Every firm wants to lower their IT costs. In fact, given the current climate of our economy, firms of all types and sizes are taking a good hard look at where they can save money – it only makes sense. The good news is that it’s not that hard to save money on your technology costs this year. Oh sure, projects and new initiatives will have their place, but what I’m referring to is your support costs. Most of the firms I work with really don’t look critically at how their technology decisions affect support costs – at least not until I point it out to them. So what do I tell my clients about saving on their IT support? Keep things as simple and consistent as possible.
Ironically, it’s not the technology that often gets in the way of keeping things simple and consistent on your network – it’s your staff. I don’t know how many times I’ve sat down with law firms that have over 20 applications installed on their network. Over 20 applications!? Egads, that’s expensive! That means that all 20 applications have to be patched, upgraded, maintained, and possibly the most difficult part – they all need to “play nice” together on the same network. When I explain this to the firm and show them how much it’s costing them, they’re always receptive to removing some of the applications – until, of course, the attorneys are told their pet application is going to be removed.
But the problem is usually solvable if it can be quantified into dollars and cents which, in most cases, is just a matter of a little quick math. Does the application provide value to the firm greater than it costs the firm or not? You’ll find some applications really do make a difference to a firm’s bottom line, but many don’t. Get rid of the ones that don’t and you’ll save on the cost of keeping the program updated along with the support costs. Once you’ve been able to weed out many of the applications that are bogging down your network, you should find not only that your support costs have gone down, but your technology will likely run better, too (check out this article from law.com on some of the benefits). Now, if the firm can also standardize on hardware… Well, maybe I’ll save that for another post.
Anyhow, I strongly suggest you take a few minutes to look at your firm’s technology. There is no doubt that if you keep your technology as simple and consistent as possible, you will save real, bottom-line dollars and you’ll probably reap a few performance benefits along the way, as well.
If you are running Exchange 2003 and you have applied SP2 then your Out Of Office replies may not be sent. This is actually a hard problem to detect because the Out of Office replies work for internal users but not for external email senders. So an external user would have to actual inform you that they did not receive the Out of Office autoreply which is somewhat of a Catch 22 since they probably don’t know you are gone.
The service pack changed some of the settings to make it ‘more secure’. To enable Out of Office replies for external users go to the Exchange System Manager >> Global Settings >> Internet Message Formats >> Default (or if you renamed this), right click and select properties. Go to the Advanced tab of the properties page and check ‘Allow out of office responses’. That should do it.
Although the adoption of Vista has been slow for businesses in general, I think it has met particularly stiff resistance in the legal community. Still, Vista is becoming more prevalent in every market and knowing how to use it efficiently can make everyone’s workload a lot less frustrating to confront. To that end I thought it might be helpful to take a look at the keystroke shortcuts that come with Vista. Although using a few keyboard shortcuts won’t ease the transition to Vista completely, every little bit helps.
http://downloads.techrepublic.com.com/thankyou.aspx?&tag=nl.e101&promo=100500&docid=325011&view=325011
Test your actual internet speed at www.speedtest.net. The site allows you to test your actual internet speed you are receiving from your ISP. The test is done through an easy to use graphical interface and you get ping, upload and download speeds. So you can see if you are actually getting what you are paying for from your ISP. I have also used the test to troubleshoot network problems – network traffic problems can be hard to diagnose and this test can eliminate many possiblities.
Microsoft announced the pricing for their new server software line, Windows Server 2008. The product is scheduled to be released in late February 2008. Eight versions will be available, though the distinction between two sets of three versions focusses on whether the product includes the new Hyper-V virtualization technology. This PC World article outlines the pricing for all versions of the product: PC World.
Although it is slated for release in the first quarter next year, as with most products, we stay away from implementing bleeding edge solutions. It’s especially important to wait awhile to ensure stability in server software as the server is the heart of your network. There were no announcements related to a Small Business version of the product, which generally trails behind the standard server releases by atl least 6-9 months.
