely type the shortcut name and press F3.

Quick Access Toolbar

You may have noticed the tiny toolbar at the top of your e-mail window. This is called the "Quick Access Toolbar." It only has a few icons on it to begin with. If you click the very tiny arrow to the right side of the toolbar, you can see some popular items that can be added to the toolbar.

Merely click on the ones you'd like to add. You might also want to "Show Below the Ribbon," as the buttons are more visible there.

Above is a picture of the quick access toolbar with a few icons added and showing "below the ribbon."

Survey Report: Windows 7

Results of Afinety Survey Exploring the Current State of Planning and Migration Readiness for a Potential Move to Microsoft’s New Operating System within the Legal Community

In Fall of 2009, Afinety set out to begin preparing for easily, the biggest Microsoft release in years, their new operating system, Windows 7. Considering the struggles Microsoft faced with Vista, it is no surprise that this new version of Windows came out so quickly and with so much hype. The advertising for Windows 7 is unavoidable and promising that regular people, just like us, claim to have designed this new operating system. It appears to be the best operating system anyone has ever seen from Microsoft. But does the reality match the hype? And what does this mean for our clients in the legal community?

Click here to download the full Windows 7 Survey Report

Windows 7 Is Finally Here!

Probably the biggest software release of the year happened just a few weeks ago with the release of Microsoft’s newest version of Windows. Windows 7 is now in full release, available on most new PC’s as well as for upgrading existing units.

The pundits, and most of our testing, have confirmed that Microsoft got it right this time. Windows 7 is fast, stable and chock full of small improvements over Windows Vista and XP.
Windows 7 is fast. Its speed is comparable to or better than most Windows XP installs so you get both the security that Vista offered, plus the speed of Windows XP.

Security is dramatically improved over Windows XP. It is nearly impossible to infect a Windows 7 PC, and very easy to lock them down so that a user cannot make changes to their desktop in a network environment.

Stability is perhaps the biggest improvement of all. Not only does Windows 7 run smoothly, but it adds compatibility features to allow you to run older Windows programs in the new operating system.

Probably the most valuable feature of all is the ability to run in 64Bit mode. Windows XP and Vista both offered 64bit versions but for the first time, you can truly realize the value of this operating mode with Windows 7. With Windows XP, even if you installed 4GB of RAM, the computer could see only 3GB. This changed with Windows Vista, and we could see all 4GB, however, this was still not enough for many users who multi-task all day long. With Windows 7 in 64bit mode, you can see up to 32GB of RAM in your PC! Additionally Windows 7 in 64bit mode finally takes full advantage of your Core 2 Duo, or Core 2 Quad processor.

The single drawback, which exists for every new operating system is certification by software vendors. So early adopters of Windows 7 may find that tech support for their application software is not available because the manufacturer does not yet support the new Windows version. Our experiences with Windows Vista have taught us that this can take a very long time. Often the software can work fine, but without certification, if something does come up, you are out of luck.

For a complete list of Windows 7's features, visit Microsoft's website at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/what-is-windows-7.aspx.

Considering Windows 7’s compatibility features and the fact that it is so similar to Vista, we don’t anticipate the same long wait for certification we had with Windows Vista, however certification should be an essential to your decision process on when to start with Windows 7.

Smart IT Decisions in Tough Economic Times

There is perhaps no person in the local or national community who has not felt the economic crunch. The state of the market place is impacting Law Firms in diverse ways, but with few exceptions, most are looking to do more with less. One of the first areas affected is always the computer systems. With computers such an important part of our business day, the stress of keeping older equipment alive, combined with the ever increasing needs in a competitive marketplace has put unusual strains on IT staff and providers. It is thus more important than ever to make smart IT decisions both for firms that see significant new activity and for those whose clients are cutting back. With that in mind, nearly all firms have the following goals in mind.

• Save money and time - upfront and ongoing
• Stretch the current investment
• Get more value - Longevity, work product, storage, disaster recovery and environmental friendliness

What most firms do in a situation like this is to focus on tangibles such as hardware and software purchases. The result is the “keep it until it dies” syndrome, which is a dangerous one at best. Firms are cutting IT staff, cutting expenditures on hardware, software, and in general are seeking to reduce their IT budget. Unfortunately, these steps are not always the right ones and often lead to increased costs and sometimes catastrophic failures.

 

The first step to making smart IT decisions is to look at the big picture. Start by looking at your budget going forward for each area that IT reaches. Begin with a list of these areas and break them down into monthly costs. These might include the following areas:

• IT staff
• IT consulting
• Project costs
• Hardware (including printers)
• Software
• Maintenance on above
• Renewals
• Web Services
• Internet Connectivity
• Wide Area connectivity
• Managed Services

Your firm may have more or fewer categories, including phone systems and maintenance so be sure to add them all to the list. Once you have your list you can plug in the numbers corresponding to each and have a rough budget to work from. Your firm may have goals for reductions, or may be looking for a percentage change, but in any case, you now have a good place to start looking for savings.

 

The next step is to prioritize and locate the areas of your biggest costs. What most people forget is the opportunity side, which can be stated simply: If your computer or computers are down, then your firm is losing money fast and this is the number one cost you can encounter. Thus at the top of our priority list is “Reliable Computer System”. The second highest cost is when users are routinely impacted by IT issues during their work day. This may not be a full failure, but could simply be slow performance which is not only frustrating but time consuming as well. If you look at the cost of one staff member losing 10% of their work day, you can see how costly this can be. Consider a billable attorney and the cost is even higher. So as we look at cost cutting, “User Productivity” must also be considered. Both of these are under constant attack from security threats on the Internet. Every day brings new security challenges any of which can impact our top two priorities so security is of paramount importance. Security does not have to be expensive and in fact many firms CAN save money in this area, but ignoring it can be extremely costly and not just in IT staff time or consultants, but most importantly in work stoppage.

 

When budgets are being stretched the first step most firms make is to cut back on the purchase of new equipment. The result of this decision is more fixing and in some cases a lot more fixing. A computer is like a juggler. The day you buy a new computer, and load your business software the juggler has a small number of balls in the air, each is the same size and our juggler is easily able to handle the load. As time goes by, entertainment software, utilities, emoticons, patches and updates come into play. Before long the juggler has twice as many balls in the air and is struggling to keep them all moving and responding in reasonable times. Statistically, as year three passes, the juggler has large numbers of items in the air, including Anvils, beach balls, feathers and explosives. So what firm’s do now is to have someone re-image the computer, returning the juggler to his original and simpler position. This can take hours of time to get right and if it is not right, the time is wasted. Considering the cost of IT staff and / or outside consultants, you can see how fast this equation stops holding water. Generally it is a good decision -after 3 years - to simply replace because the cost of a new computer is easily outweighed by the other factors in the picture above.

