We've got a guest article today from Mark Garnish of TFB on that always topical question of whether software end of life clauses are worth the effort...
As a leading supplier of legal IT, one of the most common requests TFB receives from new clients is a guarantee not to “end of life” computer software and it is easy to understand why. Traditionally lawyers tended to buy their computer systems in 5 year cycles and as the choice of software was largely proprietary to certain hardware platforms, it was customary not to just change your software, but to change the entire system. Nowadays, nearly every firm will be running Microsoft Windows with a Microsoft server and any software supplier worth their salt would not even be considered for inclusion on the short-list if the software did not work on this standard platform. As a result suppliers, whilst still supplying hardware services, no longer view this as being a key part of their role (unless they specialise in it) and will invariably be hardware agnostic; being comfortable with installing and running their systems on pretty much any platform that lawyers are using at this time.
Lawyers can take many months, sometimes even years, to decide which practice and case management system to implement. Having gone through the pain of making that decision, the last thing that they want is for their supplier to bring out the latest, shiny new product a few months after contracts have been signed. Worse still is hearing the dreaded news that an “end of life” notice has been issued on their existing software.
It is interesting to explore why end of life notices produce such an emotive response in software. With Practice and Case Management systems you expect your supplier to assist you, either over the telephone or via email, in the event that things go wrong. More importantly, you expect your chosen supplier to keep the product up to date with industry best practice along with changes to legislation and other standards such as SAR’s, Legal Services Commission etc.
It is this final point which is what firms are really trying to protect against when they ask for no “end of life” in a supply contract. Essentially they are saying
“we are making a commitment to you to purchase your software and we expect you to guarantee to support it for a period of years”.
So far so good, but let us just think about what exactly you are asking a supplier to commit to. By requesting that they contractually agree that they won’t end of life the product, you are simply ensuring that they won’t discontinue support of that product over the period. When most of us think of support we are really thinking of the supplier’s helpdesk, so essentially your request to not end of life a product means that you are expecting your provider to help you fix problems with it over the period. Whilst they may baulk a bit at this type of request they are not really giving very much away. Nobody in their right mind would really try and sell you a product today which they expect to withdraw within the next 5 years, so merely saying that they will continue to help you over the telephone for a period of 5 years should give precious little comfort.
The questions you should really be asking your supplier are these:
1. Do you have any intention to end of life this product over the next X years?
2. Have you already started work on, or are you planning any successor products to replace the product that I am about to sign a contract for?
If “yes”, will I be entitled to upgrade this software “free of charge”? and does that include services such as training and data transfers?
If “no” do you guarantee to continually develop the product I am purchasing for the next X years?
This last point is perhaps the most important of all. We all know and expect our software suppliers to be going through a continuous development programme of introducing new software products. For most there comes a time when it is better to introduce a new product than to continually evolve and enhance an existing one. The question for suppliers then is this; having made that decision, what do you do with your existing clients? The worst nightmare for a client is that your supplier decides to introduce their new offering and effectively cease development or enhancement work on their existing product whilst not actually issuing an end of life. At this point you are caught between a rock and hard place. Your supplier will effectively no longer be enhancing your current product, meaning that your technology will fall behind, but they are under no obligation to release the new product to you, without you paying for it, which you hadn’t budgeted for at the time of signing the original contract.
So, what is the solution?
Whilst you will obviously want to ask your supplier about their intention to issue end of life notices, this is not really the area where you will need to be protected from a contractual point of view. The minimum that you would require from your supplier is this:
The supplier will continue to support, maintain and enhance the product for the foreseeable future but for a minimum of X years. In the event that a successor product is developed the client will be entitled to an upgrade, including all services and charges, free of charge, for a period of Y years from the date of this contract.
It is up to each firm to determine what X and Y should be but 5 years should be considered a minimum for a free upgrade even if it may be considered reasonable to pay for some services such as training after 3 years.
