e-know.net tees up another legal signing
Managed service specialist e-know.net has announced a further addition to its fast-growing legal client base. Leading south-east practice Tees Solicitors has contracted for the delivery of e-know.net’s Managed Desktop solution to its 205 users across five offices. In addition to the core Microsoft Office and Exchange products, 20 other applications will be moved into the hosted environment, including Lawsoft practice management, DPS case management, DPS Teamtalk digital dictation and Laserforms.
The switch to cloud-based IT services is seen as critical to the firm’s future development. Commenting on the move, Paul Stothard, Tees’ chief executive officer, said: “Very simply, we want to be able to offer more to clients from more locations while maintaining the highest quality and service levels – that puts the onus squarely on embedding efficiency, process and resilience across the business. We see IT as absolutely pivotal to our strategic ambitions and operational requirements and that’s why we had to ask ourselves the question – what was the best option in terms of IT delivery going forward?
When we compared on-premise and outsourced approaches, the Managed Desktop solution proposed by e-know.net graphically highlighted what we were missing and what we needed to get into the business: enabling technology accessible anytime, anywhere, supported 24/7. On offer was a more comprehensive, secure, cost-effective and reliable IT provision than we could ever hope to achieve ourselves. We now have the cost certainty and operational capability to enable us to respond to new challenges and growth opportunities; and freed of the responsibility to deliver IT services internally we can now focus on driving the business forward and delivering consistently for clients.”
Nigel Redwood, e-know.net’s managing director, is seeing a clear trend as more and more firms move away from on-premise systems. “What we are hearing repeatedly is that IT is core to the law firm, but it is not their business. They want to be free to concentrate on core competencies and entrust the delivery of a fast, stable and reliable IT service to a specialist third party. The other trend emerging is for far more exacting selection processes. With some cloud providers suffering lengthy outages recently, it’s understandable that prospective clients are now making highly detailed assessments of a provider’s calibre as regards its infrastructure, resilience and capacity as well as its people and financial strength. We’re delighted that in e-know.net Tees saw a hosting partner that ticked the boxes and gave them the confidence to switch to the cloud.”
Your Conveyancer homes in on e-know.net
Managed service provider and legal sector specialist e-know.net has been selected by Scotland’s leading volume conveyancing services provider as its new IT hosting partner. A long-term cloud user, Your Conveyancer is looking to e-know.net to bring a new level of capability, responsiveness and dependability as it seeks to drive efficiencies and standards while enhancing client delivery.
Core to the new arrangements will be the hosting of LexisNexis Visualfiles and as LexisNexis’s preferred cloud supplier, e-know.net already has extensive experience of managing and supporting both practice and case management systems. But according to Steven Lilly, Your Conveyancer’s IT director, it was not just e-know.net’s track record or its multi-million pound data centre that influenced their final decision.
“There’s no questioning the calibre of e-know.net’s physical infrastructure – indeed, it was a key tick in the box alongside ISO27001. And their competencies, in terms of the systems they can host, they’re also outstanding. But for us, it was the attitude and the approach of the people that made the final decision a straightforward one. We were looking for someone who would ‘get’ what we were about, who would come up with solutions to our problems, who would actively involve themselves in our business and take responsibility, and work with us to drive things forward so we can go to the next level. That’s what we wanted, and that’s what we found in e-know.net’.
Commenting on the latest high profile win, e-know.net’s managing director, Nigel Redwood, said: “It’s interesting that in these times of increasing focus on a provider’s fundamental ability to deliver a resilient service, we have a client for whom chemistry and human capital weighed just as importantly as our technical assets. It demonstrates that you really do need to have the full package and to be able to appeal on all levels. We pride ourselves on the quality of our people, not just the quality of our technology, and getting to know the client inside out is the first key step in developing an effective partnership.”
Underpinned by technology, Your Conveyancer is aiming to grow its business as a virtual organisation. The per user, per month subscription model means that the firm can easily scale the solution up as it employs additional staff to support new legal services offerings. As an ISO 27001 certified law firm, it is also committed to ensuring the availability, integrity and confidentiality of client data. The LexisNexis Visualfiles hosted solution includes back-up and disaster recovery facilities, and with 24 x 7 support, Your Conveyancer is guaranteed 99.9 per cent uptime.
Combined approach cuts continuity challenge down to size
Voice and data specialist LegalIT247 has announced the launch of a new converged offering to help law firms meet the regulatory and operational demands of business continuity.