 

As you can see above IT expenditures start to rise as things age, but there is another equally important pressure on firms today. The requirements on capacity have grown so rapidly that even small firms now need large amounts of storage. When network storage is at capacity it causes slow downs and pressure is put on the crucial components of the system. There are two main culprits in this area with the primary being e-mail. The amount of E-mail is exploding and every company has at least one or more users who “never delete anything”. These users often have extraordinarily large e-mail boxes that are simply beyond the capacity of the system to reasonable handle. This means they experience issues more frequently than others, complain about speed and in general find that e-mail has less use, rather than more. While I am sure some scientist somewhere is working on a vaccine for this malady, these users are simply not going to be cured. They can however be helped. A good offsite e-mail archiving product like Google Mail Security (formerly Postini) is a great way to give them unlimited storage, vastly improved search capabilities and better performance all while reducing the size of their mailbox.

 

When you combine the pressures above, what you get is the beginning of a patchwork network. Drives are being added, old computers stretched when they should be replaced, printers begin breaking more frequently and the workday is full of constant IT background noise. Thus we face a creeping impact on user productivity, which impacts firm revenues while at the same time IT expenditures on staff and outside assistance are on the rise. Ultimately costs are moving up when the firm most needs them down and none of the goals are met.

 

There is hope however if the firm is willing to look at the big picture. IT budgets can often be reduced by 30% - 50% just by making smart IT decisions. As you will see, when these decisions are made a valuable side effect happens where users are more productive and attorneys can bill more time! Here are some tangible things you can do now, to keep your costs low and productivity high. Ultimately IT staff needs and IT consulting is then reduced or eliminated resulting in significant cost savings in the one area where you can truly have an impact.

 

Standardize!

 

Any computer expert will tell you that if all of your computers are identical, maintenance is dramatically simplified. You can do one thing to all computers, rather than doing that same thing 20 different ways. When you go back to our juggler, if we keep his load light and even, he will juggle beautifully so making everything consistent has immediate and positive impact. Imagine cutting your outside IT bills in half or even less. Doing this does not mean replacing everything, but rather a systematic clean up of existing equipment with particular attention to the software suite so that all machine loads are close to identical, and all software is consistent across all systems.

 

Replace Rather Than Fix Old Desktops.

 

When a desktop has reached the end of its lifetime don’t pour more money into it with upgrades and labor. Get a new one. There has never been a better time to buy any sort of commodity and computers are at an all time price to performance ratio right now. If you take the step above, then this is a natural part of the standardization and the result is again far lower IT costs overall.

 

Security!

 

We recommend a layered security approach. This keeps cost down by its ability to spread cost among items you already need, while at the same time offering multiple levels at which Malware can be stopped before it enters your system.

 

Quality Servers with Extended Warranties.

 

Obviously a good quality server is a must. But even the finest servers in the world can have problems. We recommend 24x7 – 4 hour server warranty extensions. This is a simple concept and may not ever be used by your firm, but when they are needed, you get back up and running fast and factory direct. Once your server is more than three years old, most major manufacturers offer one year extensions. If you are stretching your dollars, add the warranty. It is worth every penny since it solves the main priority established above: No Downtime!

 

Keep Software Upgrades to a Minimum.

 

As stated above a standardized system offers a far lower cost of operation. The key components in this equation are the software applications and keeping them more or less static during your system’s lifetime goes a long way toward keeping costs down. The lifetime of a computer system is generally 3 – 5 years. Thus, when the system has reached its lifetime and a refreshed system is being built, including software upgrades is easy. This also allows the firm to consolidate training; again reducing cost.

 

Reduce the Strain.

 

Keeping your storage needs under control is a big part of cost control. Think about low cost e-mail archiving, moving older data off your system to an archive and cutting down on the amount of redundant data that’s stored by your firm. This can often be easily accomplished and the resulting cost reductions are significant.

 

Run a Tight Budget.

 

The most important part of gathering the “big picture” is to create a plan around where your firm is going. If you do this and budget over your computer system’s lifetime you will almost instantly see the areas where savings can be achieved and have the biggest impact. Create a budget around your solution and once you have that, stay on plan. Knowing when expenditures will occur allows the firm to plan its overall financial strategy instead of facing a constant string of interruptions, unexpected costs and chaos.

 

All of these suggestions are centered on one thing. Cost savings. If your computer system costs less to operate the firm will have a better chance in today’s stressful economy and the overall stress level of the Partners, Attorneys and Staff will be reduced. Ultimately all of these things can make you a hero at your firm when it is needed most.

TECH TIP: Stretching Your Network

Afinety recommends a network refresh every 3 – 4 years to keep maintenance costs and downtime at a minimum. Many firms are stretching their networks past this point due to the economy and other factors. If your network is over 3 years old, we recommend the following to keep business interruptions down:

1. Make sure your desktop AntiVirus licenses are current and versions are up to date. We recommend Symantec version 11 or newer. The older versions of any AntiVirus programs do not sufficiently protect your desktops computers from outsides sources, leaving your machines exposed to certain viruses and other threats.
2. Make sure your servers have extended warranties. This could potentially save you thousands of dollars in downtime, labor and lost data. HP extended warranties offer this valuable insurance at a very low cost.
3. If you are using ARCServe backup software, we suggest you update it to at least version 11.5. This software protects your backups if you are using a tape drive unit. The older versions do not work with required Microsoft patches and updates.
4. We also recommend a general review and clean up. Many firms are running out of server memory and disk space due to today’s demands placed on their networks with voluminous email and pdf files. We suggest taking a look at your current server disk space to see if files can be moved, deleted or archived. It is also a good idea to check desktops for Spyware, Malware and other programs that take up space and effect speed.
5. If you are stretching the life of your network, expect performance to degrade and let your users know this is relatively normal. The new server and desktop operating systems have been out for quite some time now and they can utilize far more memory than older versions. Therefore as you patch, update and upgrade various utilities on your network, factors such as server memory are simply not up to the task. When you are able to upgrade your network, expect outstanding performance, speed and usability improvements.

Afinety will assist you with all of the above, as well as answer any questions regarding your current IT environment and future considerations. Please contact us if you’d like more information or if you’d like to schedule a Network Health Assessment.

Virtualization Technolgy: Hot Technology or Magic Bullet?

THE hot topic these days is Virtualization. Servers, desktops and even software can be virtualized to allow for more flexible use of hardware, software and other firm resources. Many firms we speak to have heard about it and think it just might be the magic bullet they are looking for to reduce IT costs. This article will explore what it really is, how it affects IT cost and if it is appropriate for your firm.

Virtualization is here to stay and will be an excellent tool for law firms in the future. According to an article produced by the Gartner Group, we are 2 – 5 years away from mainstream adoption. It is predicted that virtualization will hit about 20% of businesses by the end of 2009, however this number is much smaller when looking at firms with 100 or fewer seats. The legal industry will take even longer since law firms are unique in the diversity of their software mix. Most companies utilize only two or three main applications while law firms, even small ones, may use twenty or more applications and this makes virtualization a much larger challenge in their environment. Therefore the 5-year mark is probably where we will begin to see real value for law firms who want to use this technology.

