Sector: Legal
Impact: Local
Business Opportunity
Last year Ian Forrester took on a new job with Swinburne Maddison solicitors in Durham, as Practice Manager. It was soon obvious to him that the firm just wasn't getting the best out of its computer systems.
Ian recalls: "What I needed was for someone to take an informed look at what we had, where we wanted to go, and tell us how to achieve it at minimum cost. Clearly the solution had to be reliable - our business involves producing paperwork and moving money, and if anything stops that happening, it's very bad news."
The firm enlisted the help of Ray Broadbridge, a TMB accredited adviser, from Nectar Electronics who are a one-stop shop for IT supply and support in the North-East.
Business Solution
To establish the full range of requirements expected from a computer system, Ray's first step was to find out what the people actually using it expected.
Ray says:
"When I talked to the users at Swinburne Maddison I found they didn't want anyone to interfere with their computers or stop them from using their favourite versions of old word processing software. They had put up with the server crashing 3 times a week, they each knew the idiosyncrasies of their own systems, and they had a lot of work to do before the post went!"
E-mail and internet facilities were identified as a another vital requirements - the firm had so far managed without it, but an increasing number of clients and other practices now expected to be able to send solicitors their documents via the Internet. Access to a wealth of up-to-date legal information appealed to the partners.
Ray helped Ian develop a plan which involved replacing the oldest hardware, upgrading where it was practicable, and starting afresh from the software point of view with the same version of Windows and the same application software on everyone's machine. To make the users feel comfortable with this, it had to be done with minimum disruption and taking great care not to loose someone's favourite template for a deed of covenant.
Aside from word processing, Swinburne Maddison use some specialist software for accounting. "My greatest fear", said Ian, "Was that I might be stuck in the middle of a fight between the hardware supplier and the software guys when things went wrong. Nectar's staff avoided that by talking to the software firm at the outset, and making sure that everyone understood what was happening."
Benefits
With some 30 workstations, it would not make economic sense for Swinburne Maddison to employ a dedicated IT support person. However, every business needs to know where it can turn for sensible advice, and rapid help if things do go wrong. The link between adviser and client can be just this sort of beneficial relationship.
Ian sums this up:
"Having a working partnership with Nectar means that even if I'm away from the office, I can rely on them to fix any serious problems without wrecking my system or upsetting the staff"