CDW’s Network Expertise Helps Law Firms Serve Clients Faster and More Effectively
Experience of three firms spotlights importance of IT infrastructure to dynamic practice of law
VERNON HILLS, Ill. - September 17, 2007 - CDW Corporation (NASDAQ: CDWC), a leading provider of technology products and services to business, government and education, today demonstrated how professional service firms can use information technology to achieve maximum engagement of their staff with clients and to provide ready access to their knowledge and data resources. A law firm’s most valuable asset is the collective intellect and experience of its attorneys, and in today’s world of complex litigation and intellectual property, its supporting infrastructure plays a critical role in unlocking and focusing that expertise.
"In the practice of law today, as in other service businesses, wireless and Internet-based technologies have raised client expectations of productivity and access, and they now demand almost immediate connection with the professional teams serving them," said Bill Weaver, CDW Group Vice President, Commercial Business. "As a result, lead counselors need nearly continuous access to their support teams and information systems. CDW’s account managers and technology specialist teams excel at helping law firm IT managers select and implement integrated systems that support high levels of client service."
Vedder Price: Accelerating network performance accelerates client satisfaction
Vedder Price, a 55-year old Chicago-based business-oriented law firm with more than 240 attorneys, specializes in corporate services, labor and employment services and litigation. The firm enjoys a global reputation within its specialties and has been recognized recently for its experience in aircraft finance, banking, M&A and corporate bankruptcy. The firm maintains four primary locations in Chicago, New York City, Northern New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
With business and the number of associates growing, plus new locations in New York and DC, the increasing volume of data moving across the firm’s IT network was slowing its performance, frustrating users and posing a threat to client satisfaction. "We need our applications to run smoothly so our attorneys can focus on serving their clients," said Director of Management Information Services Maureen Durack.
One solution might have been to buy more bandwidth, but bandwidth can be expensive. Instead, Durack approached the challenge with an ambitious project to optimize the firm’s wide area network (WAN). The objective was to make the most of the firm’s existing bandwidth by changing how and when the data moves across it, transparently to network users. The project, which is still on-going, has three major goals:
- Increase network speed and reliability within offices and at remote locations
- Upgrade the firm’s data archiving and recovery capabilities
- Support the firm’s business continuity program
Durack turned to her account manager at CDW and together they teamed one of Durack’s internal IT consultants with a CDW LAN/WAN technology specialist to evaluate WAN optimization strategies and products. The Vedder Price team selected Riverbed Steelhead 1520 and Riverbed Steelhead 2020 WAN accelerators for the first project phase, installing and testing the products in their Chicago headquarters and the New York City office. CDW helped Durack and her team choose the right configurations, and then the CDW team expedited the orders.
Once the Riverbed solution was installed, Vedder Price noticed immediate improvements in the performance of its Open Text document management system and other core applications.
"In our performance tests, we have seen approximately three to six times more network efficiency, and the time required to modify WAN configurations has been cut in half," Durack said. Additionally, she says that even though many core applications reside on servers in Chicago, users in New York often see the same level of performance as their colleagues at the home office.
"Instead of spending lots of money on more network bandwidth to handle increased requirements, we are saving money by adding intelligence and speed to our existing bandwidth," Durack concluded.
Osborn Maledon: Integrated network and telephony support seamless productivity
Osborn Maledon is based in Phoenix, Arizona, with 110 employees providing litigation, business and general counsel solutions for clients in the Southwest and nationwide. To reduce clients’ cost of litigation, the firm uses attorneys and paraprofessionals very efficiently, typically staffing even the most complex matters with a small, focused team and employing the most current technologies for litigation support, including document management and evidentiary presentation systems. Communications infrastructure is an essential part of supporting those systems and the efficiency of the firm’s lean operations.
Early in 2007, business growth and an aging infrastructure led Osborn Maledon IT Director Randy O’Donnell to pursue an integrated upgrade of the firm’s network and phone systems, as well as the power supply supporting them.
"We had planned the network infrastructure upgrade already, but also decided that VoIP telephony had matured to a point where it would offer substantial benefits to the firm," O’Donnell said. "As basic as it may seem, ease of access and usability of a phone system are central to the productivity of a law firm because our attorneys spend so much time communicating by phone and computer today."