In summary, an end of life notice means that there will be somebody at the end of the telephone to help you in the event that you get stuck. A continuous development clause will ensure that, but with the added reassurance that your software will continue to be enhanced and kept up to date with modern practices. Including such a clause in the contract with your suppliers will not guarantee that you will make the right decision on which product to buy, only your own due diligence can do that, but it will give you peace of mind that your new system will work for you for several years to come.
...Mark Garnish, TFB PLC
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Tuesday, July 31
Are end of life clauses worth the effort?
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 31 Jul 2007 08:28 BST
Monday, July 30
BlawgWorld 2007 published today - and available here free
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 30 Jul 2007 14:37 BST
TechnoLawyer, the popular US online network for lawyers and law office administrators, today launches a free e-book: BlawgWorld 2007 (which is published in conjunction with the TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide).
BlawgWorld 2007 (blog + law = blawg - geddit?) features a collection of essays from the legal blogosphere on both legal and practice management related topics and follows on from the first edition, which downloaded over 45,000 times. In the 2007 TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide, a sponsored resource, law firms will find 185 real-life problems and corresponding solutions written from the point of view of a law firm – although UK readers should note most of this section deals with primarily US law firms issues. To obtain a free copy of the 366 page BlawgWorld 2007 e-book, click here: http://www.technolawyer.com/r.asp?L11545&M1 – please note the file is about 10.2Mb in size. Friday, July 27
HIPs - they're here next week
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 27 Jul 2007 11:32 BST
The Great British HIPs Non-Event starts next week - on Wednesday 1st August - and just in case you still haven't got a clue what's going on (and we appreciate a lot of you don't care but that's a different story) check out the Progress newsletter from the Department of Communities & Local Government (or whatever its called this month). This is a free email newsletter (plain text or HTML) covering everything that's taking place in the HIPs world, including on-going legislative developments, including statutory instruments and House of Lords debates. Well worth taking the trouble to obtain and read if your are in the property and conveyancing market. The URL will take you through to the subscription page: http://www.home-information.info/subscribe.cfm
Wednesday, July 25
New head of software development at Visualfiles
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 25 Jul 2007 12:30 BST
LexisNexis has appointed Aamir Yusuf as Head of Software Development at LexisNexis Visualfiles. Based in Leeds, Yusuf will play an important role in accelerating the development of applications for LexisNexis Visualfiles in order to meet expanding client needs in the UK, Australia, US and other LexisNexis global markets.
Yusuf’s responsibilities will include leading the LexisNexis Visualfiles toolset development, solutions development and quality assurance teams to continually improve capabilities and respond to changes in business emphasis. He will lead the management and communication of development programmes and timescales in addition to contributing to the solution vision within the LexisNexis UK and global strategy. Previously, Yusuf was Head of IT for Emerald Group Publishing, a specialist publisher of management research, where he was responsible for all software development as well as running the infrastructure and IT services. Monday, July 23
Another former Hummingbird star does his own thing
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 23 Jul 2007 10:54 BST
Yuri Frayman, the man behind the LegalKEY system which was one of the few brights spots in the old Hummingbird DMS empire, is now doing his own thing and has just announced that The Frayman Group Limited is now offering risk management consulting services to assist law firms with enhancing productivity and mitigating risks stemming from the handling of client, matter and internal information.
According to Carol Gunn, Director of Conflicts and New Business, White & Case LLP: “We’re leveraging The Frayman Group’s expertise to assist us with upgrades and enhancements to our LegalKEY Conflicts Management and New Business Intake systems, including database synchronizations and the development of new reports. In addition to development and project management services, we’re also utilising them for training and overall compliance and risk management assistance.” www.fraymangroup.com Friday, July 20
Miles 33 - a deal that slipped in under the radar
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 20 Jul 2007 11:16 BST
Mea culpa - while we were busily watching the antics of the CS Group we totally missed this deal slip in under the radar. It's slightly historic now but here it is anyway...
