Extracts from The Project Proposal Toolkit

This is web page is extracted from The Project Proposal Toolkit. Download the (free!) full version containing templates and examples here.

The Project Proposal Toolkit

Get your case heard and get results!

Version 1.1, 23rd September 2008

(c) 2004-2008
Ian Lauwerys

www.legal-it.info

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By installing, copying or making use of this document, you agree to the terms of the license contained in the accompanying file named "License.pdf". A copy of the license file may be obtained from: www.legal-it.info

Why use this toolkit?

I'm sure you want your firm or customers to benefit from investing in new technology, but how can you be sure that your proposals will get swift approval?

Ultimately, the key successfully negotiating your proposal through the annual budget round is winning the confidence of the Board, Partners and Finance Director by presenting your proposal in terms that they will understand.

My toolkit will show you how to:

* State the problem or opportunity for the firm and how your proposal addresses it.
* Present reliable estimates of costs and time-scales.
* Set out the financial and other benefits to the firm and individual Partners.
* Present your case in just six pages that will get read and get results!

Clearly there is more to success that writing a good proposal, but a poorly prepared one certainly won't help your case. If you're new to the organisation make sure you've done your homework before plunging in:

* Find out how the firm makes money. What types of work does the firm do and how is it paid? Who are the firm's clients, and what are their needs and problems?

* Find out about the firm's business priorities and financial constraints. Does your proposal address those priorities and can the firm afford what you are getting ready to propose?

* Get a clear understanding of the firm's budgeting and approvals process. The Finance Director should be your closest ally in preparing and selling your proposal to the Partners and Board.

Once you are well-grounded in the firm's business and the concerns of those running it, you'll find it much easier to identify projects that address the needs of the business and get them approved as a consequence.

Of course it is difficult to find the time necessary to prepare a winning proposal, especially if you have to prepare many such proposals and manage your operational budget. My experience as an IT Director of leading UK and international law firms and as an independent legal technology consultant had taught me that there are many other calls on your time, but I also know that the only way to ensure a success is to plan thoroughly.

If you find need help planning or managing a major project, selecting the right supplier, or preparing your annual budget feel free to check out more great resources at my web site:

http://www.legal-it.info/

Regards

Ian Lauwerys

The purpose of the project proposal

The project proposal defines your project. It sets out in simple terms:

* The problem that the project will address or the opportunity of which it will take advantage.
* The objectives of the project and how you will know if you have succeeded.
* The financial and non-financial benefits that the project will deliver.
* The likely costs of the project and the time-scales involved.

The proposal's main purpose is to communicate about the project to others. To do this, the proposal must be read and understood by a wide variety of audiences, for example the Board, the Partners, the fee-earners, your suppliers and your staff.

* Remember that a two-hundred page proposal and project plan isn't likely to be read by a busy Partner, still less understood and approved.

* Get straight to the point and use the type of language that they use. That way you'll avoid giving Partners wildly different and unrealistic expectations of what you're going to deliver, when and at what cost.

* If you can't sum up your project in five or six pages, your project is probably too big to be a (total) success. Reduce the scope of the project - the things that you will do, or reduce the scale - the people, time and money involved.

* Remember that you can always propose phase two of a project on the back of a triumphant phase one. On the other hand, rescuing a failing project by moving the goalposts or scaling down the project doesn't count as a success unless one is in government!

* You will need a detailed project planning documents later, and this can easily run to hundreds (or thousands) of pages, but save it for the people who care! Even when dealing with your project team and your suppliers, you'll probably need to distil the essential facts into more digestible communications.

A well written project proposal is a vital negotiating tool, used to gain understanding between you and the Partners in the firm. Be prepared to go back to the drawing board as many times as it takes in order to get agreement about what that the project is supposed to be doing.

You might like to think of the project proposal as 'the plan to create the plan'. Many projects fail because those involved assume that the project plan can be devised in its entirety right at the start of the project and never be revisited.

Your project will have far too little information about pretty much everything when it starts. The first quarter to half of a typical project should be all about figuring out exactly how you are going to meet your objectives.

What to include in the proposal

During the early part of your project, a good proposal must include the following:

* The request for approval. Tell the executive decision-makers exactly what you are asking for.
* The problem or opportunity. Sum up why the project is necessary at all.
* The project scope. The things that are included in the project and, often more importantly, the things that definitely aren't included.
* The project objectives. What the project must achieve, and constitutes success.
* The project schedule. How and when the project will meet its objectives. Keep this simple and very high level.

You will not have enough information to be prescriptive at the early stage.

* The project oversight structure. How will the project be managed, and how the Partners will be sure that the project is on track.
* The detailed planning budget. How much will it cost to investigate the problem and find the solution?
* The estimated implementation budget. Again keep this simple and high level. You won't have a definite budget until you've completed planning, selected a supplier and negotiated the contract.
* The statement of benefits. Summarise the anticipated financial and non-financial benefits to the firm and to the project stakeholders in particular. Focus on each person's WIIFM's (What's In It For Me?) You'll need to devise a full business case during the detailed planning phase.

A plan of two parts

As you can see, a well-run project is planned and approved in two distinct phases. It is very important that you are clear with the stakeholders about the phase your proposal has reached.

In the first phase, a high level proposal of approximately six pages is prepared. It covers the detailed planning phase of the project in depth, and provides only approximate time-scales and costs for the implementation phase.
You are asking for a relatively small commitment of time, resources and money to investigate the problem properly. Project success relies on having a thorough and accurate project plan, and creating a decent plan can't be done for free.

