Becker & Poliakoff
By Alan Becker
Who are you?
Becker & Poliakoff
(954) 987-7550
www.becker-poliakoff.com
Becker & Poliakoff is a Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based firm
with 94 attorneys. The firm has 15 offices throughout
Florida and affiliated offices in New York and overseas. For a complete list of practice areas, visit www.beckerpoliakoff.com/areas_of_practice.
Network Operating System
Becker & Poliakoff is a law firm that embraces technological innovations to benefit our attorneys and clients. We use a blend of operating systems, including Novell, Microsoft and Linux, with Novell as our primary network operating system and Novell GroupWise as our e-mail client. Novell provides user authentication and access to file and print services. We also employ Novell Zenworks for applications deployment and remote desktop management. The use of Zenworks has allowed us to limit the frequency of Information Technology staff traveling to our remote offices for software reinstallation, application management or PC imaging. All 300-plus users on the wide area network have Pentium 4 class IBM computers and use Microsoft Windows XP Professional. The computers are linked through a Multiprotocol Label Switching wide area network that can support voice, data and video to readily exchange information between staff, offices and clients.
Hardware/Office Equipment
The network consists mainly of IBM xSeries servers along with IBM NetVista workstations. We essentially are an IBM shop. Our network consists of a number of remote offices with various practice-specific applications that are managed remotely through Zenworks. By assigning users to specific policy-based groups, we can deliver and control their access to any of the applications installed on their desktops or on the network. For those users who prefer to use a laptop instead of a desktop, a similar policy is applied. Our attorneys that employ personal digital assistants, such as Palm Treo- or Research In Motion BlackBerry-type devices, also are supported for e-mail and limited access to network resources via Citrix XP.
Software
Our core software group includes Microsoft Office 2003 for our word processing and presentation needs, Interwoven DeskSite for document management, CMS Open for time and billing, and LexisNexis’ InterAction, which is our client relationship management application. Running in the background of the time and billing program is Equitrac Professional Enterprise Edition version 4.62 as our cost recovery application.
Equitrac consists of a proprietary set of applications and services geared toward cost recovery, from document photocopying and faxing to telephone calls. It consists of hardware and software that works together to interface with copy and fax machines and the Station Message Detail Recording of telephone systems (i.e., extension call records). The costs recovered from these transactions have paid for the Equitrac equipment many times over.
How did you implement this technology,
and how much did it cost?
Equitrac has been in place at the firm for many years. Up until about six or seven years ago, we still were using very old equipment and a DOS operating system. We also were manually entering a great portion of our fax transactions into our time and billing system. This exceeded 500 faxes per day. The firm has since gone through two upgrades, the first of which cost just less then $100,000 and the latter of which cost approximately $72,000. These upgrades involved replacing the older terminals with Internet Protocol terminals in the remote offices and installing a centralized server.
The move to newer versions of the software allowed us to migrate from a dispersed, remote server environment to a centralized enterprise server and Internet Protocol terminals. Having the centralized server with remote IP terminals proved invaluable, especially for remote management of the terminals. Not only does it allow Becker & Poliakoff’s IT team to address issues with the terminals, but it also allows Equitrac support to perform software updates and second-level support.
What did you gain from it?
We had reservations before upgrading from version 3 to the present version 4.62 Equitrac Enterprise level software. This was due in part to the fact that the version 3 system was not installed for very long. After looking at the benefits afforded by the new version, especially the reduction in time it would take to update the remote terminals with a new or updated database, we decided the time saved easily would translate to money earned.
We experienced a few disconnects between CMS and Equitrac. The recovery from those took a matter of minutes, which before upgrading would have taken hours and involved Equitrac support. With the upgrade, our own IT team could handle the recovery processes and have them out to the entire network in a more practical time frame. Credit must go to Equitrac’s local installation and support technicians. They have been the driving force behind the success of our deployment.
Having a modern network of desktop computers and servers reduces downtime to a minimum. With the reliance on technology to preserve and maintain a competitive edge, any downtime on a network, regardless of the length of time, is critical. Adapting to changes in technology, such as integrating Legal MacPac, a package of customized legal document templates, macros, styles, numbering schemes and databases, into Microsoft Office 2003, will allow us to attract new hires who already are trained in the application, thus shortening the learning curve.
What will be your next technology purchase?
Looking toward the future and taking into consideration the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and the recent hurricanes, we are poised to implement a sound disaster preparedness plan. This involves a number of changes to our network topology, additional hardware and software to support it, and a relationship with a disaster preparedness partner. Our goal is to be available to meet the needs of our clients who undoubtedly will be relying on us in their time of need. We must be proactive to make all accommodations to facilitate that availability. Our present disaster recovery plan is, I suspect, not any different from most firms whereby we backup to tapes that are rotated to a facility such as Iron Mountain. We intend to have a fully replicated site that automatically will go into effect to provide access to our core set of applications, should our main site take a direct hit.
What would you have done differently?
There have been some aspects of technology deployment that we might have approached differently. For instance, we were set to migrate from a Novell environment to Microsoft a couple of years ago. The decision was made to keep Novell and continue to invest more money in the infrastructure to support it. While Novell was less costly than Microsoft on licensing, it was evident no one was developing any “cool technology” to integrate with Novell. There were not many choices when it came to finding third-party software that would allow our attorneys to receive their GroupWise generated e-mails on their PDAs or cell phones. On the other hand, there were all kinds of integrated software for Microsoft Outlook. In saying that, we would have kept the path that was cleared for the transition to Microsoft.
A lot of firms are short-sighted where technology is concerned. They don’t see beyond their day-to-day operations and might not even be willing to hire outside consultants. Our advice would be to do your research and measure the cost benefit to your firm. Don’t base that cost only on the immediate results and don’t invest in technology that might be outdated in a year or two. There are a lot of viable technologies that can increase a firm’s bottom line, but the firm must be willing to make the change and move into uncharted territory in some instances. Check with the technology company and ask for references in your line of business, then follow up by contacting those references. Keeping up with updates and patches also is a part of being prudent — a very important and necessary part.
Alan Becker is a founding shareholder of Becker & Poliakoff. Becker oversees the firm’s litigation, government relations and international practice areas. He began his legal career in the Office of the Attorney General and as an assistant public defender. Becker also was a representative in the Florida Legislature and is a member of the Bar of the Czech Republic — the first practicing attorney in Florida to be licensed there. In 2004, Becker was recognized by Florida Trend Magazine among its “Legal Elite” in the area of international law.
Entire contents copyright © 2005 James Publishing, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
From left: Gary A. Poliakoff and Alan S. Becker.
