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.