The full project budget cannot be created until the second detailed planning phase, when you will be in possession of all the facts, and will know exactly what is required to implement the project. During the first phase, you can only provide estimates of costs based on experience and initial research.

If your phase one proposal is approved, you know that it is worth investing the time and effort it will take to complete the detailed planning phase. If not, you don't have to write off months of effort when you're sent back to the drawing board.

Be clear that the outcome of the detailed planning phase may well be that the project should be canned, and that this does not constitute failure. In fact it demonstrates sound management practice - investing a small amount of money to avoid wasting a large amount.

During the second phase of planning, detailed project planning documents will be prepared running to perhaps hundreds or thousands of pages, depending on the size of your project.

Once armed with the facts, you can prepare a new draft of your project proposal that summarises the detailed and reliable estimates of time-scales and costs that your planning work has generated. Again, keep it short!

Use this redrafted proposal seek final approval for your project. At this stage you are asking for a relatively large amount of time, resources and money, so don't skip over it.

Detailed planning requires a considerable amount of consultation with the various project stakeholders (not just the Partners). If you do this properly, everyone will begin to understand how the project will affect them.

If on the other hand you find you are being asked for more and more detailed explanations, you probably didn't consult properly during the planning phase, so be ready to back up a step.

Between the two planning phases the project's objectives and scope should not change.

If the objectives or scope of the project grow, the project is likely to fail as deadlines loom, budgets run out and the project is diverted from solving the problem.

Similarly, if the objectives or scope of the project are reduced and you fail to communicate this properly, the Partners will be disappointed, and the project will not deliver the benefits promised at the start.

If you find yourself facing a radically different beast at the end of the planning stage, either your initial assumptions and those of the Partners were wrong, or perhaps you've been sidetracked by the demands of particular individuals and departments.

You must sit down with the Partners and examine the reasons for any changes in scope or objectives. Business needs and priorities often change very rapidly.

It is okay for projects to change along with them, provided everyone fully understands what has changed, the reasons why and the impact on deliverables, costs and time-scales.

Task: Open the "Template - Project Proposal.doc" file and complete the "Introduction" section of your proposal (A completed example may be found in "Example - Project Proposal.pdf".).

State clearly for what you seeking approval and why.

Examine the problem

A number of events will have occurred that caused you or others to think that this project was necessary. These events may have resulted from a formal businesses strategy development process, or perhaps in a less structured manner around the coffee machine.

Talk to as many people as you can about the following things, and make plenty of notes:

* Identify the key business issues, focusing on what has changed already and what needs to change. What external and internal factors are driving the project? How quickly are they happening?
* Look for the positive as well as the negative. Problems often throw up new opportunities for the business.
* What will happen if nothing is done? How likely are the consequences and when will they occur?
* Map out the people, processes and systems that will need to change to fix the problem or take advantage of the opportunity.
* Review what you've discovered with Partners and other stakeholders throughout the planning phases.
Focus on high level issues for now, because that's the view that the Board and Finance Director will take of the firm and your project. You can fill in the details during the detailed planning phase.

Task: Complete the "About the problem/opportunity" section of your proposal.

State the problem (or opportunity) and the key business issues that are driving it. State the impact of the problem clearly, and in terms of customers, employees, costs and the growth of the business.

Determine the scope

Whilst identifying the problem or opportunity, you've probably formed a fairly good idea of the scope of the project. 'Scope' is simply a definition of the things that will either change as a direct consequence of the project, or will be affected in some way by the project:

* Think about the firm's clients. What are their expectations? How will your communicate with them about any changes they may see?
* Look at the firm's business processes. Think about the work processes of each department, and the links between departments, suppliers and clients.
* Examine the firm's IT and other systems. What can you change and what can't you change?
* Which departments, offices and people will be changed or affected by the project?
* Dig in to the hidden connections between people, processes and systems. Missing could have a huge impact on costs or time-scales down the line. Don't get too hung up on this step until the detailed planning stage though.
* Think very carefully about the things that definitely aren't included. Partners may have expectations that they don't tell you about because they seem 'obvious' to them.

Task: Complete the "Scope of the project" section of your proposal.

Define the scope clearly in terms of systems, processes and most importantly the people that will be affected. Make it very clear where the boundaries of the project lie and that if it isn't written in the plan, it won't be delivered.

Draw diagrams if they will make things clearer, and avoid technical jargon (but do describe things in the terms that the Partners use).

Set objectives

You can now draw up a list of objectives for the project. Just as you do when you set objectives for individuals in your team, strive to make your project objectives SMART:

* Specific: Break things down into clearly defined targets.
* Measurable: Use concrete metrics that show objective has been met. You can use financial or non financial indicators (e.g. customer satisfaction).
* Achievable: Projects require objectives that can be achieved, not goals to which one merely aspires.
* Realistic: Be honest with yourself about the time and money that is likely to be available for your project.
* Time-bound: Set a clear deadline for achieving each objective.

As well as stating the objectives of your project, you must state clearly what constitutes success for each objective. Do so in unambiguous terms and using measures that are well understood by the Partners.

Setting the project objectives is the first key point of negotiation for your project so discuss and agree the conditions of satisfaction with the Partners. You cannot proceed much further until the Partners agree with you and each other about what needs to be done.

Negotiation about objectives also draws the Partners in to the project. You'll need their support later when things get tough during implementation.

Task: Complete the "Project objectives" section of your proposal.