European Capital SA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of European Capital Limited has invested €83 million (£56 million) in the buyout of Miles 33 Group Limited. European Capital’s investment takes the form of equity, subordinated debt and senior loan facilities. As a result of the investment, European Capital is the majority shareholder of Miles 33 with approximately 60% ownership. Miles 33’s previous owners and senior management also invested in the company as part of the buyout and hold the remaining 40%. The official statement goes on to say "Founded in 1976, Miles 33 is a supplier of computer software to the publishing sector, with regional newspapers being its largest customer segment. Miles 33’s integrated suite of modules supports key functions such as editorial production and workflow, advertising booking (paper and online), customer relationship management and credit management. The company also supplies law firms with practice management and financial software." (We think it's fair to assume it is the publishing side of the business that attracted the lion's share of the investment - Charles Christian.) “I am delighted to have secured this investment from European Capital whom we believe to be the best choice to help us deliver the next stage of our strategic growth. The management team and I are excited at the prospect of what this new relationship can bring to the future of our business,” said Miles 33 chairman Alex Yew. Wednesday, July 18
The Vinasty saga continues
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 18 Jul 2007 19:20 BST
We're still getting a lot of reaction on the IRIS/CSG saga - mostly as comments added to previous postings, so keep watching the recent postings box on the right-hand column. This is the latest comment - and 'no' we don't know who made it either although its noticeable that the statement has not yet been released to the press...
"Well here it is the official position from IRIS to users: The new combined group, encompassing the legal software brands of AIM Evolution, Laserform, Videss Legal Office, Mountain Software, GB Systems & Meridian Law provides you, our customers with an extensive breadth and depth of choice that no others can match. Furthermore, we are fully committed to all our existing legal product lines and have no plans to end of life any products in the IRIS legal software range. What to make of it? At first glance it looks like a bit of a knee jerk reaction to the criticism from users and the market generally that no real statements had been forthcoming from CSG over the last year or so. It would appear they have no plans to 'end of life' - for this month, this year, 5 years?? Not very definitive and one which could be easily changed with new management, strategy etc. Of course it's a bit of a first for IRIS in that they have products competing in the same space so with hindsight a woolly statement may come back to haunt them. Reading between the lines this must mean that they are all competing within the same group still and therefore leaders will emerge, resources will not be shared equally and whilst some products may not have an end of life statement issued they will quietly fall behind. Another part of the statement reads: We not only lead the way in R&D but also in service and support. No other company in the market can claim to have over 300 people dedicated to the legal software market. Shouldn't this mean 300 people split between 8 competing product lines at the last count with all the politics etc associated. (I make it 300 between 6 = 50 people each ...Charles Christian) If you read up on their new owners you will see that they will expect an exit in 3-5 years max at a handsome profit. Given what was paid they'll have to go some to achieve this. Generally everyone realises IRIS will be up for sale in a relatively short period all over again either because it can't afford the massive level of debt or because its owner requires the exit that it will have made clear to management over the last few months - that's little comfort for users looking at their future IT strategy."
July Legal Technology Insider out now
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 18 Jul 2007 11:23 BST
The July issue of the Legal Technology Insider newsletter (the only serious source of legal IT news on the planet... probably) is out now. Top stories in our 200th issue include: the new focus Elite has unveiled for its 3E, Enterprise and workflow systems; how the balance may be tipping away from Windows Mobile devices and back in favour of the Blackberry (hooray); first reports on e-book technology and a new search system that is claimed to be as good as Autonomy but only a fraction of the price; and how TFB has upset some of the smaller Scottish legal IT suppliers by becoming the first vendor to be awarded recognised supplier status by the Law Society of Scotland. In our opinion slot Anthony Stables of Farrer & Co argues that Microsoft's Surface interface may be the way ahead for lawyers' PC desktops.
Thursday, July 12
Legal Week now owns Legal Tech (sort of)
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 12 Jul 2007 11:25 BST
Bruce Wasserstein, the chairman of
Lazard, has agreed to sell the American Lawyer Media group (which includes the flagship American Lawyer magazine and the Legal Tech trade shows) to Incisive
Media in the UK (the owners of Legal Week among other titles) for $630 million. Wasserstein and his co-investors paid $63 million for American
Lawyer and $200 million for National Law Publishing in 1997
to form the company that is now ALM. Incisive said it will pay cash for ALM, which publishes 33 US magazines
and newspapers for the legal and property professions.