Continuity247 is based on a joined-up approach to data and telecoms, with the aim of delivering resilience across the entire practice infrastructure and ensuring ‘business as usual’ at all times. It comprises four different packages to meet varying needs, with connectivity, IP telephony, SIP Trunks, GSM Gateways, workplace recovery and DR planning and consultancy all standard elements.
LegalIT247’s Ste Pritchard believes the savings to be made from convergence will make Continuity247 self-funding in most instances – as well as securing reductions in insurance premiums through a demonstrable commitment to business continuity.
“Like it or not, business continuity is one of those things that law firms need to take seriously, not just from a compliance point of view but from a commercial one too. The cost of downtime, the potential damage to your reputation, these are not things you can risk happening in this competitive marketplace. What we’ve looked to do with Continuity247 is to make what is a distress purchase less distressing.
It’s effectively a one-stop-shop for resilience and redundancy, securing phones, data and even alternative workspace to ensure that you can maintain service at all times. As we use a per user, per month subscription model, there’s no capital investment required either. Furthermore, we’re confident that the cost-efficiencies that fall out of convergence and single source supply have the potential to make the solution cost-neutral. So quite a stress-free purchase in fact!”
Continuity247 comprises four packages – Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum – to cater for different sizes and styles of law firm, scaling from 10 to 200+ staff, from single to multi-site firms. Each one can be delivered as a hybrid of on-premise and Cloud technologies or hosted entirely within the Cloud.
LegalIT247 champions convergence for the cloud generation
Telecoms specialist Matrix247 and IT services company Onyx Group have announced the launch of a new joint venture aimed specifically at the legal sector.
LegalIT247 will focus on providing converged data and telecom solutions, together with a range of complementary cloud-based services, such as hosted IP telephony, hosted call recording, online backup and data storage.
It has been created to help law firms meet both the immediate challenges of cost reduction and lean, green running, and the on-going desire for improved performance, enhanced risk management, greater agility, increased profitability and higher rates of client acquisition, retention and satisfaction.
Commenting on the new initiative, Matrix247’s group managing director Ste Pritchard said: “Convergence has been around for a good while but the cloud phenomenon has given it a whole new energy and impetus. Unifying data and voice circuits used to be a money-saving end in itself – it’s still a bankable money-saver, but it has also become a real enabler, a means to an end.
With your entire communications infrastructure connected to the cloud – not just the data side of things – you expand massively the opportunities available to you: scalable, per seat expansion through hosted IP telephony; complete call recording functionality across the practice with cloud storage and back-up; sophisticated call routing and call handling technologies that can transform the customer contact experience; and comprehensive, cost-effective continuity options via SIP Trunks, GSM Gateways, soft phones and Here and Now functionality.”
Onyx Group director Alastair Waite continued: “The reason why the two companies have come together is that we recognised how much potential lay in the marrying of our respective services. So to complement Matrix’s telecoms expertise, we’re adding in connectivity, data storage, application hosting, data management and security solutions; plus we’re completing the continuity picture with our highly specialized workplace recovery and business continuity offering.”
LegalIT247 already has a number of packaged solutions in development each geared around a key business driver. The first to market will be Continuity247, comprising four converged product bundles that will offer tiered levels of cross-practice resilience in the event of disaster, outage or IT failure. This will be followed by Compliance247, built around call recording, online backup and archiving.
All solutions will be offered on a managed basis, priced per seat per month, so removing any capex burden, providing a fixed monthly cost, and affording total up and down scalability. Law firms will also benefit from working with one vendor, with supplier management streamlined and support centralized, as well as enjoying the economies inherent in single source provisioning.
Both Ste Pritchard and Alastair Waite are also keen to stress the two firms’ track record in the sector: “Both Matrix247 and Onyx Group have solid experience of delivery to the legal market, a strong understanding of their business drivers, operational demands and commercial pressures, and a proven ability to align voice and data solutions to the requirements of firms of all sizes.
We’re pouring that know-how into a range of convergence and cloud-oriented services, each one designed to help meet a specific challenge, such as business continuity, while also unlocking a wealth of additional advantage, such as cost savings, efficiency gains, service enhancements and performance improvement.”
Another one for the Top 100 club as Pannone sign
Cost recovery specialist Copitrak Systems has announced a further addition to its growing tally of Top 100 clients with northern powerhouse Pannone LLP the latest to make the switch to the market leader.