Set SMART objectives and be very clear about what success means for each objective.

Communicate and negotiate with the Partners about project objectives.

Work out the project schedule

This next step is to set out how you are likely to plan and implement the project. You probably won't have sufficient information to produce a highly detailed implementation plan during the first planning phase.

Instead lay out some high-level project phases with reference to the objectives that were set in the previous section. You should base your estimated time-scales on your previous experience of similar projects if possible, or seek advice from consultants, suppliers and your contacts within and outside the firm.

Avoid being too detailed or prescriptive about your project approach during the first planning phase. You may end up painting yourself into a corner or blinding yourself to new opportunities to do things differently. In my experience, there are always multiple solutions for even the most 'obvious' of problems.

Your project schedule could be a simple list of activities and dates, or something more complex created using project planning software. For the initial planning phase, a simple list of project phases and estimated delivery dates are sufficient.

If your project is large or complex, you may need the assistance of a dedicated project manager to create and manage your project plan during the detailed planning and implementation phases.
Time-scales are the second key point of negotiation for your project so again discuss and agree the time-scales with the Partners.

Task: Complete the "Project schedule" section of your proposal.

Draw up high-level phases and state clearly when each objective will be satisfied.

Communicate and negotiate with the Partners about project time-scales.

Project oversight

The most successful projects have two key management structures. Ask the key Partners who are most closely involved in initiating the project to assist you with setting up these management structures.

Firstly the project should have a project sponsor. This should be a senior and respected Partner who will be closely involved in the project throughout planning and implementation.

The role of the project sponsor is to support to the project in meeting its objectives.

Change in any form is a difficult process for all of us. The ideal project sponsor will have experience, authority and wisdom in equal measures:

* Experience to address valid issues when they are raised.
* Authority to push through change when the objections are not valid.
* Wisdom to know the difference!

The second key management structure is the project steering committee. This is made up of Partners and other stakeholders, (senior individuals affected by the project).

The role of the steering committee is to ensure that project meets its objectives.

It may not be necessary to form a dedicated steering committee unless yours is a large project. There will usually be an existing group or committee that can fulfil this role and most Partners won't welcome yet another series of non-chargeable meetings.

Ensure that the steering committee:

* Meets regularly.
* Has sufficient time to deal properly with steering the project.
* Has sufficient authority to obtain resources for the project.
* Is representative of the stakeholders.

The project team

As with the project schedule, you may not have enough information to draw up a structure for the project team during the initial planning phase. If you do have a reasonable idea, include a structure chart and describe the responsibilities of each role.

Task: Complete the "Project oversight" section of your proposal.

Draw up a chart of the oversight structure (and project structure if appropriate). Describe the responsibilities of each role.

Ask specifically for the sponsor and steering committee to be appointed, putting forward suggested names if appropriate.

Build the budget

During the first phase of planning your project, your budget should specify the costs for the detailed planning phase. Include:

* The costs of researching your project with other firms and suppliers.
* Communication and consultation with Partners and other stakeholders.
* Hiring a consultant or project manager to advise you and help with the detailed project plan if needed.

You should also estimate of the costs for the implementation phase of the project. Make it clear that this is an estimate, and detailed planning will generate accurate costings. Include the costs of:

* Hiring staff, including temporary cover for project team members.
* Professional services, e.g. consultants and legal advice.
* Office space, equipment and consumables.
* Hardware, software and implementation services.
* Project finance costs (e.g. leasing).

Task: Open the "Template - Project Budget.xls" file and complete it. (A completed example may be found in the "Example - Project Budget.pdf" file).

State the benefits

Include an outline business case for the project, setting out the costs vs. the financial benefits of the project. Again this is only an estimate, and detailed models are required later. Don't forget to re-iterate the non-financial benefits of the project.

During the detailed planning phase, you will need to build detailed models of costs based on the project plan and supplier tenders, and a full business case modelled on the research that you have conducted.

Costs are the third and final area of negotiation for your project. Again you need to discuss and agree reasonable costs for the project with the Partners.

Task: Complete the "The benefits" section of your proposal.

Summarise the financial and non-financial benefits of the project vs. the estimated costs.

Summarise the proposal

Convince your audience to read your proposal by summarising it in an executive summary of three or four paragraphs.

Task: Complete the "Executive summary" section of your proposal.

Summarise what you are asking for and the key features and benefits of your proposal in three or four paragraphs.
Review the proposal

Ensure that you review drafts of your project proposal with the Partners regularly during the planning phases. Try to do this face-to-face, otherwise your draft documents probably won't be read until it's too late to address significant objections.

A regular review process is your best opportunity to negotiate about and communicate the project's scope, objectives, timescales and costs. In the real world, there is no such thing as the "ideal" solution.

Ultimately you have to strike the best balance possible between the project's scope and objectives and the amount of time, money and effort needed to deliver those objectives.

It is unlikely that any two Partners will have an identical view of what constitutes the correct balance of these project variables. Frankly, only time and experience of Partnership politics will teach you the best methods of resolving these differences of opinion.

Obtain approval

Once you and the Partners are satisfied with it, you should seek executive approval for your project proposal.
You should discuss your proposal with each decision-maker on a one-to-one basis before presenting it to the full Board or Management Committee. This will avoid unexpected objections on the day and hopefully turn the event into a formality.

If you're not confident presenting proposals to a senior audience such as this, get help in plenty of time. Review your proposal and presentation with colleagues, ask your HR department for some coaching or, dare I say it, give me a call!