The purchase will almost double the size of Incisive and help the company expand in the US. The deal is the fourth for the London-based company since it was acquired by Apax Partners in December. About 55 percent of ALM's revenue comes from print publications which, according to the management, win advertisers because legal professionals still prefer receiving information on paper. ALM had free cash flow of more than $10 million, or about 3 percent of total debt at the end of December, Moody's Investors Service said in a March report. American Lawyer had a monthly circulation of 17,000 as of last December Apax bought Incisive Media, which was founded in 1995, for about £275 million. Incisive publishes Investment Week and Accountancy Age in addition to Legal Week. Incisive said it plans to complete the purchase of ALM in the third quarter. Upon completion of the deal, ALM CEO William Pollak will join the board of Incisive Media. Wednesday, July 11
Meanwhile in the US, Lexis just keeps on buying
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 11 Jul 2007 13:17 BST
Amid all the interest surrounding the machinations of IRIS/CSG in the UK, we should not overlook the fact LexisNexis is building up its own legal tech empire in the US. Its latest acquisition is Nashville-based Juris Inc, a leading provider of time, billing, and accounting software for mid-sized law firms. (The UK equivalent would be AIM, TFB or Videss.) Juris now becomes part of the LexisNexis Practice Management solution line, which already includes time, billing, and accounting products like Time Matters, Billing Matters, and PCLaw.
Commenting on the deal Ralph Calistri, senior VP & general manager for LexisNexis Practice Management, said "Juris adds another market-leading product to an impressive LexisNexis portfolio of Practice Management products. Their leading position in the mid-sized law firm market and the strength of their product offering makes them a great addition to LexisNexis In keeping with our Total Practice Solutions strategy, we anticipate integrating Juris products with key LexisNexis offerings in the near future." • Marks Baughan & Co advised Juris on its sale to LexisNexis. This deal represents the most recent example of Marks Baughan's involvement in the legal technology arena. Since its inception in 2004, Marks Baughan has advised on 17 transactions within the information management and financial technology sectors. The Juris transaction is the fourth sellside transaction that Marks Baughan professionals have completed with LexisNexis in the last few years; previous deals include Applied Discovery, CaseSoft and Verilaw. Tuesday, July 10
Vinasty - keep watching the blog
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 10 Jul 2007 15:59 BST
No fresh stories to report on the IRIS/CSG/Vin Murria saga (aka Vinasty) however we're getting a lot of interesting comments being posted to both the most recent stories – and it will be interesting to see if IRIS go ahead with the rumoured/planned/almost finalised £6million acquisition of another well known legal software supplier that competes in pretty much the same market space as Mountain.
Thursday, July 5
Vinasty - the official release
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 05 Jul 2007 20:17 BST
This is the latest episode of the Vin Murria saga (or Vinasty as one of our readers put it – more drama than Dynasty tho without the shoulder pads) and we quote verbatim the official statement issued earlier today (Thursday) by IRIS...
