Judged by results – top legal firm turns to Icomm to manage technology upgrades
Background
For professional service organisations time is quite literally money and the ability to service clients successfully and profitably depends greatly on a reliable IT infrastructure. Any changes to a system often have to be undertaken to tight deadlines out of office hours so as not to disrupt the smooth running of the business. One such organisation that had a requirement to complete a significant IT upgrade to demanding deadlines was leading London based law practice Lee & Pembertons.
The practice turned to a Birmingham based computer services consultancy Icomm Technologies to advise on and manage the system upgrade. Icomm already has extensive experience providing technology solutions to professional services firms. The company already lists many of the leading law firms in the Midlands as customers. Icomm Technologies is an end to end provider of IT solutions to businesses across the UK in numerous different sectors. The company provides a comprehensive service as well as post sales maintenance and development. The company is a Microsoft Certified Partner and is also a Hewlett Packard Centre of Excellence.
This case study highlights how Icomm Technologies helped Lee & Pembertons maintain a business as usual policy while undergoing a complete overhaul of their systems and processes.
The Client
Leading London based solicitors Lee & Pembertons faced a major technology challenge due to the very success of its business. The practice is based in central London and over the past three years it has expanded from around 25 to 50 including partners and other staff. The firm specialises in a number of key areas including Agricultural, Charities, Corporate, Dispute Resolution, Employment, Matrimonial & Family, Property and Trusts, Probate & Tax Planning (including wills) and has 12 partners.
Due to a successful growth programme, the practice had outgrown its current IT infrastructure and needed to replace it with a solution that would provide sufficient capacity for growth in the future as well as meeting existing needs.
The practice places great emphasis on having a robust and reliable infrastructure to support its fee earners in their day to day activities.
The Challenge
Icomm faced a number of demanding challenges in managing this case
- Firstly they needed to develop an infrastructure that was cost effective in meeting current needs but sufficiently flexible to allow expansion in the future without the need for another major overhaul in the short to mid term. Icomm was asked to migrate the existing solution platform from Windows NT4 to Windows 2000 Professional
- Secondly, Icomm was required to manage the project out of office hours so as not to impinge on the smooth running of the practice
- Thirdly, any work undertaken out of office hours had to be managed so any incomplete work did not have an impact on the infrastructure when people returned to work. This meant deadlines were both tight and demanding.
- All of the information residing on the new solution along with the company’s telephone system needed to be integrated seamlessly across the firm’s three offices.
- And finally, the practice was looking for an outsourced IT maintenance provider to help them manage their IT requirements on a day to day basis.
The Solution
Lee & Pembertons already had a small business server solution in place which was originally configured for up to 50 client machines. The firm now utilises more than 50 client machines and had completely outgrown its infrastructure. The practice is typical of many mid sized law firms in that it operates the Microsoft Office suite of products coupled with specialist solutions covering areas such as time recording, case management, billing and accounting.
Much of the information relating to the practice was residing on the existing overloaded server infrastructure.
Working in the evenings and at weekends, Icomm took the decision to upgrade the existing server infrastructure and installed a new HP Rack Proliant ML350 G3 Server together with the racking of the existing servers. These provided sufficient storage capacity to allow for growth and also provided rapid access to all documents and files. The solution has the capability of handling up to 150 client machines in the future.
Icomm worked closely with the practice and its telecommunications provider to ensure correct operation of a leased line fibre link which connect the firm’s networks and telecommunications between its offices.
In addition, Icomm managed the roll out of a voice over IP telephone system. This provides an integrated telephone link allowing seamless transfer of calls between the practice’s offices without the need for costly leased lines. The management of this task required Icomm to manage several providers to ensure a solution was delivered on time and on budget.
Once the new infrastructure was in place, the company then upgraded a Windows NT4 server and a small business server to Windows 2000 Server and an Exchange 2000 server to manage all e-mail
Icomm also migrated all of the data over from the old infrastructure to the new before switching all staff to the new system.
The turn around time for the entire project was just 5 working days in total and this was achieved working through the night and at weekends.
Once the solution was installed, Icomm provided outsourced IT support to the practice from its Birmingham based call centre. As Ian Callens of Icomm points out, “With the right systems and infrastructure in place location is not an issue. We are able to provide all the support needed by the practice from an office located 100 miles from our client. As well as managing day to day queries, we can manage all upgrades and maintenance remotely over a secure web based link.
The Benefits
The transition was achieved in just 5 days without any impact on the normal operation of the practice
Lee & Pembertons now has a high speed solution which can handle significant expansion in the future
The firm has been able to keep its IT maintenance overhead to a minimum by outsourcing support and maintenance to a remote provider
Importantly, all of the firms offices are on a common high speed, secure infrastructure which allows all aspects of the practice to be shared across the business
What the Client Said
“Icomm demonstrated the capability to manage a highly demanding infrastructure upgrade to extremely demanding timescales. They have provided us with a robust system that will be able to cope with future expansion and at no point did the work have any material impact on the normal operation of our business. The outsourced maintenance solution has worked well.” Philip Robotham – Costs/IT Manager – Lee & Pembertons.
If you would like to know more about how Icomm could benefit your company, or have any other enquiries, please contact our sales team.
2004.0127