Server Virtualization

This technology has been around for a relatively long time in technology terms and is generally stable and reliable. The server virtualization king is VMWare with Microsoft having included it in its latest server offering, Windows Server 2008. What this technology does is to allow a single hardware server to host two or more software server “sessions.” Thus, a single piece of hardware can serve as several of your servers. Let’s imagine that your firm currently has three servers, one of which is its main data server, the second is an email server and the third is your accounting server. You could combine these three into a single hardware platform with each having its own server session thus reducing the amount of hardware needed. This sounds attractive since server hardware, on average costs about $3,500.00 per unit, so the apparent savings would be about $7,000.00 in up-front cost. This however does not tell the whole story and there are many other costs to consider.

The argument FOR virtualization is that most servers, properly configured utilize less than 10% of their CPU (the Intel processor at the heart of any computer). This would indicate that there is plenty of CPU time left for a second or even third session. What this ignores is that servers are limited by other factors as much, or perhaps more than the CPU itself. There are four main factors to any computer’s performance.

• CPU Speed and Utilization
• RAM (memory)
• Disk spindles (the number of individual drives or drive arrays)
• Bus Speed (the speed at which the computer speaks to its peripherals internally)

Considering that each of these factors affects performance, in order to match the performance of three individual servers, a server with nearly equal resources in these key areas would be needed. This single virtualized server investment is therefore larger than any one of the three it consolidates. Let’s look at how that might pan out.

If each server averages about 10% utilization, the usage of a virtualized server would be expected to go up to 30% (in actuality it is probably somewhat less than this), which is a borderline but acceptable figure. The processor in a new server generally has 4 “cores” and you can easily add a second processor at a relatively low price. The factor this ignores is that the utilization is an average. At times a single server‘s CPU utilization may spike up to 40% or more and a computer at this level slows down significantly. Virtualization products, however, are very “smart” and keep this from happening in most instances. So this is not a significant factor and as stated you can always add a second processor. To be safe, for our example we will add a cost of $700.00 for the 2nd processor.

Memory has been and is a big concern for all firms in today’s IT world. The amount of memory you have in your server affects performance far more than the CPU utilization and while virtualization products are smart as stated, you will still need a significant amount of memory in the server to host more than one session. Windows Server 2008, in most cases, can recognize up to 32GB of RAM, while previous versions are limited to 4GB. In our example, let’s imagine that each server will have 16GB for the individual units. We therefore would want to have 16GB available for each virtualized server for a fair comparison. It is important to note here that VMWare is efficient about allocating memory to its sessions so technically the RAM allocations could be smaller, but best practices mean that you would typically follow the model above.

Quality name-brand servers such as HP Proliant models are optimized for virtualization so you can put in blocks of RAM to meet this need. Each block of 16GB will cost about $850.00 so our server needs $1,700.00 more RAM than any individual server we might buy. Our running total now has $2,400.00 in additional costs for our virtualized server.

The big gorilla in the closet however is disk spindles. Server disks run continuously and thus, any slowness in this area is a very large concern. While the CPU’s are very fast and memory is nearly instantaneous, hard disks are physical spinning devices of limited speed. If you add multiple server sessions to a single disk or disk array, the demands on that area of the server go up significantly. This creates two problems. First is simply the performance – which is obvious, but the second issue is the amount of disk space required for three servers. In our example the SQL server will require very little disk space, but both the main data repository and the email database, even in a small firm can be quite large.

To solve these issues, you will need to add an external drive array that allows you to segment drive arrays and an HBA (host bus adapter) for each server session. The number and size of the disks does not change from our individual servers, so we add the external enclosure and HBA’s to our additional cost total. HBA’s cost about $800.00 each at the low end, so that is $2,400 in additional cost. The enclosure itself – again on the lower end, costs about $3,500. Our running total in additional cost is $8,300.00 and we have just exceeded the cost savings of consolidating. If your servers are for MS Exchange and MS SQL as in our current scenario, VMWare actually recommends significantly more horsepower, using high end SAN devices and expensive HBA’s with more throughput than is described above. These server modules are disk intensive and thus need additional measures to support equal performance to simply having disks inside a server.

We also need to add the cost of VMWare; about $1000.00 at the minimum and a reasonable annual maintenance figure to the cost of backup software that supports virtualizations. There are many other small cost items, but for this example, it is clear that virtualized servers are vastly more expensive than individual units.

One of the biggest negatives to virtualization is a hardware failure. If a server goes down in the distributed network, then only that server’s services are lost. If this occurs in a virtualized server, then ALL server sessions provided by that server are down. So in our example above, if the individual SQL server failed, the firm would still have data and mail. If the server were virtualized, all services would be down until the server could be fixed. Most firms that utilize this technology at least consider redundant servers to solve this problem, driving cost up even further.

Clearly virtualization is significantly more expensive up front, but keep in mind that the technical skills required to produce and maintain a virtualized server environment are significantly higher and thus more costly than a standard server environment. If your virtualized system is built by an IT provider, you will be tied to that provider for the lifetime of your system. So why do firms virtualize?

There are many positives to a virtualized environment for larger firms. For example, a server session can easily be moved from one physical server to another. So if a firm has a large number of servers and needs to relieve the load on one server by moving a session to a less busy unit, it can easily be done. More advanced versions of the VMWare software can do failover, so you can also have a second server essentially standing by to take over for a failed server. In some cases there are software products that simply don’t get along with others, so a virtual session can be created to isolate the software so it does not interact with other modules.

There are many other advantages for larger firms, especially with high end internal IT support. If you do not have this, then virtualization means you will have increased reliance on your outside IT vendor, and this of course means increased cost.

Virtualization is outstanding technology and has a great deal of value in specific situations. However it is not a magic bullet or cost savings, but rather a significant technology upgrade that can provide some useful features to firms who invest heavily in their IT solutions.

Desktop Virtualization

This new technology allows a firm to centralize its desktop management. Instead of buying traditional desktops and loading software on each, a virtual desktop lives in a data center and is provided to the user via applications like Citrix XenDesktop. This is similar to using what many clients call a Citrix Server or a Terminal Server except that XenDesktop provides a more feature rich environment for the end user. So a user could have a simple terminal instead of a computer, which costs less and limits the effects of user error.

Most problems on networks arise on the desktop, as adware, spyware, rogue user downloads and other influences cause the user to slow, freeze or have other problems. A virtual desktop cannot be affected by the user and is managed by the IT staff so this eliminates these issues immediately. Further, it allows for updates to take place centrally so that a single “master” virtual desktop can be updated and hit all users simultaneously with new features, software or other enhancements.

This is outstanding technology, but again has a significant cost factor. In a very large installation with one or more robust data centers and a highly trained and effective IT staff, this solution could mean some savings, but more importantly, insures that users have a standardized and bullet proof platform on which to work. The reality, however, is that there are generally lots of exceptions (you have that one partner who insists on having it his way right?) so the effectiveness can be reduced. Nonetheless this is an up and coming, very good solution for very large firms who can afford data centers, significant IT staff and who are able to control the bulk of their users.

Software Virtualization

Software Virtualization is a technology used by a few very large firms. What it does is allow a data center to provide software to a user on the fly. So let’s say that you have an attorney who needs PowerPoint. The firm could, using this technology, provide PowerPoint almost instantly as if it is on his or her desktop already. They could at the same time remove it from another user, thus keeping the license count the same. This gives the firm two efficiencies; instant and consistent deployment of software and license minimization. Both of these are positives but as you can see, on the back end of this, significant technology and an IT staff is required and to make sure all of this works.