There will almost certainly be some degree of dissent hanging over from the initial planning phase. It is vital that you get the right project sponsor and the steering committee appointed at this stage, in order to keep the project on track.

Task: Once approved, start communicating about your project as soon as possible.

Tailor your message and communicate with each group that will be affected by your project in some way.

Remember that communication is a two-way process!

Finally

Nothing stands still in the business world for long. We've all heard of projects that delivered their objectives only to be told "We don't need that any more". Establish a formal project change process that:

* Regularly compares the projects objectives against business requirements.
* Reviews the impact of changing objectives on project time-scales and costs.
* Approves or rejects those changes.
* Communicates important changes to Partners and other stakeholders.

I wish you every success with your project, and I hope that you find it an exciting challenge as well as a great learning experience!

(c) 2004-2008
www.legal-it.info

CIO Magazine: Dealing with legal technicalities (May 2007) - Gary Flood

Ian Lauwerys, IT director of law firm, Kennedys, explains the benefits of virtualisation when setting up a remote office.

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Case Study: Kennedys Virtualisation - Intercept IT

Accelerated business growth at law firm Kennedys has resulted in new offices and an influx of lawyers and other staff worldwide. Relocation of its three London offices to a central headquarters provided the ideal opportunity to upgrade its core IT infrastructure to meet the firm’s evolving demands. Working alongside Intercept, Kennedys overhauled its global data centres, implemented a resilient disaster recovery (DR) plan and improved remote working capabilities. The new facilities are projected to save the firm upwards of £350,000 a year.

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Introduction to Server Virtualisation

What is virtualisation and what are its benefits? This article first appeared in "Managing Partner" magazine, Volume 9 Issue 8, 2nd February 2007.

Download the full version including illustrations in PDF format below.

Virtualisation:reality

“Virtualisation” is the latest buzzword sweeping through the IT department, and unlike many over-hyped technology fads, it seems that this one really can deliver on its promises. As the 7,000 attendees of the VMWorld conference will attest, virtualisation is re-shaping the IT landscape.

The Fall and Rise of Virtualisation

Virtualisation was invented in the mainframe era of the 1960s in order to make better use of expensive computer resources. It is a technique for dividing one physical computer into several “virtual” computers, thus making it possible to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.

The technology had fallen out of favour by the mid ‘80s. For one thing the low cost of PC-based servers made mainframes irrelevant to all but the largest businesses. For another, improvements to server operating systems made it possible to undertake multiple tasks simultaneously on the same computer.

Virtualisation didn’t fade into complete obscurity however. Both Citrix and Microsoft’s Terminal Server products use virtualisation techniques to run desktop applications such as Word for multiple users on a single shared server. Forty years after it was invented however, the wheel has turned full circle and virtualisation is now solving the headaches of a new generation of server-based applications.

Too Much Power

Today’s IT department faces a new problem; computer power is cheaper than ever, but hard to make use of efficiently. Over its lifetime, your firm’s email or accounts server may only use 15% of its available capacity. This huge waste of resources has a direct impact on your firm’s bottom line.

For example, buying a fairly modest server, housing it in central London and operating it over a typical five year lifespan will cost your firm anywhere up to £10,000. Up to 75% of the money you put in to in capital investment, floor space and electricity is wasted.

Even a modest set-up of perhaps 20 servers will lose a firm £150,000 of profit over five years. This waste isn’t profligacy on the part IT department; rather it is a compromise designed to address a number of problems:

• Each server must have enough capacity to cope with peaks in demand which occur for a few hours in a day, or on a few days in a month. Your accounts server will be working at full stretch during the year-end billing run, but may spend much of the time idling along at 5% or 10% of its capacity. It will use nearly as much electrical power (and thus generate as much heat) when idle as when it is working at full capacity.
• Servers running several applications tend to be less reliable due to conflicts between those applications. Software vendors and IT teams prefer to install each application on its own server to guarantee that it will be available when the firm needs it.
• Managing the allocation of resources to different applications running on the same server is difficult. Applications compete for resources rather than being allocated them based on how important they are to your firm’s business.
• Moving an existing application that has outgrown the demands of its old server to a new one is expensive, risky and potentially disruptive to the business. IT departments sensibly over-specify servers to put the evil day off as long as possible.

Until now, the most pragmatic response to these challenges has been the “one application, one server” approach adopted by most IT departments but the result is unsatisfactory for both the IT department and the firm’s Partners.

The frustrations faced by Westminster firm Winckworth Sherwood are entirely typical. According to IT Manager Sam Luxford-Watts, “We were running out of space and available power in the server room. We were forced to purchase additional servers for each new project, yet we knew that many of the servers we already had were under-utilised.”

Virtualisation to the Rescue

At its heart, virtualisation is a relatively simple piece of software that pretends to be computer hardware. All that the IT team need to do is install some additional virtualisation software on a new server before installing the operating system in the usual manner (Microsoft Windows Server for example).

The extra virtualisation software fools the operating system into thinking it has exclusive control of the server’s processors, memory and disk drives and thus everything behaves exactly as it would in a normal installation. Virtualisation’s neat trick is that a second operating system can now be installed on the same server and it too thinks it has exclusive control of the hardware resources.

Multiple “virtual servers” can be created to make full use of the physical server’s capacity, whilst keeping each one isolated from the misdemeanours of other virtual servers on the same machine. One virtual server can crash or be re-started with no impact on its neighbours.

