When is it the right time to replace a server?

We at the office have had a rash of rushed server replacements in the last few months.  We ourselves are a business who struggle with when it is time to make capital investments like servers and desktops.  I just wanted to take the time to pass along some facts about hardware.  I am an engineer here at ITP not the sales guy sorry Joe.

When is the right time to replace a server?

The answer which no one likes to hear is:  it depends.  Like your car you can drive it until it strands you and then get it fixed and get back out on the highway again.  Others chose to replace their car or have schedule maintenance on it in order to avoid this down time in their life.  The important thing is to realize the difference between a tire blow out which can just be replaced and fixed and a general wearing out.  The other car analogy I will throw at you about servers is that your equipment has miles on it.  In the industry it is called a MTBF or Mean Time Before Failure or failure rates.  It is possible depending on your environment that you have put 100,000 miles on your server in 2 years.  Think of servers more like you would your copiers after so many copies it just seems to start jamming more, right?  Microsoft.com tells us the research they have done says this is around the 5th year:

The percentage of servers experiencing some form of component failure jumps from 10 percent in year four to 50 percent in year five, according to James Browning, a research vice president at IT analyst firm Gartner Inc.

Microsoft and we at ITP urge you to use a combination of factors the most important of which is the performance of the system and it’s age in combination.  I say use both because if you have a 7 year old server even if you feel it’s performing well the risk of complete failure is so high that its not worth the risk.  The other factor I consider is manufacture, not that it be Dell or HP or IBM but if it was a “white box” or built server or PC.  Part of the process of becoming a Dell or HP server system is intensive research and burn in process which ensures longer more consistently running hardware.  If the server we are reviewing was built we tend to assign another year to it’s life at least.  ITP has never built PC’s or Servers because we think it is not good business and we would question any company out their still building PC’s.

Risk is really what its all about right?  If you replace your servers every 3-4 years on schedule and keep your servers at a cool consistent temperature you will have less issues.  Meaning less IT costs, less intermittent and major downtime.  I often wonder all the clients who call us when 1 desktop is down because of a virus or MS Office needs to be reinstalled or a corrupt OST file if they realize the effect on their business for email to be down for an entire day or to have no access to your calendar or contacts.  You say that will never happen but risk management methodology says we must think about it.  For almost all our clients a day of downtime would cost the firm in lost time and money more than the cost of a new server.

Budget for it, the core of the network should not be taken lightly.  Make sure you have a solid disaster recovery plan meaning backup, policy and plan to get the business back up and running.  Hold off on the new printer or the new laptops but make sure even in this economy you don’t take risks on the machines that carry the core of the business.

Web Site Design & Implementation do you know your OS?

Did you know that your website probably has an operating system?

That’s right if I go to your website I can go to View Source and tell what the web site implementer used to create your website.  Whether it was created from scratch in Dreamweaver or using Microsoft .NET or a PHP CMS like Joomla or something entirely different and custom.  You would never install new servers or workstations without knowing the operating system but most web sites go up without the clients asking about why the platform the designer has decided is the best solution.

The web clients that come to us come for 1 of 3 reasons:

1. Their site is outdated and ugly
2. Their site needs to rank higher in the search engines
3. Last but most common someone wrote the site and now they are gone or non responsive and they have no idea how to make changes or add pages/features.

We use an standards based CMS (Content Management System) this gives our clients the modern features of today’s websites with the flexibility to both edit their own content as well as have a solid platform that ITP or any vendor could come in and work on.  ITP has no interest in selling you a custom system as a method of trapping you into being our client.  Our clients stay with us because we create great web sites that increase their business profitability and exposure.

ITP’s process for web site design includes all of the following key components:

1. Design (Look and Feel)
2. Platform (Manage Your Content)
3. Content Writing (Our writers can help you get through that mental block and create pages of Search Engine Friendly Content)
4. Proper Search Engine Friendly Coding (All that magic computer geeks know to get you noticed)
5. Functionality (Need e commerce, registration system?)
6. Project Management (A proven process of gathering information, executing and informing you through the process)

Want a solid web hosting platform to go along with it?  We do that too.  Check out our advanced cloud based web hosting platform.

Real Time Access to Time Matters From Your PDA. Seriously.

This may be big or it may be real big, I’m not sure. But providing support for over 40 law firms that use Time Matters makes me believe it will be big on some level. Once upon a time, plugging your PDA into your computer and synchronizing your Time Matters data was considered sufficient. Today, most of our clients have moved past that stage and are now looking to be connected to their Time Matters database directly – “real time access” as we IT geeks call it. Well the technology is now here in the form of a product called Mobile TM. Developed by former members of the Time Matters development team the product allows you to look at your calendar, e-mail, notes, and other Time Matters records right from your phone. Oh sure, there are some limitations, but the product is definitely usable and valuable. Interested? Give us a call. We’re authorized to install and support Mobile TM. Very cool.

10 Marketing Tips for Law Firms

Following my previous post about blogging I thought it appropriate to stay on theme by linking to Matt Homann’s blog where he has listed ten great marketing tips for law firms. Granted, the theme here on ITP’s blog has been about legal technology (mostly), but I thought followers of this blog would find Matt’s post interesting and useful. Additionally, as marketing for all companies becomes more “web-centric” I thought it interesting to point out (again) the volumes of information legal professionals can find on blogs these days. Anyhow…click here to read, enjoy, and hopefully, get some good tips about marketing your firm.