Windows Server 2008 has a new feature called TSRemoteAp. This allows you to “publish” an application, which is essentially software virtualization without the impact on the IT department. The setup is relatively easy and it can be quite effective in certain situations even for smaller firms. For example, if a firm has two offices but its Time and Billing system does not have multi-office features, that application could live in the main office, but appear to the satellite office users as if it was installed locally.

Keep in mind that many legacy or specialized applications do not support this type of deployment so only well behaved, up-to-date and major commercial software can be reasonably expected to work in a virtualized environment.

Virtualization in general is outstanding technology and a lot of research and development is going into further improving its uses. For most small to mid-sized firms, the technology just doesn’t quite make sense when a cost-benefit analysis is done. It is proven, however, and can offer advantages in many situations.

When I started in this business 24 years ago, firms were just starting to replace terminals and typewriters with PC’s. Any server they had was the size of a washing machine and did a very specific job. Now as time has passed, the industry has started moving back to that type of solution, but with all the diversity and applications we have available to us today. I’ve also noticed that my son’s haircuts look remarkably like the way I wore my hair in high school. I wonder if hairstyles and technology are related?

Social Networking and Twitter: Our Small Planet Gets Even Smaller

The tsunami of social networking opportunities continues to grow exponentially. With the proliferation of text messaging, Twitter and the rapid expansion of LinkedIn, FaceBook and MySpace; law firms face perhaps some of the most interesting challenges yet created by today’s technology. Perhaps the biggest part of this challenge is simply understanding what these things are and how they can affect the firm.'

The Internet today is a seductive creature, filled with interesting and often valuable content, but unfortunately, wasting time on the Internet has been a problem since its inception. What we see among our clients is mostly a jaded acceptance of this problem with a few using Content Filtering technology to block users from reaching what are considered to be inappropriate sites. The reality is that if you have a person who will waste time on the Internet they are likely a problem in other areas as well. Conversely, your staff members who have good work ethic simply don’t waste the firm’s time.

Before we look at social networking, another important change to the Internet must be considered. While in the past, you “surfed” the net to find what you wanted. Today the information finds you! As an example we often see users who have Google as their startup page for their web browser. Google allows you to customize your own iGoogle page so that it presents information that concerns you. Often users customize their iGoogle page to show stock tickers, real-time weather, news, sports, chats or twitters that they are interested in. Once all these areas are setup, the user is presented with a constant flow of information of high interest. This can have both positive and negative effects. On the good side, those interests may also be of interest to the firm. Thus an attorney could stay informed about important developments in their practice area. On the negative side, each piece of presented information offers a link to explore further and the user is drawn to the web in areas that may NOT be of concern to the firm.

This leads us to Twitter, the latest in the Chat/Text messaging craze. Twitter simply asks “What are you doing?” So Twitter account holders can keep tabs on a celebrity, friend or person of interest who simply “tweets” away a near constant stream of consciousness. This does not take significant bandwidth via the web and most people use it on handheld devices. So aside from the “time wasting” factor; there is little impact on the firm. There could be value however if the firm uses a twitter network to keep tabs on a trial, negotiation or client meeting. A staffer or attorney could be assigned the task of streaming information as it is happening so that concerned parties at the firm could be kept abreast, up to the minute of the situation. Thus the firm could be significantly more agile and fluid in its casework by receiving information as it happens, rather than waiting until those scribbled yellow pads are translated into e-mail and sent to colleagues.

So if Twitter can have value, how about social networking through LinkedIn, FaceBook and MySpace? Once again if we look at these in the old way – time wasting – we are missing the most important concerns and perhaps some real value. LinkedIn is the “professional” networking site, while FaceBook and MySpace are more “after hours” or at least were intended that way. First it is important to recognize that younger, incoming associates and staffers who join your firm probably already have either FaceBook or MySpace accounts. A recent survey at a large law firm showed 90% of the incoming summer associates had one, the other or both. So there is simply no way to keep your staff from social networking.

Linkedin works much like a professional version of the other two. It allows some very basic networking but its real value is making contacts among your friends and colleagues. It is not intended as a social networking site and thus lacks the “writing on the wall” type features of FaceBook and MySpace. Few, if any law firms would have issues with LinkedIn.

With FaceBook and MySpace, once you setup your page and allow your friends to join, they are essentially free to put up whatever nonsense they want on your page. Often this can include embarrassing photos or messages that are available for anyone with the proper rights to read. In the same way colleges now routinely examine a prospective student’s MySpace, prospective clients might examine one of your attorney’s in this same way. So what your attorneys have on their FaceBook and MySpace becomes part of their record.

We can see how these services can hurt the firm, but how can FaceBook and MySpace benefit the firm? With FaceBook for example a network can be built around anything. What was once a bunch of high school and college students having fun is now used by some of the largest law firms in the world. Firms such as Skadden Arps, Baker & McKenzie and Latham & Watkins have hundreds of users in their FaceBook networks. These firm networks can then be used to transfer important information, refer clients, connect colleagues and in general spread business.

These trends, just like ATM’s, cell phones and the Internet itself are inevitable. The real challenge is far less about the threats of these trends, but more about finding their value. In many ways, these emerging technologies bring back the age old adage; If you can’t beat em’ – Join em!

Backup – Disaster or Disaster Recovery?

Afinety provides about two to three complimentary Network Health Assessments per week for Southern California law firms. One of the most common things we see – in over 50% of the reviews – is the fact that firms have only partial or no backups at all. This crucial part of any business is either minimized or ignored by a large percentage of law firms. If their clients knew the lack of attention that was paid to their data, they would probably switch to another firm immediately. I know I would if my data was at risk.

Think about what your procedures are for backup. Are you 100% sure you got a good backup last night? If you are, then you are in the minority. If you are not sure, then the following may give you some ideas on how to be confident in your backup integrity - a crucial part of your disaster recovery plan.

Right now, you have a number of choices for backup. These include disk based solutions, tape backup and offsite backup. The discussion below will cover each, give you some idea of how well these work and whether or not they are true disaster recovery solutions.

Disk Based Backup

This common solution is simplicity itself. You attach a large USB drive to your server and use one of the standard backup software solutions such as CA’s ARCServe or Symantec’s Backup Exec to run your nightly backups to the external drive. The benefit to this is low cost and speed. A one terabyte drive, which will accommodate most backups, is under $150.00 and thus you get a lot of capacity and speed for very little money. On the scale of cost, this is generally the lowest cost solution. The negative is that firms using this method often do not take their backup drives offsite. If they do, then it is common that this occurs once a week at most. Thus the firm’s partners have tacitly agreed that losing a week of data is acceptable.

There are also more robust solutions from companies like Dell, HP and others that are essentially a backup server. They consist of a machine and large disk array offering a self contained backup solution. The problem here is the same as above except you cannot take the array offsite. These solutions usually require a tape unit to accompany the main backup. The tape unit backs up the backup device and then a tape is taken offsite. This works well and offers an answer to the speed problem with tapes, however restoring in a disaster is a multistep process that requires all parts of the solution to behave as expected.