"IRIS Software Group, which is now listed as one of the top business software houses (top 6) in the UK with market leading positions in the Accounting, Legal and Not For Profit sectors, has announced details of its new Group management structure, following the recent merger of IRIS and Computer Software Group. Martin Leuw, previously CEO of IRIS, has been appointed as Group Chief Executive of the newly enlarged IRIS Software Group. Martin joined IRIS in May 2001 and has successfully built the business from £9m to well over £100m revenues, following the merger. Neal Roberts, formerly IRIS‚ CFO, becomes the Group CFO. Neal will be responsible for the new Group's Finance, Legal and HR operations in his role as Chief Financial Officer. He will be supported by Barbara Firth, previously CFO of CS Group, who takes on the newly created role of Acquisition & Integration Director. Vin Murria, employed as Chief Executive Officer of Computer Software Group until the deal was completed on July 3rd has decided to step down in order to pursue fresh projects. Vin was instrumental in achieving the rapid growth of the CS Group business, and in the last four years of her time with CS Group helped the business grow from a £2.6m market capitalisation to, following the merger with IRIS, a combined valuation of £500m. The enlarged Group will be divided into five Business Units to provide a dedicated customer focus and to create Centres of Excellence for both product and service: Accounting Practice Solutions - MD, Robert Salvoni (from IRIS - no change) Legal & Compliance - MD, Arlene Adams joins the Group on July 9th Not for Profit & Business Solutions - MD, David England (from CS Group - no change) Accounting & Business Solutions - MD, Stuart Dawson (from IRIS - no change) Payroll & HR - acting MD, Martin Leuw (from IRIS - no change) For the Group's customers, it will be very much 'business as usual'. During the coming months, the new business will take the best practices from both IRIS and CS Group to create the highest-quality product sets and market leading levels of customer service, which both organizations have built their reputations on." As ever, readers are free to comment on this story. I would just add, as I noticed some people taking exception to my remarks about Vin Murria's impact upon the market: an impact doesn't necessarily have to be positive. The Chicxulub Meteor made more impact upon the dinosaurs in one minute than the previous 200 million years of evolution (I know, this will offend creationists). Wednesday, July 4
Vin Murria gone from CSG/IRIS group
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 04 Jul 2007 19:08 BST
We've been trying to get an official statement all day – hence this late posting – but this is the story so far...
Vin Murria, the controversial chief executive of the CS Group – and more recently the M&A Officer for the IRIS Group which acquired CSG last month – has gone. She apparently finalised negotiations on her departure package late last night (3rd July). So what happens next? David England, previously with CSG's Legal Division and before that Solution 6, becomes chief executive of the IRIS Group's not-for-profit and business solutions division, while a new person (believed to be Arlene Adams, previously with Valista and before that Sun Microsystems) has been recruited to take over as chief executive of the compliance & legal division (which includes AIM, Laserform, Mountain and Videss) on the 9th July. Despite plenty of rumours to the contrary, Ian Knox remains as a director of the Mountain group – he told us earlier today that he is "too young to retire" – as does his co-director at Mountain Steve Kendrick. (The word on the street is CSG acquired Mountain for around £9m.) And, Barbara Firth, previously the FD of CSG, now holds a senior M&A post within the IRIS Group. As soon as we have a formal statement from IRIS, we will publish it but in the meantime the immediate reaction seems to have been a mixture of sadness, particular at one legal IT supplier that thought it was going to be acquired for £6m by Vin Murria later this summer, and jubilation, with the MD of another company on the phone to us singing a certain cruel line of a song from The Wizard of Oz. (OK, it was "ding, dong, the witch is dead".) We've also had a couple of people say they hope they don't win a Supplier Personality of the Year Award at next year's Legal Technology Awards (nothing to do with The Orange Rag) as Vin Murria only lasted a little over 5 months after she received it earlier this year. (Perhaps they'll rename it the "I'm Out of Here Award" – Simon Price won it the previous year and promptly left Aderant to join Recommind.) Seriously, the woman may have scared the living daylights out of much of the UK legal IT industry but she deserves credit for having done more to change its structure in 12 months than anyone else managed over the previous 24 years and we wish her well for the future. As to how the industry now pans out, well that remains to be seen.
Linklaters outsource a fourth data centre
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 04 Jul 2007 10:37 BST
Linklaters LLP has signed what is described as a 'multi-million pound, five year deal' to outsource its Colchester-based data centre infrastructure to SAVVIS, a global provider of IT infrastructure services. Under the terms of deal (which does not involve any staff transfers - in fact one of the reasons for the move was to free Linklaters' IT staff from routine admin work so they could focus on more client-facing projects) SAVVIS will host a number of Linklaters' business critical applications including knowledge and document management systems, finance, web and email systems, as well as providing internet bandwidth and archiving facilities. This is the fourth Linklaters data centre to be outsourced in recent years (the other three cover the firm's UK, US and Far Eastern operations) and while SAVVIS deal mainly supports the firm's Continental European operations, it also covers a number of global systems including the SAP financial and practice management system.
