InTechnology unveil this year’s model
Data, network and telephony management specialist InTechnology has launched a new tiered pricing model for law firms looking for a greater degree of financial flexibility when it comes to data storage.
With volumes growing exponentially year on year and clients increasing their usage of services such as managed back-up, archiving and hosting, InTechnology is keen to respond with more choice as to how these services are taken and paid for.
The three options are:
- Up-front per TB charge, including hosting, power, customer maintenance and the purchase of software licenses and a small per GB service charge.
Geared to those who prefer to capitalize back-up costs and own the assets and pay only small monthly charges to benefit from a managed service
- Banded pricing, with higher storage demands attracting lower per GB/TB costs; the customer commits to a fixed price for a maximum capacity, making for easier planning and budgeting
Geared to those who want cost stability with room to grow
- Flat price per GB
Geared to those who prefer the simple pay-as-you-go model that adjusts in line with their business requirements
For more information, contact Mark Halpin or the InTechnology Sales Team – mailto:mark.halpin@intechnology.com/ sales@intechnology.com
InTechnology look to cloud control
Data, network and telephony management specialist InTechnology are launching new private workshops for law firms keen to exploit the potential of cloud computing – and InTechnology’s £110 million cloud networking infrastructure.
The free two-hour sessions, which can be held on site or at InTechnology’s offices, are one part seminar, three parts roundtable discussion. Content will focus on recent developments within cloud computing, how well available services align with operational and business needs, technical considerations, financial savings, risk factors and successful strategies for commissioning and implementation.
Each session will also enable attendees to gain a clearer understanding of the managed service grid concept. With a simple connection to InTechnology’s own cloud network, firms can have ‘utility-like’, pay-as-you-use access to a wide range of fully supported services: managed network, back-up and archiving, virtual servers, server and application hosting, hosted IP telephony and mobile services.
Richard Quine, InTechnology’s director of product management, is keen for firms to take away a more rounded view of cloud computing. “It’s one of the buzz topics of the moment but there’s a big difference between accessing Google Apps via the web and securing a robust, multi-layered, fit-for purpose infrastructure for business. It’s important for firms to have a firm grasp of the issues and technicalities, the potential and the pitfalls of what lies beneath a deceptively simple concept.”
As for InTechnology’s managed services grid, Richard stresses that it’s cloud computing but with a distinctive edge: “By connecting to our own private cloud, firms can overlay services on a pay as you go/grow basis, with all the commercial and technical advantages that brings – and with the critical safeguard that they always maintain control. The client/supplier relationship doesn’t just exist in the ether: when they connect to us, we partner with them and provide rather more tangible assets such as 24/7 live support and a large technical, projects and customer service team.”
For more information on these ‘in camera’ sessions or to arrange a date, please contact Mark Halpin, legal sector manager | mark.halpin@intechnology.com
Bill Kirby and Allan Carton launch new business consultancy
Inpractice UK Limited is a new business consultancy, resulting from the merger of the established consultancies of “Inpractice” and “Professional Choice Consultancy” which have both specialised in the legal sector.
It brings together a unique group of 9 specialist consultants, all with the experience and expertise needed now to help law firms and companies servicing the legal sector to deal with and thrive on the challenges presented by the current economic climate – and by the Legal Services Act. It also brings together a number of “business partners” with tried and tested solutions in the legal sector.
Expertise includes IT, Marketing, HR, Quality systems, risk management and
compliance. Many of the new team has been working independently at a high level with law firms across the UK and Ireland throughout the past 20 years.
In addition to Allan Carton and Bill Kirby (both working primarily on Business, Marketing and IT strategies), Inpractice UK brings together the services of:
- Darren Francis (Marketing)
- Richard Blasdale (IT and Business Systems)
- Lee Williams (CRM)
- Mike Jackson (Quality systems and Risk Management)
- Rita Maguire (HR)
- Neil Cummins (Design)
- Ian Sheldon (Online services & SEO).
This enables Inpractice UK Limited to offer experienced advice across a wide spectrum of challenges currently faced by legal practices. All of the services offered are high on the agenda of law firms as they aim to work through the current climate and build for the future.
Inpractice UK Limited will lead and support initiatives to tackle increased and new
competition, the impact of the credit crunch on income, margins and cash flow, to focus on new clients alongside retention and development of existing clients, staff management and motivation, introduction of a performance related style and reward, risk management, compliance, business continuity and DR – all at a time of needing to reduce cost.
Inpractice UK Limited launches today with not only the traditional consultancy approach but also some new and extremely relevant packaged initiatives.
i) A half day business development workshop in-house at a fee of £500
ii) A cost reduction investigation at £1000 with fee claw back
iii) A half day staff empowerment review to enable business change at a fee
of £500
The product and services menu from Inpractice UK Limited includes:
• Business strategy and business planning
• IT strategy
• IT Managed services and hosting
• Marketing strategy
• Marketing workshops and plans
• Marketing training and coaching
• Client audit
• IT system selection – PMS, Case management, HR, CRM
• Project management
• Quality audits
• Lexcel audits and implementation
• Business process analysis and mapping
• HR management and advice
• People performance improvement programmes
• Delegation and empowerment
• Brochure design
• Web design and SEO
Bill and Allan agree that “By joining our businesses together we are now able to offer clients a much improved and flexible service with breadth and depth of offerings specifically related to their needs whether it be half day or full day workshops through to much larger consultancy projects.
In addition we are recognising the commercial needs of the market by offering phased or staged approaches to projects which minimise the long term commitments that at the moment are often too big a pill for a firm under pressure to swallow”
The new business will trade under the name of “Inpractice”.