Replication

First of all Replication is NOT backup. These are two wholly separate things that are often mistaken for each other. For replication to be effective, a firm must have an offsite facility or a second office to which they can replicate. There are various software solutions available for this and so far, we have not seen a single small to mid-sized firm achieve this effectively. Most firms start out with a thought something like, “We’ll take these old servers and…” That simply won’t work. The biggest issue however is that replication is just that. If you delete a file, it’s gone. If you overwrite a file, it is gone. If you move something inadvertently and can’t find it, you can’t restore it either because it has moved on the cloned system as well. Replication is not necessarily a bad thing, but it should not be considered a backup.

Tape

Probably still the most common way to backup is tape. Tapes have the advantage of being easy to take home or store offsite and you can easily retire a tape to mark a fiscal period (month end for example). Tapes are relatively cheap and now have capacities exceeding 1TB on a single cartridge. A key factor in tape backup is achieving a full backup on a single cartridge. If you have a backup that requires two or more tapes, more than likely you have a very large problem. First, a two tape backup MUST be kept together. Without that second tape, you have no backup and crucial data may be lost if you need to restore. The second and equally important factor is speed. Tape units are very fast now, but they often take more than 10 or 12 hours to backup a large amount of data and multiple servers. The problem is that the tape can only backup one server at a time. With newer speedy tape units, the initial backup of the server in which the tape resides is indeed quite fast. However, all other servers are backed up over the wire and are thus quite a bit slower. We often see dedicated backup servers – which not only is a waste of firm money on a separate piece of hardware, but also slows down ALL backups. We commonly see tape units still running when the staff arrives for work, which means the users suffer a performance hit while the backup finishes.

Internet Based Backup

This is a fairly new trend in backup where firms use a service like MozyPro to backup their network online. For home systems we often recommend Carbonite which is a similar service at a very low cost, except that it does not support things like Exchange and SQL, like MozyPro does. The cost of these services is relatively low, but like anything else, you get what you pay for. Let’s imagine you actually need your backup some day, perhaps to restore your e-mail system after some catastrophe. A common Exchange database is in excess of 50GB, so as an experiment, go online, find a 50GB file and download it. By the time you have read the rest of this article you might see the ticker move up to 1% but most likely even that small percentage will take a very long time. What is the value of backup if it cannot restore data in a reasonable amount of time? In one case, a colleague of ours had to restore a home computer and it took 4 full days to download the backup. So the cost for this solution is reasonable and it does eliminate tapes, but it is simply unacceptable for the purpose of any sort of disaster.

CDP

This is not necessarily a new solution but it is beginning to mature and offers some significant advantages. CDP means Continuous Data Protection. An example of this is available from Sonicwall. A somewhat expensive rack mountable unit is installed at the firm which performs a continuous disk to disk backup. Thus within seconds of saving a file, it has been backed up, unlike traditional backup systems which would accomplish that in the evening, after working hours. The Sonicwall units are then capable of echoing the backups, again continuously, offsite to their secure location or to another CDP. So for firms with multiple offices, backups can be cross-pollinated creating a disaster recovery solution that allows one office to host a sister office in the event of a disaster. Like all emerging technologies this one is not without its challenges but once matured, this may be an excellent solution for multi-office firms.

Professional Backup and Failover

By far the best solutions combine local and offsite backup solutions with failover. Examples of this are Afinety’s Reserve and eVault. This type of backup is accomplished first locally “disk to disk.” Disk to disk backups are very fast since they can backup multiple servers simultaneously and are writing to very fast hard drives. Once the local backup is completed, it echoes the changes that have occurred since the last backup to one or more offsite locations. Common restores can be done locally and quickly, including a full server restore which can often be done within an hour in more sophisticated systems like Reserve. Should a firm-wide disaster occur where the office is inaccessible for some reason, the offsite facilities can ship a backup to a new location for restore, or “failover” to the offsite backup vault, allowing users to connect from their homes or mobile locations and run as if they are working on their office system. Obviously this is the best of all worlds, however the drawback is monthly cost. Generally these solutions run from about $2.00 to about $8.00 per GB per month depending on which one you choose.

Mixing Backup

We are often asked about mixing say a disk to disk backup with something like MozyPro. At first this looks like an interesting solution, however there is a major problem inherent in mixing backups. When your Exchange e-mail system is backed up, a log is created marking the time of the backup and its completion. If a second, different backup occurs after the first, it also resets this log and thus the log that the first backup is counting on to determine the backup state is now incorrect. Data will thus be missed or excluded from BOTH backups and neither now has proper integrity. This is true of many types of data so a mixed backup solution is not so much a clever solution as a disaster waiting to happen.

Choices

The biggest issue an administrator faces with backup is getting the partnership to understand the value of a proper, secure and reliable backup system. Once a firm has had a significant failure and lost data, they are generally eager to sign up for a professional backup and disaster recovery solution, but until that happens partners sometimes see their less effective backup solutions as “good enough for our firm.” Going back to our observations in the field, more than 50% of smaller firms would lose significant data if a server failed. Most would lose everything if a regional disaster occurred.

We find a good approach to this dilemma is to ask the partnership the right questions.

• How long can you wait for the firm to restore a deleted file?
• How long can the firm be out of business until a server is restored?
• How long can the firm be out of business in the event of a regional disaster?

Backup and disaster recovery solutions are all about time to recover vs. cost. Once you have the answers to these simple questions you can begin to formulate a backup solution that is right for your firm. If you check with your IT provider they will be able to offer solutions that fit just about any requirement.

E-mail Harvesting – Data Overload

Law firms, among many other types of businesses are facing a massive proliferation of e-mail. This means that firm management must be concerned with possible discovery situations and, possibly more important, the management of all this data. E-mail is the primary method of communication between attorneys and their clients and much of the content of these communications is highly valuable both as intellectual property and for the record of what was discussed.

Let’s look at the problem from the ground up and see how some firms have solved these issues. You first have to start at the source. I’m sure many of you have attorneys who keep every e-mail ever sent to them. One of the things I hear from almost every firm I consult with is that there is one partner who has over 6,000 e-mails in his/her inbox. Generally, the reason someone might do this is to locate an e-mail through sorting or search functions built into Outlook. In short, this person wants the ability to find anything ever sent to them.

Any IT director will tell you that this is their basic nightmare. Not only does this take extraordinary space on an e-mail server and slow down Outlook significantly, but it can lead to lost data should anything go wrong with the user’s mailbox. Most attorneys use folders to organize data, making things a bit easier, but these folders only exist for that particular attorney. Thus, if that attorney is no longer with the firm, and their e-mails must be produced, someone has to figure out the folder structure and try to extract the appropriate data. Again, this is a difficult and time consuming problem.