There has been so much buzz about Windows Vista and its place in the legal community, I thought a few comments would be appropriate. In short, I strongly believe the benefits of deploying Windows Vista are more long term while deploying XP is more of a short term solution. Sure, deploying Vista will probably require some software upgrades to be fully operational on your network, but deploying XP will only lead to problems down the road. And in my opinion, deploying XP will cause more problems down the road than deploying Vista would today. Here’s my rationale:
Say you deploy XP today. Everything works fine – you don’t need to upgrade your applications, train your staff members, buy new peripherals, download new drivers, or deal with any of that hassle. Sounds great, right? I think so. But let’s look down the road two years. In two years from now your XP desktop system will be about half way through its life cycle (if you consider most law firms try to get 4 years out of their PCs). So now it’s two years later, you’re running XP, and you want to upgrade to the newest version of your business application (new features, old version isn’t supported anymore, etc.). Unfortunately, you can’t because the new version doesn’t run on XP anymore. You’re stuck. You can’t install the application without upgrading to Vista and upgrading now certainly costs more than if you would have purchased Vista in the first place. Ultimately, you still have to invest in training, address other compatibility issues, and all the rest like you would have initially, but now it costs more to do so. So really your choices become one of 3…
1. Upgrade all your PCs and applications at the same time some time down the road
2. Stay with XP and know you won’t be able to upgrade your software until you make the jump to Vista
3. Deploy Vista in accordance with the life cycle of your existing systems and address the issues that come with it
Whichever route you decide is best for your firm, don’t make a hasty decision. Deploy Vista as part of your overall IT plan so you’re in control.
Microsoft’s long awaited “Windows Home Server” has finally been released – at least as an OEM software product. It is now available for purchase from a number of online retailers. This means that the full systems shouldn’t be far behind (Windows Home Server pre-installed on various systems, including the HP MediaSmart Home Server).
The product was announced back in January of 2007, but has been in development for a couple years. The platform is Microsoft’s attempt to develop an easy-to-use media server and backup system for home networks. The initial offerings from HP include two systems with the pre-installed software – one with 500 gigabytes of storage, the other with 1 terabyte.
At its core, Windows Home Server is a shared network device that may be accessed on a home network, as well as over the Internet. This allows users to store video, pictures, music, etc. in a centralized location. In addition, it provides centralized management for remote desktop access (similar in some ways to Small Business Server). Microsoft has attempted to make the setup for sharing data over the Internet easy using its recently launched Windows Live service.
The other major selling point is the built-in backup. Although the technical documentation is not available online yet, Microsoft indicates that that the backup will be automated (to run daily by default), and will allow quick restoration of individual files and even entire systems for connected computers.
Much more information is available on Microsoft’s website at the link referenced above.
Daylight Saving Time will occur on different dates starting in 2007. This may not seem like a big deal but it will affect alot of electronic devices that keep time. If you just look around your house most electronics have a clock and alot of them adjust the time automatically for daylight saving. Furthermore and more to the point of this article are the effects this will have on computer systems. The most concerning issue for most people will be the impact on their electronic calendars. A typical business solution is to have an Exchange server with clients connecting with Outlook and some users syncing to pdas. In order to prepare for this change all of these systems need to be updated or everything during the shifted time change dates will be off by one hour. Microsoft has prepared for this and is working on updates to resolve the issue. However you do need to actually apply the updates to avoid any problems. See link below for a complete description from Microsoft.
In August of 2005 the United States Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, which changes the dates of both the start and end of daylight saving time (DST). When this law goes into effect in 2007, DST will start three weeks earlier (2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday in March) and will end one week later (2:00 A.M. on the first Sunday in November) than what had traditionally occurred.
The change in DST will have an affect on many automated and technology reliant products. Individual consumers, small to medium size businesses, and large enterprises may be affected by the new change in time. Computer-system related issues include, for example:
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Calendar / scheduling applications |
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Date / time calculations (current and historical) |
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Transaction logging (UTC vs. Local Time) |
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Tariff billing applications |
In many cases, making the necessary changes to accommodate the new DST legislation will be a relatively minor task. Users may need to manually adjust the time on their devices when the change occurs.
In other cases, more substantial efforts may be required. In some cases, systems and applications may need to be updated directly, while in others, the application may simply inherit or “read” the date and time information from the underlying system that it resides on so the changes need only be made to that underlying system. Given the broad range of technology in use today-and the integration of systems between customers, vendors, and partners-business and IT managers should determine what actions should be taken to mitigate the affects of DST 2007 on their organizations.