"SAVVIS core business model is to deliver resilient and secure IT infrastructure services for its customers, so its level of expertise and available resource was a key factor in our decision making process," said Simon Gilhooly, Global Head of Technical Systems at Linklaters. "In the longer term, moving to a selective managed services model with SAVVIS will improve efficiencies and capacity management." Gilhooly went on to say the equipment at Colchester was starting to reach the end of its life and that the combination of sizing issues (just how big would the infrastructure have to be to support the firm's needs in five years' time) plus all the technical issues associated with building data centres made the hosted option more attractive than continuing to do it inhouse. "Selective outsourcing with SAVVIS is great for firms like Linklaters as it is an efficient way for them to manage costs and drive economies of scale whilst increasing availability and scalability," said Richard Warley, Managing Director International for SAVVIS. "It will enable Linklaters’ IT team to focus on delivering value-add projects back into the business." Tuesday, July 3
Autonomy to acquire Zantaz
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 03 Jul 2007 08:42 BST
Autonomy and ZANTAZ have reached agreement to merge the companies. The formal announcement says the combination of the two companies (Autonomy is acquiring Zantaz for $375m) will redefine information risk management by proactively automating the full spectrum of consolidated archiving, e-discovery, analytics and real-time policy management uniquely in one system. Customers will benefit from a powerful combination of technology leadership and customer-facing strengths in sales, support and professional services.
As a publicly-held company with a market capitalization of $3 billion and over 900 employees, Autonomy allows ZANTAZ to immediately gain the benefits of a public company of scale, financial security, distribution and customer base, while continuing to operate as an independent entity. ZANTAZ will also able to leverage Autonomy’s IDOL technology and incorporate it into their own systems to enhance e-discovery capabilities and accelerate product development of features such as conceptual search and analytics across new unstructured data types like audio and video. Autonomy’s revenue growth in 2006 was 161% and combined company revenues would be in excess of $400 million. Autonomy’s profit growth in 2006 was greater than 500% with a highly cash generative business model, which enables significant new investment. Monday, July 2
Symantec + Interwoven integration - sorted?
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 02 Jul 2007 15:53 BST
The long running issue of integration between the KVS Vault (now part of the Symantec empire) emailing archiving system and Interwoven's WorkSite DMS (whereby it was possible to misfile and 'lose' archived email messages) looks to be resolved.
According to Nabarro IT director Andrew Powell (who is also the chair of the WorkSite user group in the UK) "I know from user group meetings that KVS-Interwoven integration is a very live issue for many firms. As reported at the last meeting, Interwoven has been working closely with Symantec over past months and I'm pleased to report to the group that some significant progress has been made at last. Interwoven and Symantec have reached agreement on a joint approach that will see a server-side solution becoming part of core product with Server 8.5 (maybe sooner) and KVS 6 SP2. Whilst I was at a meeting with Symantec yesterday, I received the following message from Kevin Hicks at Interwoven. The message from both companies is consistent, and there will be more specific detail in due course I'm sure. I think this is a huge step forward - long time coming, granted - so thanks to all of you who have kept this on both vendors to-do lists." The message from Kevin Hicks reads... Interwoven will provide native support for integration with KVS as part or the core WorkSite server. The integration will be supported by Interwoven as a core feature of our product. The integration effort will be co-funded by Symantec and Interwoven and will be built and supported by Interwoven with assistance from Symantec. This integration is being designed to be server based and at this time we anticipate no changes on the client. On import of a Enterprise Vault email stub, the WorkSite server imports the stub file and places it on the WorkSite file-server as if it were any other file being imported. A back-end process watches for newly imported emails. New emails are analyzed and Enterprise Vault stubs are detected. Once detected, the back-end process retrieves (move or copy) the fully realized email via an administrative connection to the Enterprise Vault system. The email stub is replaced on the file-server with the fully realized email retrieved from Enterprise Vault. Document history is recorded when the stub is replaced by the actual email. Once the email for the email will serve the fully realized email and no resolution of the stub from Enterprise Vault is necessary on the client side. This solution provides for the ability to restore email stubs that have been imported previously into WorkSite to fully realized emails as long as these emails still exist within Enterprise Vault. As part of the WorkSite server, the back-end Enterprise Vault filing process will scale horizontally with the size of the site (i.e. number of WorkSite Server nodes in the cluster). If an email stub in Worksite that has not been restored is accessed WorkSite will rely on the enterprise vault client to display the email to the user. Supported KVS versions: Enterprise Vault 6.0 SP2, 7.0, 2007 Timing: WorkSite 8.5 or sooner (Depends on the complexity of the code changes and the level of testing required). We will provide more detailed guidance as we get closer to completing the design. Sunday, July 1
DLA go for secure data hosting service
by
Charles Christian
on Sun 01 Jul 2007 17:43 BST
At DLA Piper, Chief Information Officer, Daniel Pollick is aligning all aspects of the organisation's IT systems to world-class quality to meet the high-level expectations of its lawyers and clients. As a result, DLA Piper (which has more than 3400 lawyers and 63 offices in 24 countries throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia) is subscribing to data hosting services.