Just as usefully, each virtual server is entirely self-contained within a handful of (very large) files and, as we’ll see, this solves a number of previously intractable problems.

Quarts into Pint Pots

Virtualisation’s big planet (and wallet) saving benefit is that it eliminates energy-wasting equipment. The IT team can now install multiple virtual servers on a single box, and decide how much memory, processor and disk resource is allocated to each application.

Luxford-Watts reports “Virtualisation has enabled us to cut our physical servers from 22 to just seven. We found it hard to believe at first, but our systems are more responsive with less hardware, as we can now allocate resources to applications as they require them.”

Whilst the results achieved by Winckworth Sherwood are remarkable, they are by no means an exceptional case. According to Taylor Vinters’ Director of IT, Steve Sumner, “Our firm has achieved significant savings in space, power consumption and cooling requirements since we introduced virtualisation. Of our 41 main servers, half are now virtualised and run on just four physical boxes.”

VMWare, a leading vendor of virtualisation technology, estimates that its customers are currently running more than one million virtual servers, with estimated annual energy savings in excess of $560 million. Whilst that is about the same as the residents of New England spend each year on heating, ventilation and cooling, it’s just the tip of a very large (and melting) iceberg of potential energy savings.

Averting Disaster

Most applications have to be moved a new server at some point in their life. In the very worst case the equipment may have been destroyed by a fire or similar disaster, but often the cause is more a mundane problem such as breakdown or the need to move to a more powerful box as the firm grows.

Unfortunately, it is not a simple matter of copying everything from one server to another and hitting the “on” button. Configuring the operating system to support a new set of hardware is fraught with problems and the end result is often an unreliable server.

The usual solutions are either to pay a hefty premium to duplicate critical equipment at another location, or to spend several weeks re-installing everything from scratch. The latter approach never produces an exact match for the old system and isn’t an acceptable option in a disaster recovery situation.

By way of contrast, virtualisation presents a standardised set of “virtual hardware” to the operating system regardless of the underlying physical hardware. Moving a virtual server between completely different types of hardware is simply a matter of installing the virtualisation software and then copying the handful of virtual server files to the new machine.

Taylor Vinters; Sumner went on to say, “Operating from our single Cambridge site brings additional business continuity risks, and so we must replicate all key systems and data at an off-site location. Virtualisation has enabled my team to create this crucial safety net using just two physical servers located in a specialist data centre, once agan achieving considerable cost savings when compared with a traditional solution.”

In another example, one of two brand-new servers decided to break down in Kennedys’ recently opened Sydney office. It took us a matter of minutes to transfer all the virtual servers from the failed server to the remaining one. The fault was repaired and the virtual servers copied back again with no material impact on the firm’s business.

Virtualisation gives everyone the opportunity to achieve a level of resilience that was hitherto the preserve of only the largest firms. An entire IT set-up can be replicated using very modest amount of equipment and time.

Far-flung Outposts

The project to launch the Kennedys Sydney office also illustrates further benefits of the “hardware agnostic” nature of virtual servers. Flying out a large team of IT staff and suppliers to set up the systems for the new office was ruled out on grounds of cost and practicality. From previous experience, we knew that installing everything on hardware in the UK and then shipping it overseas was equally costly and would miss the opening deadline.

The solution was to build a set of six virtual servers in the UK using our experienced staff and suppliers. This enabled us to create a system of the highest standard and prove that it was fully working. At the same time a local IT supplier in Sydney procured and set up a pair of suitable servers plus the virtualisation software (in this case a product from VMWare).

The fully tried and tested virtual servers were copied to a backup tape and couriered down under. Three days later we had a the complete system up and running, right on schedule and for about 30% less than our cost estimates for a more traditional approach.

What’s more, because the virtual servers are just files, the process can be repeated effortlessly. According to Luxford-Watts “We set up all of our new servers by copying existing templates. We can create a new server in minutes with no set-up or configuration errors, which has drastically cut time to install new applications and upgrades.”

It is easy to see how having a complete set of IT systems packed and ready to go would save time and money in other scenarios, for example in a merger situation or the set up of a litigation support system for a major case.

Security Headaches Cured

One of the biggest headaches for any IT department is dealing with the increasing pace at which new security vulnerabilities are exploited. Major threats to the firm’s IT systems require the team to respond in a few hours or minutes rather than days or weeks. Since most specialist legal applications have exacting set-up requirements, the rush to address a new security threat carries a significant risk of breaking the very thing one is trying to protect.

Virtualisation makes it possible to take a copy of an existing server, apply a security patch and then test it in an isolated environment within a few minutes. If no problems are discovered, the updated server can be copied back in to the live system immediately.

According to Sumner, “Virtualisation has released us from this Catch-22 situation. We can maintain a high degree of security, whilst at the same time being confident of recovering immediately from unforeseen problems caused by a new security fix. For the firm’s partners, ensuring that systems are available when needed is far more important than any cost savings that we have achieved.”

The ability to quickly copy, update and test is also proving useful in more routine tasks. Luxford-Watts added “We were able to completely mirror our live email system on a test network and upgrade it to a new version without the need to purchase additional equipment. This entire upgrade was completed without any interruption to service.”

The Main Players

Unsurprisingly, virtualisation is the new battleground for software corporations and it is far too early predict who will emerge as the eventual winner. The two front-runners are Microsoft and VMWare (a subsidiary of computer storage giant EMC), with a whole host of others vying for a place at the head of the pack.