For more information please contact:
Allan Carton – Director, InPractice UK Limited at acarton@inpractice.co.uk
Tel: 0161 929 8355 or mobile: 07779 653105
Bill Kirby – Director, InPractice UK Limited at bkirby@inpractice.co.uk
Tel: 01270 623389 or mobile: 07946 251277
www.inpractice.co.uk
InTechnology set to revolutionise services with early adoption of 21st Century Network
InTechnology has said it will be one of the first managed service providers to take advantage of BT’s revolutionary 21st Century Network (21CN) programme – the multi-billion pound infrastructure project that will create high bandwidth Ethernet networks nationwide to help legal customers simultaneously improve their business performance and save money.
Giving a massive boost to customer choice and control, 21CN is the platform that will introduce a range of next generation services, customised and delivered through InTechnology’s innovative ‘Business Services Grid.’
To help law firms appreciate the transformational potential of 21CN in conjunction with the ‘Business Services Grid’, InTechnology are launching two dedicated initiatives for clients and prospects.
The first comprises two 21CN launch seminars to be held at Wembley Stadium, one for new business, the other for existing customers (scheduled for the 10th February and 17th March respectively).
The second is a private half-day workshop for individual firms that can be arranged at any time to suit and held either on-site or at InTechnology’s Harrogate or London offices. Called 21CN-ECT, the workshop will review existing technologies in the light of 21CN, map out future choices using the Grid concept, discuss migration and deployment timelines and identify operational gains and financial savings to be had from exploitation of the 21CN platform.
Stefan Haase, InTechnology’s marketing director, is keen to get the 21CN message out to the market:
“This is undoubtedly one of the most momentous developments for British business in the last fifty years. 21CN utilises open systems based on open platforms, introducing a new era of better, faster and more cost effective solutions with enhanced quality of service, greater choice and increased flexibility for users.
It will enable InTechnology to provide more services to more customers across more areas of the UK than ever before, whilst also allowing us to reduce costs for bandwidth in locations other than metroploitan areas. Moreover, by utilising the InTechnology grid, customers can take these services on a pay-as-you go, on demand basis. This gives them an adaptable, risk-free and hugely cost-efficient alternative to traditional commissioning, and a welcome option when current uncertainty is making long-term strategic IT planning problematic.”
21CN and InTechnology
>> Roll out to 87% of businesses by April 2009
Until now Ethernet connectivity has been largely limited to selected urban areas, with coverage based on just 60 points of presence (POPs) in forty metropolitan areas. But the roll-out of 21CN will increase this number to 600 POPs, covering 87% of UK businesses, by April 2009; rising to 1100 POPs a year later providing the option of next generation Ethernet services to 98% of UK businesses.
>> Advantages of 21CN from InTechnology
> Speed to market – no-one will provide this bigger, better, faster service sooner
> End-user experience – completely consistent coverage from any location
> Costs transformation – more for your money and total cost control – InTechnology estimate costs savings of between 25% – 40%
> Complete control – it is the user who drives the application
> Managed network – security protection and maintenance all managed from a central point
> Robust infrastructure on tap – no need to invest in your own
> Converged services – with voice and data all accessed across one network
> Better by agreement – service levels agreed from day one, with 24/7 support
> More services – available ‘on tap’ anywhere in the UK once you are on the network
> Frees your IT team – to think more about business issues
e-know.net gives firms an easyStart along managed service road
Professional services specialist e-know.net is offering a helping hand to those law firms keen to take advantage of managed services but worried by the initial economic considerations of such a switch.
While managed service is typically based on a per user per month payment model, most projects also incur upfront costs in the form of consultancy and implementation fees. As part of its easyStart offering, e-know.net will eliminate any immediate outlay as well as look to help cash-flow and boost general affordability.
In all, easyStart will give customers:
> A 20% reduction in consultancy rates for the duration of the deployment
> The ability to roll these consultancy costs into the standard contract, amortising them over a 36-month period
> Discounts on hardware, peripherals and mobile handsets for the first 12 months of the contract.
> One day of free strategic or technical IT consultancy in the first year post-implementation
easyStart is aimed primarily at small-to-medium sized organisations who are looking for more cost-effective, time-efficient ways of running their IT provision or those wanting to exploit new applications but lacking the necessary in-house expertise, capital or confidence.
Law firm customers who have already made the switch typically run a familiar suite of software including Microsoft Office, Outlook and Exchange, Internet Explorer and Acrobat plus legal-specific solutions such as practice and case management systems, electronic forms, digital dictation and document management systems.
Nigel Redwood, e-know.net’s managing director, is hopeful that easyStart will encourage more to take advantage of what managed service has to offer:
“There’s an obvious attraction to a monthly pay-as-you-use pricing model but in today’s unprecedented trading conditions those looking to switch can be deterred even by the relatively small capital outlay that a migration project demands. The fact is that there’s no appetite to spend anything at the initial stage – owners and managers are focused solely on the monthly payments, these are the only thing they’re factoring into their budgets.
With easyStart we’ve made it possible for them to do just that and not to have to worry about any upfront costs. We’re conscious that we need to do all we can as a service provider to help firms battle the credit crunch and to come out stronger down the line – we see this as a very pragmatic first step.
It’s about ‘survive and thrive’ for clients – using managed services as a means to strip out cost and waste but even more importantly, to allow them to work more efficiently, compete more effectively and grow more confidently.”
For more information, please contact the sales team on 01952 236 236 or email michael.pickford@e-know.net
