Combine the technologies supporting three law firms into one system so they work as if in a single location, but remain in separate offices – in seven weeks! CommArc’s teamwork and attention to detail made it happen.
Combine the technologies supporting three law firms into one
system so they work as if in a single location, but in fact remain
in separate offices. That's the challenge a Dunedin law firm
offered CommArc, with just seven weeks notice and a weekend to
implement the merger, during a very busy period for the law firms
involved.
The three Dunedin law firms involved in the merger used similar
systems, but the devil was in the detail. The minor differences
needed plenty of coaxing and testing to ensure they connected
seamlessly.
After many hours of planning and offsite preparation, the
CommArc team arrived from Christchurch on the Friday afternoon and
set to work with the practice management system's suppliers to
integrate the three systems. As they worked long hours over the
weekend, movers were shifting furniture and equipment around the
new office orientation set up by the partners as part of the
merger. The Practice Manager and a small team of volunteers from
the staff were on hand to assist with additional information
required, testing, ferrying people between sites and providing home
baking and much-needed energy drinks!
The project involved a Ctirix Metaframe infrastructure, with the
firms' existing servers being merged and reconfigured to support a
Citrix thin client network.
CommArc utilised all of the existing servers, changing Internet
domain names and setting up each of the 11 partners and 44 staff
members' computers and peripherals such as printers, scanners and
fax systems along with all the software supporting the system. They
also advised on how to integrate the best of each firm's previous
IT policies into the new system.
Once the system was set up, CommArc devoted the reminder of the
weekend to extensive testing.
The practice manager was on tenterhooks on the Monday morning as
staff came into work and logged on. "The system worked straight
away", she says. "Everyone had all their data, their email and
Outlook setup and were able to go about their work".
She believes the technology infrastructure installed by CommArc
is the best of its kind, the results showing in the quality of
service delivery to the law firms' clients.
She says she learned a lot from working with the CommArc team.
"Their reputation is on the line, they give everything 100%, and I
think they really love what they do. CommArc ensured that all staff
including those responsible for day-to-day maintenance of the
system, had the necessary training and written instructions. They
are good at explaining systems in plain English and are just a
phone call away."
"It was amazing to see those people work together in a very
stressful situation. It was like brothers and sisters getting in
and working like a family. They are like building blocks - you
could put any two together and they would work well together."