VMWare has a clear advantage in the speed with which it has innovated, helping it to grow from a start-up to a serious global player in just seven years. Offering a comprehensive range of in-house and third party-software for smoothing the transition to and managing the operation of a virtualised environment has made it a clear favourite with overworked IT managers.

Microsoft has been perhaps less innovative and is pursing its favourite market-domination strategy of buying up innovative technology companies, application virtualisation specialist Softricity being the most recent example. These newly acquired products are quickly assimilated and released at a low cost or as add-ons to Microsoft’s lucrative software assurance agreements.

Both main players have a range of products covering both the desktop and server virtualisation spheres, including a number of free products aimed at those dipping a toe in the water. VMWare’s more cohesive product range certainly inspires fervent devotion amongst users as witnessed at their VMWorld conference. The event was likened by some to a “Californian love-in for IT folk.”

Having a better product doesn’t guarantee success against Microsoft however, as erstwhile server giant Novell can attest. Regardless of the current uncertainty, virtualisation is being adopted rapidly by firms both small and large. The range of benefits obtained with little or no disruption makes it irresistibly attractive to both IT managers and Partners with an eye on the bottom line.

See the PDF version for additional sidebars and illustrations

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Legal Technology Journal: Destination Virtualisation (July 2008) - Joanna Goodman

IT director Ian Lauwerys explains how virtualisation has helped set up and integrate a series of new offices into Kennedys existing system in record time, while minimising costs and disruption to the business.

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Remote Office Virtualisation - VMware Case Study - Kennedys Sydney Office

Kennedys

Kennedys is one of the leading dispute resolution law firms in the City of London. The firm has 89 partners and six UK offices. Worldwide, Kennedys has offices in Spain, Dubai, Hong Kong and New Zealand and associated offices in the rest of the world. The firm is a major player in the insurance/reinsurance dispute resolution field and also has works in areas such as employment law, clinical negligence, and company and commercial law. The firm’s clients include many of the world’s leading insurers.

The challenge

Kennedys required a new office in Sydney, Australia, but setting up the specialist applications used in the legal environment would be time-consuming, and resources to support the roll-out were limited. Ian Lauwerys, IT Director for Kennedys, was sure that there was a faster and more efficient solution.

Lauwerys decided that a virtualized approach would be the answer. Because the applications within virtual machines are independent of the physical hardware, Kennedys could build the virtualized servers in the UK and have the project installation completed by a local partner, avoiding having to send UK staff across. Kennedys would save on hardware and shipping costs, while the overall length of time spent on the full roll-out was reduced from about eighteen months to three.

This case study was first published by VMware.

Download the PDF version.

Solution

Using VMware, the installation of applications was carried out in the UK and completed by a local partner in Australia. This process was completed in three months, and significantly faster than previous physical offices had been implemented

Deployment environment

• VMware® ESX Server 2.5
• VMware® VirtualCenter 1.5
• VMware ESX Server and VMware VirtualCenter
• Two HP DL385, with 8 GB RAM and two dualcore CPUs
• One HP DL380 with 2 GB RAM and one CPU
• Applications deployed include SQL Server, Exchange Server 2003 and BlackBerry Enterprise Server, as well as specialist legal applications such as Tikit, BigHand and Claimbase

Results

• Complete set up of new office in Australia took only three months. Previous roll-outs took six months to be installed, while completing the entire installation process would take even longer
• Roll-out of legal applications was completed by experienced staff at head office, eliminating travel costs
• Server hardware required reduced by 50%
• Overall costs for completing installation of new office reduced by up to 50%
• Using virtual machines ensures that there is no downtime for applications, even in the event of a physical hardware failure
• Scalability of solution means that Kennedys can meet its growth targets - the Sydney office is now equipped to support over 75 staff
• In future, completing new office roll-outs will be faster - Lauwerys estimates that each one will take about a month from start to finish

© 1998-2007 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Protected by one or more U.S. Patents Nos. 6,397,242, 6,496,847, 6,704,925, 6,711,672, 6,725,289, 6,735,601, 6,785,886, 6,789,156, 6,795,966, 6,880,022, 6,944,699, 6,961,806, 6,961,941, 7,069,413, 7,082,598, 7,089,377, 7,111,086, 7,111,145, 7,117,481, 7,149, 843 and 7,155,558; patents pending. VMware, the VMware “boxes” logo and design, Virtual SMP and VMotion are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

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Storage Virtualisation - Hitachi Solutions - Kennedys Data Centre

Hitachi Data Systems Success Story

Accelerated business growth at insurance law firm Kennedys has resulted in new offices and an influx of lawyers and other staff worldwide. Consolidation of its London offices to a new headquarters in London provided the ideal opportunity to upgrade its core IT infrastructure to meet the firm’s changing IT demands and future requirements. As part of a data centre overhaul, Kennedys deployed a Hitachi Data Systems storage solution to support both its escalating data requirements and business continuity. The new disaster recovery plan alone has saved it £200,000 per year.

“Working alongside Hitachi partner Intercept, we’ve successfully overhauled our core IT infrastructure. Not only that, but we’ve done it without disruption to our employees and clients, we’ve done it to budget and we’ve done it to deadline.” Ian Lauwerys, IT Director, Kennedys.

This case study first appears on the Hitachi Data Systems Partner Marketing site.

Download the PDF version.