Like a few other top 100 law firms in 2010, Pannone has opted to swap out its existing Billback system and replace it with a Copitrak solution based around eClipse terminals and new Canon Advanced MFDs.
Sixty terminals have been deployed across the firm complete with proximity card login, secure print with new ‘delegate printing’ option and scanning direct to email, SharePoint and LexisNexis’s DNA application. Copitrak’s POD module will also become the job management engine for Pannone’s newly commissioned print room.
David Griffifths, Pannone’s IT director, commented: “We were keen to make a real step- change in the quality and functionality of our print environment in a bid to maximize operational efficiencies and financial savings while making life simpler and easier for staff. Existing systems and support were compromising performance so we opted for “root and branch” reform, with a major upgrade of both hardware and software.
The Copitrak software impressed from the off, its ease of use belying its comprehensive specification, and the breadth of the portfolio giving us the perfect one-stop-shop solution. Copitrak’s close relationship with Canon partner M2 Digital was also invaluable as it ensured a seamless project delivery, while the quiet competence of both technical and account management teams has given us renewed confidence in cost recovery moving forward.”
Cann-do case management
Chris Cann, former head of IT and finance at Martin Kaye and now heading up his own management and technology consultancy, has launched the first of his Cann-do services for law firms.
Focusing on case management and business and legal process, Cann-do offers clients a range of consulting and hands-on services designed to help firms fast-track: the roll out of new case management systems; the enhancement of existing systems for volume work; the development of practice-wide legal process/matter management solutions; the training of in-house case resources; and the creation and amendment of new and existing workflows and templates.
The services are designed to appeal equally to firms who need strategic guidance or an experienced lead for a new case management project, or who may lack the in-house resources required for program management or template writing.
Core offerings include:
• Strategic consultancy – brainpicking, tenders/Requests for Information (RFIs), system evaluation, partner workshops, end-to-end program management
• Train the Trainer – on-site programs with remote support
• Workflow/template authoring – skilled on-demand resource
Comments Chris: “The ultimate aim of this whole service wrap is to help firms rapidly reap maximum advantage from their case management and legal process systems in terms of improved efficiency, productivity, risk management, compliance, customer satisfaction and profitability. Having witnessed the huge positive impact that process had on Martin Kaye, I’m keen to take what I learned there and apply it to those legal businesses looking to make similar strides. Where I hope my offering differs is that I’m not just intending to advise clients on how to do things and then sit back – I want to get hands-on, work at the coal-face and make things happen.”
For more information on any aspect of the Cann-do approach to case management and legal process, please contact:
Chris Cann on 07711 929153 | chris@cannconsultancy.co.uk
More information on Cann-do is available at: http://cannconsultancy.co.uk/Articles/CMFlyer.pdf
e-know.net offers Wigster a managed service beyond compare
Telford-based managed service provider e-know.net has been selected as the preferred IT partner of the UK’s first genuine price comparison website for law firms.
When it launches in November, Wigster will be the first site to give consumers instant, like-for-like pricing across a whole range of worktypes, as well as providing service features, location details and star ratings to enable comprehensive comparison of competing offerings.
As well as the delivery of a complete IT infrastructure, including managed desktops, networking and communications, e-know.net is also providing the complex CRM and Dynamics NAV engines that drive the Wigster website; its consulting team designed and integrated both Microsoft solutions and will be responsible for their continued development.
Commenting on the rationale for going the managed services route, Tony Bowler, Wigster’s operations director, says: ‘The availability, performance and security demands of the website always meant that we would be looking at an enterprise-grade data centre for hosting. But we thought, why stop there? Why invest heavily in our own IT function and in-house systems when we can leverage e-know.net’s multi-million pound infrastructure and support capability to underpin the entire business?
The managed service is scalable, it affords us almost unlimited capability and scope, and gives us access to a pool of IT expertise as and when we need it. Moreover, it leaves us totally free to focus on our core objectives of building the Wigster brand, improving the consumer experience, and generating increased revenues for our law firm members.”
Nigel Redwood, e-know.net’s managing director, confirms that more and more start-ups are applying the Wigster logic. “When you set up from scratch, you have no legacy equipment issues, no people issues, nothing that gets in the way of making a decision based on sound business sense. And the sensible option is not to turn yourself into a technology specialist – and spend six or seven figures doing so – to support your business when there are dedicated providers already out there who can do it better, faster, more reliably and more cost-effectively than you. Let companies like e-know.net share the business load by taking on the IT burden.”