There are numerous approaches that firms use to solve this problem. The easiest and lowest cost solution is to utilize an offsite archiving solution such as that offered by Google / Postini. This solution can be easily activated and is a very low cost method of archiving e-mail, however it only captures e-mail that moves in and out of the firm and not the internal messages. For the most part, e-mail moving in and out of the office is the most important communication, but firms may also wish to capture ALL e-mail. While Postini can do this, the implementation is cumbersome and ineffective for local e-mail archiving. The positive is that the e-mail is archived for 10 years without limitation and no strain is put on the local network to accomplish this. Thus, you turn it on and let it run, there is no IT intervention needed by the firm.

Perhaps most common solution is Document Management. The Document Management systems most often seen in Law Firms are iManage (Yes Autonomy changed the name back!), Worldox, and DocsOpen (or DM5 / DM6 etc.). Current versions of any of these products include an e-mail integration module. An attorney or staff member can choose whether an e-mail is relevant to a matter then can easily save it into that matter file. This solves the problem nicely in that these e-mails can then be produced quickly and easily and there is no “chaff,” so to speak, where extraneous and undesirable e-mail get mixed in.

The problem with both solutions above is that they only capture part of the mail the firm is moving. In the case of Postini, it captures only external e-mail and with a DMS it is only selected e-mail and the user is responsible for the selection. Thus, like all things put into the hands of users – some will and some won’t.

A more robust approach is to purchase and implement an e-mail archiving system. Examples of these are Mimosa’s Nearpoint or Symantec’s Enterprise Vault. These products are designed to capture all e-mail traffic and provide robust search and reporting tools on the captured data. Thus, you can find any e-mail you want, quickly and easily just as above, but you are faced with ALL e-mail that fits your criteria and not just the ones that were selected as relevant by the parties involved. On the one hand this means that something an attorney missed can be found and on the other, there may be some additional and non-relevant e-mails that come up in your search. It is important to note that the more robust solutions can also capture other types of communications such as Instant Messaging which are becoming more prevalent as well. The negative to this approach is both cost and the amount of storage required. Remember that if you store it, you also want to back it up so this adds significant challenges to any backup solution.

Microsoft has recognized this problem and is actively working on a solution. The plan currently is to include an automated archiving feature in Exchange 2010 which would, if it works well, solve the problems above with built in features and rules in Exchange. This solution would be the best of all worlds. No additional products would be needed to implement archiving, and rules could be implemented that would make e-mails available by an automated process so the user is not burdened with grooming or selecting messages for archiving. These features are slated for Exchange 2010 but remember that Exchange integrations are part of many other software solutions at your firm. Thus before the 2010 edition can be installed, it must be supported by all ancillary software such as Compulaw, iManage and others.

All of these, once adopted by the users, can help alleviate mailbox overload and give the firm the ability to locate and harvest important e-mail data. Which approach is right for your firm is something that must be determined by firm management. At the very minimum, relevant e-mails should be stored and searchable, but beyond that, what’s right for your firm is something only you can determine.

TECH TIP: Word's AutoCorrect Feature

Word’s AutoCorrect feature is designed to typos as they occur. You’ve probably noticed that “teh” is changed to “the” and “adn” is changed to “and.” This saves you some time when it comes to editing your document.

AutoCorrect is also used to apply special formatting. For example (c) is changed to the copyright symbol.

Like many of Word’s features, you can customize AutoCorrect. You can use it to save some time when you’re working. You can assign abbreviations to frequently used names, phrases, and terminology.

To customize AutoCorrect, follow these steps:

In Word 2000, 2002 and 2003:

1. From the Tools menu, select AutoCorrect Options…
2. In the box labeled Replace type the abbreviation
3. In the box labeled With enter the full text
4. Click Add
5. Click OK

In Word 2007:

1. Click the Office Button
2. Select Word Options.
3. On the Proofing page, go to AutoCorrect Options.

TECH TIP: How to Plan Your Backup Strategy

Backups are probably the most essential component of any corporate network, but are also one of those things that are done wrong with dreadful regularity. Yet it’s not difficult to get your backup strategy right – all it takes is some thought and a dollop of ongoing motivation.

The Backup Strategy

The first thing you need to do is actually dump the data from the live systems to your backup media. Nine times out of ten this means copying files to tape, though some organisations have other media such as CD-R or DVD-R instead of (or alongside) magnetic tapes. We’ll talk about tapes in this feature, but what we’re saying will generally apply if you’re a DVD-R or CD-R person too.

There are two main variables with backups: capacity and time.

Capacity: If you’re using a tape backup system, you’ll have a finite amount of space on the tape. If you have an 80GB DLT drive and you want to back up less than 80GB per day, you’re sorted; if data exceeds capacity, though, you need to consider how to deal with this. There are numerous alternatives, the most common being: 

• Do complete dumps of some systems and “incremental” dumps (which only store stuff that’s changed since the last full dump) of others each day.
• Employ someone to switch tapes when one fills up.
• Use an auto-changer that can switch tapes itself in the middle of the night. Incremental dumps are a compromise, and you must always consider one fact: if you do incremental dumps, you’ll have to use more than one tape to do a complete restore of a system. There are two approaches to incremental dumps:
• Back up all data added or changed since the last dump (incremental or full). Don’t go here, though, because if you have a full dump and six incrementals, you’ll need seven tapes to do a restore.
• Backup all data added or changed since the last full dump. This is the one to choose, as you’ll need at most two tapes to restore any one system.

Time: With regard to time, there are two options: the backup doesn’t take too long and can be run out of hours; or it takes ages and at least part of it has to run during office hours. If the backup can run out-of-hours, you don’t have to worry too much about the fact that your network performance will suffer with all this dump data being flung over it. If, on the other hand, you have to combine backups with production data on the network, you should seriously consider installing a separate LAN, connecting to an extra LAN card in each backed-up system, to carry the traffic away from the production data. You might even call it a BAN (“Backup Area Network”) – I wonder if we just invented that or whether someone’s already christened it. Note that you might need a BAN even if you work 9-5 – notably if you have (say) live Web servers or extranet systems being backed up: just because you’re not there to see the LAN slow down doesn’t mean you don’t have to consider it. In these circumstances you’ll also want to talk to your software dealer about the pricing for the “live backup” options for your mail or DBMS software, so you don’t have to interrupt the service to back up the data. The other time consideration is, of course, where the total data transfer time exceeds the interval between backups. If your daily backup takes 30 hours to run, you have a problem and you need to either add storage capacity (so you can dump from multiple sources to multiple tapes at once) or consider dumping less data each day.

Verification and Integrity

Always, always, verify your storage media. If time permits, get the backup software to verify it when it’s written to the tape, but if not then at the very least implement a process of checking every nth backup to make sure the data really is there. You really, really don’t want to find when your server dies next week that the latest valid backup you have is from March 2001. Make sure also that you consider how you store your tapes. Although most data recoveries are, in my experience anyway, induced by people deleting the wrong file, the actual reason you’re bothering with this backup lark is so you’re ready when the building burns down, floods or is burgled. At the very least buy a firesafe that’s rated for tapes (many aren’t – check or you’re stuffed) for a sensible time, and if you have multiple buildings or sites then instigate a process of moving tapes to remote locations, working on the principle that two of your offices are unlikely to burn down together. This said, of course, if you’re in an industry that’s susceptible to terrorism or other potential deliberate damage, look at other secure off-site locations for storing your backups. Your offsite storage could be a steel-walled bunker in a secret location, or it could be your network manager’s home office. Either way, though, there’s an important factor to consider.