DLA Piper has a powerful range of IT systems and communications capabilities to ensure that clients are provided with an always-on, seamless service and lawyers can work together across the globe to the greater benefit of clients. However rapid growth in the business has meant that new measures are required to assure the secure storage of vast amounts of critical customer and commercial data held on the firm's systems. "Confidence is everything in a law firm," says Pollick. "Lawyers and the people they work with need to know that the systems are up and running. They have an expectation that the systems they need will always be reliable and the data will always be available. We are growing so fast, opening new offices almost every month somewhere in the world, and our aim is to achieve the highest levels of quality for our systems all the time, matching the world-class standards we set in all areas of our business." Daniel Pollick and his team decided to find a partner organisation with a special focus on data services, to host DLA Piper's data. "We recognise that we are specialists in legal services and advise clients well in all the areas that we have expertise however the complicated process of maintaining a highly-available and extremely-reliable data centre is not our core competence and thus not one we can do ourselves. We are not experts in power, air conditioning, physical security and all other aspects of environment management required in a data centre – so we decided to find a specialist provider with these capabilities." The hosting services provided by data specialists InTechnology at their Data Centre emerged as the preferred solution for DLA Piper. "My team went to see the InTechnology Data Centre and went through an extensive process of due diligence and analysis of the offering," said Pollick. "We need a high level of confidence that we are putting our servers in a safe place, and undertook a detailed mechanical and engineering survey, took up references and looked carefully at the technical infrastructure. I found InTechnology very practical and straight to deal with. Also, the geography was ideal as their Data Centre was around 20 miles from our own, close enough for convenience but far enough away for it not to be likely to get hit by the same problem at any one time. InTechnology has given us an extremely reliable, extremely available repository for our critical business data and critical business applications We feel very confident that their Data Centre is going to stay up" DLA Piper now has a data security model based on replication from the InTechnology Data Centre back to their own Data Centre. "The replication is based on Network Appliance technology and gives us a world-class business continuity strategy for our core systems, so that our data is secure even if we lose our primary Data Centre," said Pollick. "We also have confidence that there is space for us to grow our data within the InTechnology Data Centre for at least the next few years." With over 3,000 terabytes of data currently under management, InTechnology is a trusted partner to more than 250 commercial and public sector organisations. To provide clients with maximum flexibility and cost control, services are delivered through a pay-per-use charging model, thus reducing or eliminating upfront capital expenditure. The Data Centres and private UK-wide IP network form the platform to deliver SLA (Service Level Agreement) backed services supported by highly skilled and trained operational and service delivery teams. The Harrogate Data Centre is currently undergoing a major refit, with major components such as cooling systems, transformers and generators being replaced with state of the art technology which will improve operational efficiency and provide greater reliability. "In tandem with the refurbishment program, we are also increasing capacity from the current 1.2MVA by 50%; this will allow us to expand both the useable floor area and deliver against increased power requirements from customers," said InTechnology commercial director managed services Tim Wilkinson. |
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