Why Blog?

There are lot’s of different reasons people blog. Some people blog for themselves, some blog as a type of therepy, some blog for business purposes as I do here, and some blog just because they can. Ultimately, however, I have never read a better article the one Andrew Sullivan wrote for this month’s Atlantic. If you’ve ever considered blogging, want to know more about blogging or just want to read a damn good article click here to be entertained, educated, and possibly even assimilated into the world of blogging.

Time Matters 9 SR-3a

Okay, admittedly there have been numerous problems with the intitial release of SR-3, but the good news is the folks at Lexis are working hard to get SR-3a out as quickly as possible. I don’t know anything for certain, but there’s hope we could see something by the end of next week. I’ll keep you posted as I find out more.

Using Time Matters Groups and Hey – What Do Those Little Symbols in the Event List Mean Anyway??

I have run into this question regarding Time Matters calendars and grouped events on many an occasion.  This might clear up some questions for those not familiar with this feature:
1)       There are two different kinds of groups.  There are user groups and there are staff groups.  You should be able to put a staff group in the staff field of an event record and have it assign the event into the individual staff calendars as long as those staff members are a member of that group.  This type of group is created by going to the File Menu and choosing Database, Groups.  When you create an event with the group, there are 2 things you need to make sure of.  A)  The group staff must be the first staff in the staff field and B) when you select the group, make sure the check box “Keep Together as a Group” is NOT checked.  This is only true for the “Group” type staff. The other thing to remember is that when you want to see a grouped event on your calendar with everyone’s individual records, you need to right click and choose “Show Members – Expanded”.
2)       The other type of group, the user group, is set up for using instant messenger or email and is based on the user login.  This type of group is set up under File, Setup, User and Security, User Groups.
3)       When you want to delete a grouped record, keep the following in mind.  If you try to delete the record and get a message asking if you also want to delete linked records, that is because that event was set up by a user as a grouped event and you are not on the “master” record to delete it.  If you go to the event list in Time Matters, there is a symbol that looks like a little sun to the right of the day field (i.e. Friday*).  The little sun symbol indicates that it is a master record.  If you delete that record, it will ask you if you want to delete all linked records.  If you say yes, it will delete everyone’s event associated with it.  If you are not on the master record, it will ask you if you want to delete the record and unlink from the master.  If you say yes, it will leave the rest of the grouped records alone and only delete the specific record you are on.
Here are other event symbol explanations:

Time Matters and Daylight Savings Time Changes

Time Matters has posted Service Releases for versions 7 and 8 to deal with the looming Daylight Savings Time nightmare.  Users of Time Matters 8 can download and install SR1B by selecting Program Updates – Check for Updates from the Help Menu.  Time Matters 7 users must visit the Time Matters Service Center and download SR2C.

Time Matters says that the risk to their program is small for most users and that customers who apply Microsoft’s DST patches will have little to worry about.  Time Matters users who sync to Windows CE devices must apply the Service Releases to avoid issues but I suggest that everyone do so, as these patches usually include minor performance enhancements.  The exception to this is users of World Server 6 and earlier.  These users are much more likely to experience issues.  If you fall into this category, you should consider upgrading to avoid issues.  Remember, these DST issues will return twice a year for the foreseeable future.

For those of you who need a refresher on installing a Time Matters Service Release, the easiest way is to run in on one station and select Install Network Autoupdate when prompted.  Remember to close all programs including Time Matters first.  Once the network autoupdate is installed, simply go to each workstation and close all programs.  Open Time Matters and the update will install.

Of course, you can feel free to call ITP any time you need Time Matters assistance.

Supplemental Documentation for Time Matters 8 SR1A

After you download SR1A for Time Matters, don’t forget to download the supplemental documention and help files.  These can be found on the Time Matters website in the Service Center.  Login to the Service Center and select Service Release Downloads then the link for Service Release 1A.

On the right side of the window are links to several useful files.  The first, SUPDOCS8SR1A.pdf, is supplemental documentation related to Service Release 1A including information on Acrobat 8 integration and the Time Matters Timesheet.  The second set of links is unique to the different versions of Time Matters (i.e. Business, Legal, Accounting, etc.) and is named TM8BM8SR1ADOCL.EXE with the “L” indicating legal.  Download the one appropriate to your firm and save it to your desktop.  Once downloaded, run this file to update the Time Matters help files on your workstations. 

Time Matters Releases SR1A for Version 8

For those of you who did not know, Time Matters 8 allows you to check for available updates by selecting Program Updates – Check for Updates from the Help Menu.  If you check today, you will discover that Service Release 1A for version 8 is available for download and install.

SR1A provides four key enhancements:

• Adobe 8 Integration
• Microsoft Office 2007 Integration
• Windows Vista support
• TimeSheet support added for TM Only users

Remember to close all other applications before you install any Time Matters Service Release.  Also, if you choose to utilize the network autoupdate feature, advise your users to exit all applications and reopen Time Matters first.

Better yet, if you have any questions about installing a Service Release, call ITP.  We are here to help and will make the process is quick and painless.