Law firm Dundas & Wilson had to build its entire IT
infrastructure from scratch and still maintain its service to
customers.
- Business description Dundas & Wilson is an
internationally focused corporate and commercial law firm with
offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London.
- Business challenge Provide the technology that
would enable the firm to guarantee business continuity and provide
seamless customer service
- Solution Deploy a new reliable IT
infrastructure, the performance of which is continuously managed by
an external provider
- Services Architecture design, systems
integration, technical consultancy, remote systems and network
management, helpdesk and support, managed IT services, managed
security services, project management, technology supply
Technology has become so integral to the processes of most
organisations, that businesses rarely have the opportunity to start
again with a completely clean sheet with their IT systems. Instead
they are limited to making staged changes to different areas of
their infrastructure.
When Dundas & Wilson left the Andersen Legal Network,
however, it was given just such a chance to design an entire new IT
environment completely tailored to its specific requirements.
The practice had already started to work on eliminating the
paper-trail that plagues many law firms by making increasing use of
web technologies. For example, its online deal rooms provide a
secure forum where project information could be accessed by lawyers
and clients at any time from anywhere in the world.
Although Dundas & Wilson wanted to continue to use
technology to streamline the legal process, as it prepared to leave
behind the network and its entire IT infrastructure, its main
priority and key objective was business continuity - and its
ability to service its customers.
Servers, desktops, printers, applications, security and
networking devices all needed to be implemented for Dundas &
Wilson to fulfil this objective.
Its quest for ‘business as usual’ led it to IT services company
Computacenter, which helped Dundas & Wilson build an
infrastructure that has given the firm the scalability and
reliability it needs to deliver high quality legal services.
Dundas & Wilson is Scotland’s largest corporate and
commercial law firm, with offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London.
The firm employs nearly 300 lawyers who offer a range of legal
services including corporate, banking, employment, intellectual
property, commercial litigation and IT contracts. Its clients
include many blue-chip organisations.
Until March 2002, Dundas & Wilson was part of the Andersen
Legal Network, which had helped to give the firm a head start with
its IT functionality.
As Laurence Ward, a Senior Partner at Dundas & Wilson,
explains, “When we joined the network in the late nineties, our IT
systems made a quantum leap from where they were before, and we
were suddenly well ahead of our competitors in terms of the
technology we were using.”
Although the firm’s entire IT infrastructure and network were
provided by Andersen, this meant relying to some extent on
infrastructure and services located and provided remote from the
D&W offices and a helpdesk that did not always understand
technology problems that were specific to the firm.
“After a while we felt our IT systems were not advancing as fast
as we would have liked, and that our competitors were catching up
and in some instances overtaking us,” adds Ward. When Andersen
became implicated in the Enron scandal, the firm knew it was time
to cut its ties with the network.
Business continuity
The decision to go it alone meant Dundas & Wilson faced a
race against time to develop a whole new IT infrastructure that
would ensure it could continue to service its clients, and operate
efficiently as an independent legal partnership.
“Technology is absolutely key to delivering legal services, and
is second only to people. ‘Business as usual’ was essential, and
without IT our service to customers would be quickly impacted,”
says Ward. “We knew the timescale was going to be incredibly tight
as the situation was changing rapidly.
"Our first objective was maintaining business continuity, which
meant ensuring we had access to mission-critical elements of our
IT, such as financial and office applications, Internet and email
functionality, printing facilities and a corporate network.
"Our second objective was to improve on the IT systems that we
had before, and to have a stable environment that was tailored and
supported in line with the specific needs of a legal practice.”
Due to the time pressure and the sheer scale of the project,
Dundas & Wilson knew it needed external assistance to fulfil
these objectives, as Ward explains. “Although we do have internal
IT resources, the breadth of skills and integration expertise
required for such a multi-faceted project was beyond our scope.
"We knew the end result of our new IT infrastructure, but not
how to achieve it, so we needed a partner that could guide us
through the numerous technology choices that we faced.
Computacenter was very responsive, and most proactive in suggesting
solutions that would help resolve our business issues.”
Work on the new IT infrastructure began in earnest in May 2002,
with Computacenter taking responsibility for the design and
implementation of the new infrastructure, which encompassed
everything from security and storage to backup and remote
access.
Managing so many different elements was a challenge in itself,
as Andrew Sharpe, Consultant at Computacenter, explains: “It is not
often that an organisation tackles its entire infrastructure in one
go – it is normally just a couple of elements.
"The breadth of technical skill required was tremendous.
Although it was a massive challenge, the end-to-end nature of the
project provided us with an unrivalled opportunity to ensure all
the new systems were fully integrated and easily managed.”