Hitachi Storage Helps Law Firm Kennedys Keep Pace with Business Success

Kennedys is a global law firm headquartered in the City of London that specialises in litigation and dispute resolution. The firm has expanded steadily over the last 15 years, largely as a result of organic growth, and it is now firmly established as a major player in the insurance/ reinsurance dispute resolution field. Today, Kennedys boasts an impressive client list, including many of world’s leading insurers who are served by the law firm’s 100+ partners and 600+ employees around the world.

The last five years in particular have seen accelerated growth at Kennedys as it has opened new offices in Australia, Singapore, Spain, Dubai and the UK to accommodate the increase in business and influx of new partners, lawyers and support staff. The firm, which prides itself on its commitment to innovation through technology, needed to upgrade its IT system to keep pace with its fast growing business. When Kennedys decided to relocate its three London offices to a new headquarters building in the City’s Square Mile, it recognised the move as the perfect opportunity to undertake a major upgrade of the firm’s data centres, which acted as the hub of IT services for its network of UK and international offices.

IT Director at Kennedys, Ian Lauwerys, elaborates: “Some of the court cases we handle have tens or even hundreds of millions of pounds resting on them. Consequently, it’s imperative our legal experts have fast and reliable access to key documents and information wherever and whenever they need them. We simply cannot tolerate system outages that impact on information delivery.”

He continues: “As a firm, we’ve always been early adopters of technology. For instance, when we opened a new office in Sydney a couple of years ago we used virtualisation technology for a fast rollout of our IT infrastructure. However, there was no denying that our onsite data centre and remote backup site were reaching their limits in terms of capacity, performance and reliability. It made a lot of sense to refresh our storage and server platforms as part of the relocation project.”

Kennedys was also keen to bring its disaster recovery strategy in house. The firm was carrying out backups using a managed backup service to a remote data centre, which, while effective, was extremely costly.

Evaluating the Options

Lauwerys and the IT department began a thorough evaluation process to select an IT partner to help them with the relocation of the IT infrastructure. After much analysis, the team selected Intercept, a company which specialises in delivering virtual IT infrastructures and which already had a strong track record in successfully delivering IT services to Kennedys — including the Sydney office virtualisation project.

“There were many reasons for choosing Intercept, over and above their track record with us,” explains Lauwerys. “Ultimately, they proposed the most compelling data centre and disaster recovery solutions, both of which were underpinned with Hitachi storage.”

Kennedys placed great importance on the storage element of the total solution, so Lauwerys’ team spent months independently evaluating various storage vendors. It was essential the chosen storage solution could handle the law firm’s escalating data requirements, boost application performance and significantly enhance its disaster recovery strategy. “Our legacy system was based on aging DotHill SANs but we knew we needed to move up to an enterprise-class solution. We looked at all the big storage vendors, IBM, NetApp and EMC, for example, but Hitachi Data Systems emerged as the clear winner time and time again,” explains Lauwerys. “It was reassuring for us that Intercept was a partner of Hitachi Data Systems and that Hitachi was its storage provider of choice.”

The Deployment Begins…

Locating a data centre at Kennedys’ new headquarters in the heart of London’s financial district would have been expensive, so the firm decided to base its central IT infrastructure offsite in two data centres, one acting as the primary site, the other as a disaster recovery site.

Together, IT staff at Kennedys and Intercept consultants deployed seven HP ProLiant servers running VMware in the new data centres — an impressive consolidation from the previous 40 servers. Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 1000 systems were also installed at each site, providing enterprise-class storage. The migration from the legacy infrastructure to the new virtualised environment went extremely smoothly, with no disruption or interruption of service experienced by Kennedys’ 600+ staff.

The Benefits Roll In

After just a few months in the new headquarters, Kennedys was already reaping huge benefits. With the new Hitachi-based storage area network, the average backup window has been halved. Explains Lauwerys: “The volume of data we need to back up is growing exponentially, but we have to do it for business continuity reasons. In the past, we’ve been worried about backups disrupting other IT systems and application delivery, but with the Hitachi solution in place, we have plenty of capacity and performance.”

Kennedys estimates that its new disaster recovery strategy alone is saving it £200,000 each year. With the latest solution, a Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 1000 system at the disaster recovery site holds a mirrored copy of all the data (such as legal documents, databases, files and e-mails) stored at the primary site. The frequency with which data is replicated is determined by the importance of the business application — financial information, for example, is copied hourly. “With the disaster recovery plan that Intercept developed and put in place, we’re better protected and at a fraction of the cost,” says Lauwerys.

The benefits of the virtualised server environment are also clear to see. By significantly reducing its pool of physical servers, Kennedys is saving money at the new data centres through reduced power consumption, cooling requirements and floor space. Furthermore, the virtualised server environment is far simpler to manage and provides maximum resiliency, resulting in highly available applications. Relying on Hitachi as an established leader in storage virtualisation, Kennedys expects to leverage this expertise in the near future, as its infrastructure becomes increasingly virtualised.

“Once again, the experience of working with Intercept has been a success from start to finish,” says Lauwerys. "They have provided excellent consultancy and have strived to transfer as much of their knowledge and skills as possible. This really empowers my team and enables Kennedys to take our infrastructure to the next level.”

Lauwerys concludes: “Working alongside Hitachi partner Intercept, we’ve successfully overhauled our core IT infrastructure. Not only that, but we’ve done it without disruption to our employees and customers, we’ve done it to budget and we’ve done it to deadline.”