O’Donnell and his internal team began evaluating network gear and phone systems on their own, starting with, as he states, "the usual suspects." The firm has been a CDW customer for almost 10 years, so after completing a first look at the market on their own, O’Donnell contacted his long-time account manager at CDW and sent him their initial evaluation with the message, "Here’s what we’re looking at. Is there anything we haven’t thought about?"
"In fact, the CDW team presented us additional options we hadn’t known to consider, and they facilitated meetings between our Technology Committee and the candidate vendors," said O’Donnell. "We wound up selecting a ShoreTel phone system and HP ProCurve networking equipment that had not even been on our own short list. CDW understood our business and these technologies so well that they were able to point us toward systems with features that suited our needs better than the options we had found ourselves."
The new phone system maximizes colleague productivity by enabling users to control connections and features easily through their desktop computers without having to look away, and it bridges calls easily to external points when attorneys are working remotely, as well as providing comprehensive billing records directly to Osborn Maledon’s financial system.
Hennigan, Bennett & Dorman LLP: All the network they need, all the time
Los Angeles-based Hennigan, Bennett & Dorman (HBD), which also has a New York City office, concentrates on business reorganization and bankruptcy matters, complex commercial litigation and intellectual property litigation. The firm employs approximately 50 highly-credentialed and experienced lawyers, with a total of more than 115 employees.
Relocation of the Los Angeles headquarters office presented an opportunity to upgrade the firm’s IT infrastructure and make it scalable for future growth. At the same time, it created the challenge of making the facility move without disrupting the firm’s heavy, ongoing case load or its attorneys’ productivity. Working with account managers and technology specialists from CDW, HBD Information Systems Manager Michael Boggs designed a new data center and a mixed-mode voice and data network to provide digital communications in the offices and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in remote and home locations, with seamless voice mail and e-mail connectivity to support remote and mobile users.
The final plan, using dozens of vendors but sourced entirely through CDW, included American Power Conversion server racks and power systems, a Cisco-based network, a new VoIP phone system, new conferencing and presentation equipment and new LCD monitors throughout the firm. CDW configured substantial elements of HBD’s new network before it was shipped to the law firm, so that components were ready for installation when they arrived. The project team leveraged CDW’s industry relationships to gain added support from vendors for installation of HBD’s telephony and power and cooling systems.
"The infrastructure we assembled - network, phone and power systems alike - gives us the scalability we need to accommodate as much as four-fold growth in the firm," says Boggs. "CDW’s team was instrumental in helping us specify, design and implement it, and we managed to accomplish all of that while providing uninterrupted support for our attorneys who were engaged in a major litigation in New York City."
About CDW
CDW®, ranked No. 342 on the FORTUNE 500, is a leading provider of technology solutions for business, government and education. CDW is a principal source of technology products and services including top name brands such as Acer, Adobe, APC, Apple, Cisco, EMC, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, Panasonic, Quantum, Samsung, Sony, Symantec, ViewSonic and Xerox. CDW's direct model offers customers one-on-one relationships with knowledgeable account managers and access to approximately 820 on-staff engineers and advanced technology specialists who customize solutions for customers’ complex technology needs. CDW also provides same-day product shipping and post-sales technical support.
CDW was founded in 1984 and as of June 30, 2007, employed approximately 5,880 coworkers. In 2006, the company generated sales of $6.8 billion. For more information, visit CDW.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements about the expected timing, completion and effects of the proposed merger between CDW and a subsidiary of VH Holdings, Inc. and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, each of which is qualified in its entirety by reference to the following cautionary statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and are based on current expectations and involve a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. CDW may not be able to complete the proposed merger because of a number of factors, including, among other things, the failure of financing or the failure to satisfy the remaining closing conditions. Other risks and uncertainties that may affect forward-looking statements are described in the reports filed by CDW with the SEC under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including without limitation CDW’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006, and the definitive proxy statement dated July 13, 2007, relating to the special meeting of shareholders that was held on August 9, 2007.
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