Law And IT Order

David Gibson is the epitome of what a small-business IT department embodies. At the Encino, Calif.-based personal-injury law firm of Steinbrecher & Associates, Gibson does double duty. He is officially the firm's chief investigator, but he also serves as the IT go-to guy. Although he considers technology his "hobby," he oversees the technology needs for the company's employees.

Small businesses often come up against some unique challenges when dealing with IT. And with limited IT department resources and time, they're looking for a slam-dunk solution and a partner who can make it happen quickly. Standardization was crucial for Steinbrecher; the firm was in desperate need of consistent hardware and software across the business.

At Steinbrecher & Associates, Gibson relies heavily on his trusty partner, West Los Angeles-based solution provider Afinety. After having problems with a previous partner, Gibson turned to Afinety for the gamut--desktop PCs, software, networking and network monitoring.

"We had an outside IT company for about seven or eight years, but when we needed something done, it took days and weeks to get someone out here," Gibson says. "That's what prompted us to look for a new IT company."

Updating Aging Equipment

Gibson had heard good things about Afinety through an industry group--the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA)--so he decided to set up a meeting. At the time, in November 2004, Steinbrecher was running on mainly cloned computers, with no standard operating system and a slew of software from Windows 98 to XP. Afinety started off by coming in to evaluate the firm's desktop situation, then devised a proposal for what the firm needed. Gibson went through Afinety's references and discovered that when the company recommends something, it's "practically gold."

"It was not forced on us, like you have to get this, but we went with practically everything they recommended," he adds.

Doug Hafford, vice president of consulting services at Afinety, says the law firm was basically in need of a situation where they "can come in, work and go home, and their computers disappear essentially." He adds that smaller customers typically don't have the time nor the resources to be worrying about their desktops. "If the computers are inefficient, require a lot of money to maintain or cause productivity losses, that hits smaller businesses hard," he says.

At Afinety's suggestion, Gibson was advised to consider having the solution provider take over monitoring the firm's computers and network around the clock. Gibson was sold, especially with the idea of having problems fixed in moments rather than weeks. "The fact that somebody was there for us was very important," he says.

Gibson signed on for 16 HP dc5000 desktops running Windows Professional, as well as Afinety's off-site system-monitoring service, which uses HP OpenView and Systems Insight Manager remote management software. The deal covered more than $50,000 for the initial products, as well as an ongoing monthly monitoring contract.

"One of the biggest selling points was their ability to watch us around the clock, as well as the technical support they provide," Gibson explains. Afinety also set up remote access for Steinbrecher's at-home workers via an HP server and a spam filter. "We had had big problems in the past with spam," Gibson says. "We do a lot of legal research, and if you go to one bad Web site, that's it."

The implementation of the new desktops and monitoring, which happened in December, was a piece of cake, Gibson says. Afinety spent about five days installing the software and preparing the desktops for installation. Then the solution provider went to the firm's office on a Friday, pulled out all the old desktops and by Monday morning, everyone was ready to go.

Afinety's Hafford says that he prefers to work with HP equipment because he gets "far better results." And while he will work with whatever his customers want, even a Dell or a white box, HP's warranty and responsiveness make the vendor his favorite. "We can easily walk up the ladder at HP because they all know us, and they pay attention to us," he says.

Naturally, monitoring the law firm's network means an early morning for Afinety, but a smooth start to the workday for its customers. Afinety starts the day at 5:30 a.m. by viewing all of its monitored networks. "We look at a list of all the servers, and we get a green light if everything is fine. A yellow light means we need to drill down and see where the source of the problem is--for example, if a fan is wobbling somewhere," Hafford says.

Afinety prides itself on being able to address most problems before clients even sit down at their desks in the morning. "By 8 a.m. we've made sure that their e-mail works, every server is up and running and healthy, and we check their backup and make sure it was executed successfully," he says. "We can even warn customers when they do dumb things like forget to put a tape in." Hafford says software patches for Microsoft updates can also be automatically installed through their network-monitoring service.

"They can come to work and know the network is going to work," he adds. "Unless it's a hardware issue, we don't ever have to go to the client site, and there is no minimum service call. They get their services within a couple of minutes of when they call in if they have a problem."

Catering to the Little Guy

Afinety's Hafford says that it's important to keep in mind that small businesses are big networkers--they talk to each other and ask for references. "Law firms have an incredible network with the ALA, and we actually get a lot of business through that," Hafford says.

Gibson says that, going forward, he'll continue to use Afinety for any other IT needs as well.

"If we have a question about an upgrade, we'll call them. If we're looking to buy laptops or digital hardware or software, we'll consult with them," he says. "It takes so much of the stress off of me and everybody else because we don't have to worry about the computers going down. It eliminates a lot of downtime."

Gibson is also happy with the fact that Afinety often works with smaller businesses and understands their needs. "We always have a rep we can call if we need something," he says.

In addition, smaller companies have their own sets of priorities, Hafford says. "An IT director at a smaller business usually has been given, say, seven priorities. At the top is strategy and looking at what's going to make them more efficient in the future. At the very bottom of those priorities will be break/fix and going over to help Margie because her mouse doesn't work," he explains. "But what happens is they spend all the time doing the No. 7 priority and never get to the No. 1."

The challenge? To help those companies get their priorities and the time spent on them back where they should be. And, generally, you get a happier customer as well, because they're able to focus on things that are more satisfying to them in their career, Hafford says.