Complete Article here
I see so many firms still fumbling with e-mail. Really, it’s not because these firms aren’t capable of managing their e-mail efficiently nor is it because they’re not savvy enough. No, it’s really because they are too complacent. They don’t care about their e-mail until something doesn’t work. Then, because e-mail is so essential for law firms these days, they need it resolved right away. Consequently, I thought I would recommend a few tips for managing what has become a staple for law firms for communicating effectively with clients – e-mail.
- Host your own e-mail. Years ago there were some advantages to having your ISP host your e-mail, but those advantages have disappeared. Internet access is robust enough to handle e-mail, it fails rarely, spam solutions are very affordable, and remote access to e-mail is better than what your ISP can provide you. Plus, you get the added benefit of backing up your e-mail. Truly, if your firm has more than 5 staff, you should host your own e-mail. You’ll like it much better that way.
- Back it up properly. For those firms that are already hosting their own e-mail please make sure your backups are capable of restoring a single e-mail. Some backup software can restore e-mail, but only on a global level – all or none. This poses a huge problem if the managing partner needs a single e-mail restored. Windows built-in backup software doesn’t allow nearly the flexibility dedicated backup software like Backup Exec does. Test your e-mail restore capabilities – you’ll be glad you did.
- Archive old e-mails. Okay, this idea is contrary to the way most attorneys operate, I know. But do you really need those e-mails from 1999? Probably not. I like to save a lot of my e-mail too, but there is a point of no return. Archiving annually at the very least is recommended. And if you’re a larger firm (50+ staff), you’ll need to archive much more often than that. You’re e-mail will run much smoother and your IT administrator/consultant will be much happier.
- Organize your e-mail. Assign your e-mails to the case/matter/person they are related with. Today, most case management and document management systems provide this functionality quite nicely, but even if your firm isn’t using either of those systems, e-mail programs today allow you to organize your e-mails into folders, topics, etc. Try it. It makes it much easier than searching through your inbox for 10 minutes at a time.
Okay, those are some very basic tips for sure, but they’re actions I don’t see most firms taking today. I urge you to try them though because nothing is more frustrating than having your e-mail down. Law firms today just can’t afford it.
Microsoft recently released the next revision for the SBS product. Despite the mixup with the release causing delays, the new release adds some nice new functionality. Although SBS 2003 is a solid product packed with features and the new feature set in R2 is not that extensive, Microsoft hit the nail on the head with the new features. The new feature set includes green check of health, exchange changes, SQL server changes and expanded CAL rights.
The Green Check of Health is actually WSUS bundled with and integrated into SBS 2003 R2. This is not like the typical free WSUS product you can download and administer yourself (and then never use) - instead you’ll access a feature in Server Management called Update Services. This features solves the headache of manually making sure (or just hoping) all machines are updated with the latest patches. Software updates for all of your connected systems are stored locally on the SBS server and issued according to schedule and administrator approval. In addition there is a report showing the status of all computers on the network so you can see at a glance whether SBS and all its connected clients are up to date with the latest patches and security updates.
SBS R2 includes the 75GB mail store limit for Exchange (increasing from 16GB in previous versions). Although you can manually change this on existing Exchange servers with Exchange SP2, installing SP2 is not the simplest task. This is a blessing most people cannot appreciate. Even in small businesses the 16GB limit may not be enough and setting up different storage groups or getting users to constantly clean their mailboxes and defragging the Exchange databases is a real hassle due to the insuffient size limit.
SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition has been replaced with SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition. This has caused alot of controversy but in reality it benefits the customer. In truth, SQL Server 2005 Workgroup edition is more closely matched in features to SQL Server 2000 Standard than SQL Server 2005 Standard due to all of the changes in SQL Server 2005. The inclusion of SQL Server 2005 Workgroup edition enabled Microsoft to price SBS 2003 R2 at a lower cost than its previous version which may allow for more customers to choose the Premium edition of SBS.
Previously, each user or device connecting to a SBS needed to have a CAL, but the CAL was only applicable to that one server. So if a second server was added they would have to purchase additional CALs for any user or device that connected to the new server. Microsoft has changed the CAL so that it covers an additional Windows Server. So as a business grows and needs to offload functionality to a second server (SQL Server, Exchange…) additional CALs are not required saving the business money.
SBS server has proven to be a great product with its feature rich and easy to use environment. With the release of SBS R2 Microsoft has only added to the continued success of the product.
Applications, Law Practice Management, Networking, Technology Mangement | Joe Ulm | 
November 4, 2008 10:11 am | 
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