Focus on Upgrading

Law Technology Product News (Volume 5, Issue 13, p. 13, col. 1)
November 1998

Revamping Without Migraines or Bankruptcy

Don't tackle an upgrade of your law department or law firm systems without a careful plan.

By Wayne Spivak

You are about to undertake the largest legal case you have ever handled. How do you go about it? Do you spend time and develop a methodology on how you want to handle the case? Do you figure out who does what, when and where? Or do you proceed, as the cliché goes, "willy nilly"?

	Don't send a lawyer's letter to the vendor when you think you're having a problem! That's a sure fire method of sabotaging your project. --Wayne Spivak

The smart money is that you'll do your research, create a plan of action and then implement the results. Well, the same methods should be used when you're going to upgrade your computer system.

Your computer system is, in essence, the hub of your firm. You probably keep your document, calendar, client and billing information there. When the computer system is down, your business can screech to a halt. (Remember when it was the copy machine?) So why do many law firms take little time to research, plan and anticipate the appropriate benefits, costs and labor involved in a system upgrade?

Simply put, many business owners don't want to take the time, and pay for the expertise, to make any transition happen effectively. Another reason is that they don't understand how to plan or why spending time and money up front can save large amounts of time, money and frustration down the road. Planning is the key to any successful venture, be it attacking that super large case to implementing a new marketing strategy.

Major Steps

The major steps involved in starting a computer upgrade are as follows:

• Define why you want a new system, and what it needs to do.

• Research and create a needs analysis.

• Market the results to both the decision-makers and the end-users.

• Locate a computer consulting firm or firms that are capable of handling your needs.

• Develop an implementation plan.

• Distribute this plan to all concerned.

• Implement the plan in a reasonable time frame.

Why do you want to get a new system? Many firms hear that a new version of Windows is out and must have it. Or a new, faster PC computer is available

Maybe you realize that none of your software is Year 2000 compliant, and you need to upgrade not only your software but also the hardware it sits on, which is a very real and timely reason to upgrade!

Other common reasons are that you have outgrown your system. For example, you originally bought your computer system's file server when there were only five users. Now you have 25 users.

Alternatively, perhaps you do work for a major corporation that requires you to run a specific software package. This package only runs on a specific hardware platform and with a specific operating system. You decide the cost/benefit of the migration is well worth the cost.

Whatever your reasons, create what is called a mission statement: an articulation of what will be accomplished with the upgrade. Once this is complete, you will have a comparison point to gauge all future actions.

Create a Needs Analysis. Research what products are available or pay a consultant to do it for you! You need to know what alternatives are available, what the costs of each would be, and how each possibility meets your anticipated goal. Every action you take on this project needs to be gauged against the mission statement.

A needs analysis consists of speaking with all those who have a vested interest in the project. That might be the managing partner and/or the mail room staff. Each individual who will use an aspect of the computer system in their day-to-day job has valid input into what is required. Many times it is the end-user who knows what the job really entails, not the supervisor.

Market the results to both the decision-makers and the end-user. Your consultant delivers the needs analysis. Distribute this analysis (or an edited version of it) to all those who have participated in the process. Remember that this new computer system will be their system. Moreover, if it becomes their system, those owners will take a greater pride in learning how to use the system and create higher productivity.

Ask for comments from the participants and include these comments into your request for quotation (RFQ). Make your RFQ focused enough so that a prospective vendor has some latitude in which to
create an appropriate quote. Locate a computer consulting firm or firms that are capable of handling your needs.

Next, find a firm that is capable of handling your needs. In the computer trade, these firms are called VARs (value added resellers) or system integrators. Some just call themselves computer consultants. The major difference is that VARs sell hard goods as well as consulting, where consultants usually do not.

Find a VAR who has experience in the different aspects of your RFQ. Some VARs might only do training, while others may do cabling, the hardware and the networking. Go with your comfort zone, which may be one size fits all (a single VAR for the entire project) or multiple VARs.

Develop an implementation plan. Once the VAR is selected, create a plan of action. This plan of action will detail the following types of items: sub-projects; major goals; milestones; tasks; resources assigned to specific tasks and sub-projects; time-frames.

Make your tasks, milestones and major goals specific enough that they can be gauged against an absolute. In other words, to say a milestone is "Install cable" isn't enough. Make your milestone "Install cable and test according to code. Have vendor certify said installation." Now you can tell whether or not the installation of the cabling worked.

After each milestone (and major goal) is met, sit down and critique the outcome. Make sure what you got is what you wanted! If you created milestones at the appropriate places, you can catch problems before they snowball.

Distribute this plan to all concerned. One recurring theme I hope you've picked up on is marketing, marketing and marketing. If you keep all your users in the loop, your results will be much better. You want everyone to feel as if they helped create and install the new system.

Implement the plan in a reasonable time frame. Reasonable: Think of what that term means in a legal sense! You must be reasonable, because if the vendor starts to feel like you're pushing to get a job done before it's time, you're asking for trouble. Trouble in that you may lose your vendor. Trouble in that they will have to take short cuts in order to make your drop dead date Trouble in that they complete the project and then refuse to do business with you.

A project must be dynamic. The same reason you ask for a continuance is the same reason you need to have slack in the timing of the project. Things happen, Murphy's Law rules and there is very little you can do about it.

Don't send a lawyer's letter to the vendor when you think you're having a problem! That's a sure fire method of sabotaging your project. Use the art of mediation and arbitration, and sit down with the vendor and work out the problems.

Training. One overlooked and often disregarded aspect to any new computer system is training. Without proper training, you've just invested in a very expensive under-utilized toy. With proper training you will have a productive corporate asset.

What good is it if you go from a DOS based PC network to a Windows based network if your secretaries don't know how to use Windows 98? If they can't use the operating system, what makes you think they can work the new word processor, which was written to operate in a Windows 95/98 environment?

What about your system administrators? Did they receive the proper training to keep your network up and operational? Do they know how to do backups and restores? Can they change passwords, add users in not only the network, but possibly on the specialty software you purchased? The only way you can beat these odds is by encouraging and mandating training.

Foresight: With some foresight and a little time, you can make the purchase and installation of a new computer system as commonplace as a simple real estate closing--by the numbers. It takes knowing what steps need to be done, and in what order. Creating a mission statement and a plan makes this an easier process.

Wayne Spivak of Bellmore, N.Y., is president of SBA Consulting and SBA.NET.WEB and writes LTPN's Compare & Contrast column.