The Recovery Process

If the effluent hits the fan, you need to be able to recover as quickly as possible. This means not only having to get to the backup tapes in a rush (so consider what happens if the guy who took last week’s tape home goes shopping when you least expect him to) but also having the facilities available for recovering the data. This means having boot disks/CDs for all of your key systems that has all the right operating system components and network/tape drivers to get the thing up and can pull the contents back from the backup tapes. This is the bit that people forget, and it’s the difference between getting back up in three hours and getting back up in two days.

Policy and Process

The final key component of the backup strategy is the policy and process behind it. Have a book that the guy who changes the tape signs. Have a defined list of what happens to each tape when it is removed from the system, and how tapes circulate around the local and offsite storage locations. Aim to have a standard hardware platform so all your servers are as similar as possible (it means you have one boot CD instead of six to keep up to date). Get yourself a spare server so you can actually try out your recovery process from time to time. And make sure everything’s documented in gory detail so that even the tea lady could do a restore – which means not just writing the “how to” process but also keeping a cache of passwords in the MD’s safe (and documenting the fact that this is where they are) in case you’re by the pool in Tenerife when the building blows up. Backup strategies are neglected because they’re very easy to do. There’s always the implicit assumption that because the IT guys set the kit up in the first place, they know how to recover from a disaster. Which they probably do. Trouble is, they may not know where to find the right passwords at restore time, or perhaps the new email server is a different make and the boot CD doesn’t work, or perhaps nobody actually bothered to clean the tape drive when the light started flashing because they didn’t know what it meant. Write it down, test it often, and follow it. You’ll thank yourself.

Laptop Security Risks

Laptops, whether they are Notebook size, Ultralights or even Mini-notes can be a security risk for any business. This is especially so in the legal industry where laptop computers are often used in trial and extremely sensitive data is stored on the unit itself.

Of our nearly 300 law firm clients, there are only a handful that do not have laptops of one sort or another. More often than not, attorneys use laptops as their primary computer inside the office, as well as for mobility. This trend continues to accelerate as laptop prices fall and technology improves.

One of the major places laptops are lost is in the security area of airports. Believe it or not, most major airports have stacks of “abandoned” laptops and while most times the owners come back and retrieve them, this can be a major security problem. There are new laptop cases that flip open to reveal the laptop without actually removing it from the bag. This should be a consideration for the firm.

While we are on this subject, what says, “Laptop” more than an expensive laptop case? Often it is prudent to put the laptop in a simple backpack or something that is not so obvious. Simply making your laptop computer less conspicuous will reduce the chance that a thief will grab your machine in a public place. Another good air travel tip is to keep your laptop in the slot under your seat. It’s certainly less comfortable but much harder to pinch. Lastly, the very best thing you can do is do NOT let your laptop out of your sight.

If you have sensitive data on your laptop, you may want to encrypt it. This feature has been around since Windows XP and with Windows Vista it is vastly improved by the Bit Locker feature. This CAN cause other problems so you must be very careful what you encrypt. Generally, individual files such as a Word or WordPerfect document are simple to encrypt and to un-encrypt when needed but databases and other such files can present a challenge. Also keep in mind that if you lose your password you lose the file, it’s pretty much that simple.

Often you do not really need to carry sensitive data, but rather keep it at the home office, safe and secure until needed. With the advent and proliferation of high speed Air Card devices you can now have a broadband Internet connection just about anywhere and most courts offer Wi-Fi as well, so getting what you need can be fast and easy.

You can of course also carry the sensitive data on another device such as a portable hard drive – which are now quite small – or on a flash drive. Flash drives are inexpensive, can hold enormous amounts of data and generally can be encrypted. The downside of this approach is that it is perhaps easier to lose these small devices than it is the laptop itself so little is solved.

There are programs available such as www.ztrace.com or www.sentryinc.com or www.computrace.com that will report the location of a stolen laptop once the Internet is accessed. For a small investment, an oft traveled notebook would benefit from either of the above. In addition, they are easy to purchase and implement.

Setting up a system password is another must on a notebook computer. It will seem like a pain when you have to enter the password on every startup, but it is a very good safety mechanism and we suggest that any firm laptop have this feature enabled. Most name brand and even off brand notebooks offer this feature embedded in the firmware of the machine so it is very difficult to bypass without opening the unit completely to get at the inside.

While it is not a security issue, we strongly suggest you insure the laptop computers you buy. This of course does nothing for data loss, but it does cover you for physical damage and loss. When we sell a laptop we recommend the client purchase the extra manufacturer’s warranty that includes Accidental Damage Protection. This is essentially the same thing you buy from www.safeware.com for example, supported by the manufacturer but it IS highly recommended. In this case, you simply sweep the pieces into a box and get a replacement overnight. That peace of mind is well worth the extra cash you will shell out to get it.

Anti-malware is an often overlooked part of a laptop. Desktop computers and laptops that are used as desktop replacements are connected daily to the firm’s network. Thus the network (generally) would take care of the absolutely essential anti-malware updates and Microsoft Security Updates in most cases. (During our Network Health Assessments, we are often shocked at how many firms do not even have these minimum security features on their network!) Traveling or “check out” notebooks however rarely get updates if at all and are thus extremely vulnerable. Malware can not only infect a computer and cause annoying things like pop-ups, but can also harvest and export important data, such as contact lists and the like. So be sure that the traveling notebooks are first connected to the network and updated before they leave the office.

Perhaps the last consideration is the ports on your laptop. Like any computer, your laptop will have USB ports and those can be used in a variety of ways to extract data to external devices. A recently popular method of stealing data called Pod Slurping where someone uses an iPod as a disk drive to steal data from your PC. This can of course be done by flash drives as well as other methods, but the key here is the USB port. Some manufacturers, specifically HP, allow you to set your USB ports to only allow certain types of connections. Thus you could plug in a mouse or a keyboard, but not a flash drive. Part of having a secure laptop is protecting the ports so keep this in mind when considering which models to select.

It is imperative to be sure of your security, especially in today’s environment. If you take the steps above, along with some common sense, your laptop will be safe and perform its intended function beautifully.