About Intercept

Based in the UK, Intercept focuses on helping companies of all sizes reap the rewards of virtualised IT and unified communications. It collaborates with clients to reduce costs, improve user performance and increase business agility. The company has years of real world experience designing innovative solutions to fit client needs, all delivered with exceptional tailored support. Intercept has virtualised over 3,000 servers, over 100,000 desktops and more than 2,000 different applications in 30 languages, realising millions of pounds worth of savings to its customers. Some 60,000 users rely on Intercept’s managed and online services. As specialists in delivering virtual IT infrastructure, Intercept consultants are different. Working alongside leading technology companies, like Hitachi Data Systems, and using the most resilient, scalable and high-performing technology available today, Intercept’s solutions empower client teams to get the very most out of their information and communications technologies (ICT) investment.

Hitachi is a registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd., in the United States and other countries. Hitachi Data Systems is a registered trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd., in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, service marks and company names mentioned in this document or Web site are properties of their respective owners. Notice: This document is for informational purposes only, and does not set forth any warranty, express or limited, concerning any equipment or service offered or to be offered by Hitachi Data Systems. This document describes some capabilities that are conditioned on a maintenance contract with Hitachi Data Systems being in effect, and that may be configuration dependent and features that may not be currently available. Contact your local Hitachi Data Systems sales office for information on feature and product availability. © Hitachi Data Systems Corporation 2008. All Rights Reserved. SS-152-00 DG November 2008.

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The Servers are in the Post

Kennedys uses virtualisation to open new Sydney office.

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Onyx CRM Case Study

Interliant Customer Story Legal and Financial Needs

Highlights

• UK-wide legal firm with 10 offices and over 600 staff
• Managed Windows 2000 web servers linked into an Onyx CRM system
• Tightly integrated system for customer service and sales
• 24x7 monitoring and management of the web servers, networks and security systems
• Frees up internal IT resources for other projects
• Onyx implementation and integration services

An integrated CRM and web environment for improved customer service and sales

Russell Jones & Walker (RJW) is a leading national firm of solicitors with a number of offices around the UK. The firm focuses on individuals, not corporate clients, working largely with membership organisations such as trade unions, associations and affinity groups. RJW specialises in personal injury, clinical negligence, employment, fraud and libel.

In order to face increased competition, RJW launched a specialist company called Legal and Financial Needs Ltd (LFN). This would allow for even more targeted marketing of their competitively priced products to membership organisations of all types.

LFN contracted Interliant to work with them to implement, integrate and host the web environment. “We have to make the offer when we first deal with the customer, not later. We must respond quickly and efficiently if we are to sell the higher value product that make us most margin.”

Ian Lauwerys, Head of IT

Russell Jones & Walker (RJW) was facing an increasingly competitive market, with the introduction of conditional fee arrangements, commonly known as 'no win no fee'. RJW's legal services to members of its affinity group clients were being challenged, as the individual member now had high profile alternative suppliers vying to undertake their legal claim.

Financial services and insurance companies were also targeting the affinity group market, directly competing with the work that RJW was undertaking for its customer organisations. In order to face this increased competition, a new specialist company called Legal and Financial Needs Ltd (LFN) was launched. The plan was that LFN would go into partnership with membership organisations and provide quality legal and financial services under the membership organisation's own name directly to its members.

"The project is unique in offering a legal and financial services 'one stop shop' on a large scale to ordinary people," said Ian Lauwerys, Head of IT at RJW. "The systems and processes were difficult to set up because nobody had done anything quite like this before.

The regulatory environment was extremely complex, yet we have successfully demonstrated that the systems are completely independent. Overall, it is the most successful project in which I have ever been involved."

Managing customer relationships within multiple brands

The ability to manage customer relationships whilst maintaining the brand identity of the affinity organisation itself was fundamental. High volume services such as will-writing are relatively low margin, so efficient sales and fulfilment processes were also an essential consideration. Customers can thereafter be offered slightly higher margin products, such as mortgages and insurance. Over time, as the relationship builds the products can be offered higher value products that are not often required, such as higher value investments, trust funds, retirement planning or litigation for personal injury or negligence.

"Success depends upon efficient business processes to get the best margin and to provide excellent customer service," said Lauwerys. "This involves bringing together a range of legal and financial products with a wide range of applications and manual processes."

LFN needed a customer relationship management (CRM) solution, and decided that Onyx Software offered the best solution, but didn't have the time or staff to implement it internally. LFN approached Interliant to implement the Onyx system on Legal and Financial Needs own servers. Also, being a global Managed Infrastructure Provider, LFN asked Interliant to provide managed hosting services for a series of linked web sites, one for each membership organisation. These would be secure and reliable extensions of the CRM system using a single template to offer LFN's products and services with the look and feel of each of the membership organisations own web sites.

Automating the whole customer services process

The system automates the whole customer service process, running the web sites and a whole series of product applications. When somebody calls, it displays their customer record and the organisation they belong to, so that they can be offered the correct branded services. The agent moves into the product application to make the sale and the details are then captured back into the CRM system, to record the lifetime value of each customer.

The web sites act as a customer portal into the same system, so that customers can view their own records, see details of their products, make enquiries and get details of new products. The whole system is supported by only four on-site IT staff.

The company is already beginning to achieve a tenfold increase in efficiency in selling some of their products through improved business processes. "The system is cutting out huge chunks of time," says Lauwerys. "For certain key products it has reduced one four hour process to just ten minutes."

"Interliant used its experience and knowledge of the industry combined with Onyx's software to give us a working system in just three months," concluded Lauwerys. "The business now has the tools it needs and we can now give customers such good service on lower value products that they will come back to us for higher value products."

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