Mission-critical virtualisation takes to the InTechnology cloud
InTechnology has announced the launch of its second-generation Virtual Server Hosting service, providing access to Cloud-based virtual servers geared to the virtualisation of mission-critical, resource intensive applications.
With firms keen to leverage virtualisation beyond the low-hanging fruit of R&D environments and file and print servers but less keen on the high-end in-house systems required to underpin such projects, the option to use virtual servers sat in the InTechnology Cloud is a compelling one. Instead of a further round of capital investment, more pressure on machine rooms and IT teams, and protracted project lifecycles, users simply configure their server and storage selections online.
The new service is underpinned by industry leading technology from VMware and NetApp; highly resilient ESX servers and high performance SAS disk storage offer a virtualized environment suitable for the most intensive and demanding of workloads, including applications and database platforms such as Exchange and SQL Server. To lock down redundancy and continuity, users also have the ability to protect their virtual servers with virtual DR servers located in a geographically diverse data centre.
The launch is being marked by the offer of 50% savings on new virtual server commissions.
Commissioning is done via the Self-Provisioning Portal, giving users complete freedom to orchestrate every aspect of their hosted virtual server set-up. They can:
• Change the configuration of existing virtual servers such as performance, storage volumes or type of storage
• Add more servers in times of peak load and remove servers in times of low load
• Add more servers to test upgrades or new applications
• Add more servers to test restores or Disaster Recovery policy
• Provision servers ready for the unexpected
Commenting on the upgraded service, InTechnology’s Stefan Haase, says: “The benefits of virtualisation are well documented, everything from reduced overheads and carbon emissions to improved availability and disaster recovery. So it’s understandable that users want to extend those benefits by successfully virtualising Tier I applications. This way we’re overcoming the cost and complexity issues associated with on-premise provisioning, where the need for top-end performance and resilience typically outstrips the resources available. Instead, users have instant access to the InTechnology Cloud and a wealth of computing power and system redundancy. It’s a cost-effective, robust and made-to-measure environment in which to house the next wave of virtualisation projects; and with technical and consulting expertise on tap, users can now focus on the application rather than fret about the infrastructure.”
New podcast available from e-know.net
Managed service provider e-know.net has just made available another edition of its podcast series. In e-notes #4 we hear from one of the UK’s most experienced users of managed services, Chris Cann, who pioneered the use of IT outsourcing in the legal sector over a decade ago. Chris helps address some of the Frequently Asked Questions that come up when organisations start to seriously contemplate making the switch to off-premise IT. How do you make the business case? How do the costs compare? How much of a cultural challenge is it? What are the day to day realities of working within a managed environment? Can all your applications be hosted? These and more are dealt with by Chris in this insightful, informed interview.
Listen to it here – http://www.e-know.net/assets/files/eNotes_edition4.mp3
This edition of e-notes and earlier editions are also available via iTunes
New white papers available from InTechnology
Data, networks and telephony management specialist InTechnology has published a number of new white papers.
What does Cloud Computing mean for your business?
The experts cut through some of the fog surrounding ‘cloud computing’, crafting clarity out of confusion. One of the problems with ‘the next big thing’ is that all the hype can quickly drown out the basic facts, this White Paper focuses on two very simple but core questions: what is cloud computing and what does it mean for you and your business?
The Pounds and Sense of Online Backup
The unreliability and intensive management of traditional tape-based backup has forced backup administrators to create manual, error-prone processes in order to protect their data. Consequently, other critical objectives, such as supporting distributed environments and complying with regulatory requirements, are at serious risk of compromise. Online backup, offered as a managed service, answers these challenges by leveraging existing server and network infrastructures to securely and efficiently protect servers and desktops against data loss.
Utilising Virtualisation for Disaster Recovery
This White Paper explores the utilisation of virtualisation technology for Disaster Recovery, including portability. Virtualisation allows the encapsulation of an operating system, software, and its data into the equivalent of a single discrete file, or workload. Suddenly, organisations aren’t shackled by the heterogeneity of disparate servers, operating systems and data sets.
Email Archiving: Legal & Compliance Considerations
If you are considering adopting an archiving solution this White Paper will provide you with an understanding of the legal and compliance considerations around the storage of your data, helping you form a truly comprehensive business case and an appropriate data archiving strategy moving forward.
All of the above white papers can be downloaded at:
http://www.intechnology.co.uk/MainPage.aspx?ID=20