Laptop Security BEST PRACTICES

Here is a quick checklist of best practices for protecting data on mobile assets:

Ten Steps To A Layered Approach To Laptop Security

1. Understand the risks. As organizations open up their networks to their mobile work force, to partners, customers and others, they expose themselves to greater security risks than they encountered when traffic was mostly internal.
2. Be proactive. If you cannot identify the weaknesses in your network’s security, someone or something will find those vulnerabilities for you. Educate yourself on the tools and techniques used today by cyber criminals as well as other security risks. Data security is a moving target that requires ongoing attention.
3. Use cable locks on laptops as visual deterrents. Truth be told, most cable locks can be ripped off the plastic exterior of a laptop with a strong tug. Cable locks are therefore akin to ink-filled garment security tags in clothing stores: they leave a mark when removed by force, but are ineffective at preventing many thefts.
4. Avoid leaving unsecured notebooks unattended. Lock them in cupboards, notebook carts or other secure facilities when not in use. If they must be left in a vehicle, they should be covered up or locked in the trunk.
5. Keep laptops inconspicuous. Laptops should be carried in inconspicuous carrying cases, such as backpacks or tote bags, instead of tell-tale laptop bags.
6. Install anti-virus software and firewalls. Prevent unauthorized access and protect valuable information with data encryption software. Keep all software products updated to the latest versions or patches to help minimize security holes. Ensure web servers, operating systems and line of business applications are fully patched.
7. Back-up valuable data on a scheduled basis. Data back-up needs to happen frequently to minimize the risk to the organization in the event of loss.
8. Create a contingency plan. Identify possible damage should a breach in security occur; also consider how customers, students or employees would be served in the event of catastrophe. Contingency plans for security should be integrated with the organization’s overall disaster recovery plans.
9. Use asset tracking and recovery software. Install an asset tracking and recovery tool to track and recover computers that are lost or stolen, and monitor any changes or disappearances in computer memory, hard drives or peripherals.
10. Invest in advanced data protection. These allows customers to track fixed, remote and mobile computer assets and remotely wipe sensitive information in the event that a computer is lost, stolen or nearing the end of its lifecycle.

How Paperless Can We REALLY Expect to Be?

There is an emerging generation of programs and services that are changing the way you work and live. As these new machines and software make our business and personal lives easier, they can also reduce paper and make us both more efficient and “greener”. Computers showed up on our desks 25 years ago with a sparkling promise for the future. The question on everyone’s mind comes from the promise of the “Paperless Office.” I mean, weren’t we supposed to travel with jet packs and have no paper in our offices by now?

How close are we to actually being able to have a paperless law firm? Most everyone will concede that while strides have been made, we are not paperless by any stretch. What we DO have now, however, is the “Less-Paper” office and that is both achievable and desirable right now.

“Less-Paper”

It’s important to note that the “Less-Paper” office is all about reducing your dependency on paper through various emerging technologies and operational approaches. What does the “Less-Paper Office” consist of?

• More e-mail – less faxing: This is a natural trend that has happened all by itself. E-mail is now a faster, easier and more reliable method of transmitting documents than Faxing. So not only do we reduce paper, we are more efficient as well and it’s easy then to share the results of the interchange.
• Full cycle document management: Interwoven (formerly iManage) has lead this area for quite some time now, and with the introduction and maturity of their Records Management suite, the solution is now complete. A single program handles the documents you type, the ones you scan, the ones you have hard copy of and the e-mails to and from your clients.
• Larger LCD displays: This is one most people don’t think of but with today’s large, and wide displays, it is often easier to read onscreen than on paper. Thus less printing and reduced cost.
• PDF distiller on every machine: This makes it fast and easy to create and transmit documents to clients that are final copies, even including electronic signatures.
• Centralized and integrated document scanning: eCopy and programs like it make it simple to scan an incoming document directly to the appropriate staff and simultaneously to the client file. When combined with Interwoven the document is also automatically stored in the document management system as well!
• Strong internal policies to stop creating paper piles: Have that one partner who insists on his secretary printing his e-mail? Give up, he’ll win every time.
• An Intranet, Extranet, or other group communication tool for redundant documents, such as forms and manuals: This not only saves paper, but also allows policies, manuals and the like to be living breathing documents. By simply changing the original, all interested parties can be notified and their review can easily be confirmed. Saves paper, saves time and makes it easy.
• Make it easy to do the right thing: Ultimately, these tools all do the same thing. They make it easier to do it right, than the use the paper and that should always be your goal towards the “Less-Paper” office.

Bottom-line Benefits

A truly “Less-Paper” office requires these various methodologies to work seamlessly together. Some solutions require technology investments, such as software and hardware that scans paper documents and converts them to digital files; others require only an operational process change commitment. In fact, many times the most important ingredient is the operational paradigm shift that is required, led from the top down, that has yielded both environmental and bottom-line benefits.

1. Reduced costs and quicker access to information
2. More space (both physically and virtually)
3. Document security and easy information sharing
4. Ability to handle company growth
5. Access anywhere and electronic prescriptions
6. Less paper in
7. Less temporary paper
8. Less paper out
   

Ok, so we all agree that it’s a great goal with loads of benefits. The difference today from the past is that it actually now SAVES money and time to implement these programs! In the past the argument was over saving physical space and filing costs; now it’s a simple efficiency problem especially if it makes things easier. While it may seem daunting for firms that have their feet stuck in paper trails, today the “Less-Paper” office benefits far outweigh the cost no matter how you do the numbers.

The Right Tools: Helping You to Easily Do the Right Thing

A large portion of the “Less Paper” office depends on pervasive document management to successfully integrate Documents, Mail, Images and Hard Copies.

There are two basic types of document management that are driving the industry:

1. Straight Doc Management: Save, Retrieve, Find (such as Interwoven); This type of DM offers the most features and combines the all types of documents easily and seamlessly. More can be done toward “Less-Paper” with this type of product than the one mentioned below, however it does require additional work to integrate with Time & Billing and other software in a law firm.
2. Case-Centric Doc Management: Documents are stored and retrieved relative to the matter they concern: Most of the “All in one” products available today, such as Lexis’ Total Practice Advantage or Prolaw allow some form of document management. Generally, all forms of documents can be integrated, with the exception of hard copy. These systems have reduced feature sets and rely heavily on the user to first locate the matter and then explore its documents. While this can be more efficient for a small firm, and does have a positive impact on paper use, it will do less to remove paper than the option above.

The High Cost of Paper

According to a recent Gartner study that investigated other costs related to manual document processing and paper filing, the average document is copied, either physically or electronically, 9 to 11 times at a cost of about $36 per document. But it’s even worse than that: each document cost about $40 to file, and retrieving a misfiled document costs about $240. Each!

Excellent Back-up is Essential

Critical to the success of any “Less-Paper” goal is having and excellent system for backing up digital documents – BEFORE starting the conversion process. Considering Offsite backup systems and more robust disaster recovery options is a must towards the “Less-Paper” office.

Why is the time NOW? Economic Incentives

Many firms have held off from making the necessary critical decisions in the area of technology because of the initial cost of some of these products. Thus efficiency continues to lag, cost per month is higher and overall paper continues to propagate.

Luckily, the technology and business industries as a whole have responded to the needs for “Less-Paper” and the technological advancements that these goals require with significant economic incentives that impact your bottom line.

Included in this are:

• The Economic Incentive Package and Section 179 of the federal tax code allow you to deduct up to $250,000 in IT investment
• Microsoft Finance has reduced its rates to 6.99% APR.
• Lower cost all-in-one peripheral solutions that centralize imaging and printing are emerging that both reduce the cost of expensive copiers but also allow you to distribute services closer to the workstation for better workflow.
• Consolidation of solutions and companies make computing less cumbersome, like embedded PDF distillers and other solutions.

While you can’t expect a truly paperless office, you can easily achieve a “Less-Paper” office and end up saving money over time. Considering the economic incentives, there has never been a better time to invest in the technology you need to streamline your office.