Locking down security
Computacenter put together a 12-strong solution team that
provided a pool of technical and service management expertise
around the different technologies that would be rolled out as part
of the project.
The new infrastructure included Sun Microsystems’ and HP servers
running Sun Solaris and Microsoft Windows 2000; around 500 IBM
desktops and laptops running Windows XP; Active Directory; IBM
Lotus Notes and Domino for email and applications, plus an array of
networking, backup and security devices.
Security was a fundamental consideration in the design of the
new environment, as Ward explains: “Security is key for the
business due to the sensitive nature of a lot of the data we store
and access. Safeguarding the integrity of our data is paramount.
The new environment has, however, given us an enhanced level of
protection
This increased level of security was achieved through a
comprehensive assessment of the security threats facing the
firm.
“We basically started at the edge, and worked in,” explains
Gavin Fulton, security practice technology leader at Computacenter.
“We assessed the risks to perimeter, interface and internal
security, and then developed strategies and solutions to mitigate
these risks.
" For example there’s a highly available firewall solution to
help prevent any intrusion attacks; an email gateway staging post
to help detect any malicious code; and the desktops are all
protected by anti-virus technology.”
To enhance this security provision further, the firewalls are
remotely monitored round-the-clock. “New risks are identified every
day, so it is essential that a company has a proactive security
strategy, which will help give them a head start on new threats,
such as trojans and worms, before they become an issue for their
organisation,” adds Gavin.
Computacenter also had to address the issue of security that arose
from the decision to provide the connectivity for the firm’s wide
area network through a virtual private network (VPN), which
provides a site-to-site secure link through the Internet.
Although this approach enabled Dundas & Wilson to eliminate
the cost of leased lines between its offices and gave them
increased flexibility, it did raise various security issues.
“Internet-based virtual private networks are still relatively
rare in the UK, but the cost benefits are likely to entice more
companies down this route,” comments Gavin.
“It is, however, essential that you make adequate provision for
security and performance. We used comprehensive encryption methods
to safeguard the traffic travelling over the VPN, and Dundas &
Wilson is able to leverage its service level agreements with its
ISP to help guarantee the network’s performance.”
Minimising the roll-out risks
Due to the immovable deadline, Computacenter had to forgo the
usual rigorous testing and piloting of such a complex
implementation.
“On August 1, 2002 Dundas & Wilson had to be off the old
network, at which point its existing infrastructure would become
obsolete,” comments Sharpe. “After three months of intensive
development, we had no choice but to go live with the new
infrastructure - testing was a luxury we simply could not afford.
To ensure we could respond swiftly to any problems and maintain
business continuity for Dundas & Wilson, we set up a special
response team, and de-risked the roll-out as much as possible.”
The risks of such a strategy were immense, as Laurence agrees:
“It was a huge challenge, but it was the only option available to
us - without an IT infrastructure, the firm would have ground to a
halt within a few days. Considering the circumstances,
Computacenter did a good job. They put in a huge amount of effort
into what was a very difficult project.”
Despite the challenges, the new infrastructure has met Dundas
& Wilson’s original objectives, as Ward confirms: “We have put
in an IT infrastructure that can be tailored to our needs, and
those of our customers. We have dramatically improved the
reliability of the system, and can offer our users and customers
continuously available services.
"This is very important as our partners work all over the world,
and often require access to corporate information and data while in
different time zones.
"The legal profession is not unlike the financial services
sector in terms of client confidentiality and the need for secure,
resilient IT systems. The infrastructure is also more locked down
than it was previously, which makes the system – and associated
costs – easier to control.”
An infrastructure for the future
To further simplify the management of its IT infrastructure,
Dundas & Wilson has also tasked Computacenter with day-to-day
responsibility for its desktops/laptops, servers, networks,
internal helpdesk and firewalls from spring 2003.
“It would be prohibitively expensive to provide the continuous
support and management we need for the new infrastructure.
Computacenter has access to a range of technical specialists, and
can provide the continuous service we require,” adds Ward.
Now its IT foundations are in place, Dundas & Wilson is
looking to the future, as Ward
explains: “We have a three-year IT strategy aimed at enhancing our
service to clients which necessitates a number of significant
advances to our IT systems.
"The infrastructure had to be able to support all these plans,
and our increasing use of web technologies. The project meant a lot
of changes, but we now feel we have a scalable IT infrastructure
that can dovetail to our future requirements.”
He adds: “Computacenter’s approach is very similar to the way we
work with our clients – it is prepared to commit resources to get
things done, and is very client and relationship driven.”
This article was part of Computer Weekly's managed services
business channel, sponsored by Computacenter.