by Joe Ulm
This article was originally published in the Wisconsin Law Journal on October 25, 2006
Recently while consulting with a small Milwaukee law firm I brought up the term “business continuity.” I was using the term to illustrate a potential solution to a software problem the firm was currently experiencing. Much to my surprise the managing partner – let’s call him Tom - was unfamiliar with the term. After a brief explanation, Tom was intrigued and asked me how many other firms were incorporating the principles of business continuity into the management of their firm. The truth was I really didn’t know. I often utilize the principles of business continuity in my consulting, but exactly how many firms actually knew about and utilized business continuity principles – that I didn’t know.
That got me thinking and later that day I began to call some of my clients. To my amazement, few had even heard of the term. The crazy part of this scenario is that law firms in particular can reap huge benefits from utilizing the principles of business continuity in the management of their firm. The good news is, however, that even if you’re not familiar with the term or the concept of business continuity, you are probably utilizing at least some of the principles in the management of your practice without even knowing it.
The truth is a lot of the principles inherent in business continuity are common sense. Business continuity is really little more than the vehicles and processes you have in place to make sure your practice runs smoothly every day. It involves everything from planning for disasters to creating efficiencies within your firm’s internal processes. Business continuity is affected by things such as the level of insurance you have, the way you bill your clients, the way you manage your firm’s data, etc. Since law firms are inextricably tied to their technology, the way a firm manages their technology has a significant impact on a firm’s continuity. As such, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at some of the best ways technology can provide greater continuity within your firm.
A firm’s technology affects their business continuity in many different ways, but most firms experience the largest affects on continuity in four general areas: security, availability, disaster planning, and efficiency. Let’s take a look at each one of these areas in a bit more detail.
Security. Security should be looked at from both an internal and external perspective. Often firms focus on external security – protection against attacks from the outside – and forget about the internal security risks. This is a big mistake. Internal security risks are far greater than those from the outside. Internal security is best managed with two tools: good password management and well written policies.
I recommend firms have a computer usage policy that dictates proper Internet usage, as well. Keep in mind that your policies don’t have to be rocket science, simple things go a long way - no pornography, don’t load programs unrelated to business onto desktops, etc. From an external security perspective all most firms need to do is to invest in a decent firewall and keep their antivirus and antispyware programs up to date.
As an IT guy (and like many IT people), I find some sick pleasure in long and boring diatribes about security, but the truth is the more you lock down your systems, the more effort and energy it will take to do business. Be aware of this tradeoff and position your security in a place that allows you to work efficiently with a good measure of security in place. Keep in mind that to increase the continuity within your firm you have to balance security and productivity.
Availability. For law firms, availability of their systems is absolutely critical. As I mentioned above, law firms are so dependent on their technology that to even have the potential to achieve continuity, their systems must be highly available. This is so critical because as any attorney or firm administrator will attest to, every moment of down time is incredibly expensive. Not only are staff members unable to bill their time, but they are still drawing a salary. So firms get hit twice and that is extremely expensive. As such, this is one of the first areas most firms need to look at when it comes to their technology decisions. Saving a few hundred dollars on less expensive systems may appear to be a great bargain initially, but a few minutes of downtime can easily destroy all the profitability the bargain systems initially provided.
Here’s a few good ways a firm can increase the availability of their systems. First, purchase tier-one equipment such as HP, Dell, Cisco, IBM, 3Com, etc. These systems are tested with the software that runs on them, they come with quality service warranties, replacement parts are available for them if necessary, and there is a wealth of information and support available if something goes wrong. In my opinion, the day of the “white box” is over. Law firms can’t afford the downtime. Second, invest in a little maintenance of your systems. Most firms need only invest a few hours a month on maintenance and the return on this investment can be ten fold. Third, ensure your software applications and your IT vendors play nice together. This might sound funny, but I’ve seen more than one firm experience downtime because certain programs didn’t play nice together or vendors spent more time pointing fingers at each other than figuring out a solution to the problem.
Disaster planning is another important aspect of a firm’s business continuity plan. Basically, disaster planning involves the planning and capability of a firm to recover from a catastrophic event. Although a natural disaster would definitely fall into this category, a disaster doesn’t have to be “natural” to be significant. A down server combined with a faulty backup system can easily provide a law firm with an absolutely disastrous situation. The most important aspect for most firm’s disaster plan is to ensure the safety and integrity of the firm data. Buildings, phones and work space are all important in disaster planning, but ultimately, if a firm loses its data it is lost.
To limit the possibility of data loss, take your backup off site regularly, replace your tapes annually, and above all test, test, test. Most backup systems still backup to tape and although these systems are fairly reliable, they’re not reliable enough to risk your firm’s future on. And test your tapes monthly to ensure they are actually collecting your firm’s data.
Efficiency is also a critical aspect of business continuity for a law firm. Efficiency involves both the systems a firm uses to engage in the practice of law and the processes in place for staff members to utilize these systems effectively. Although efficiency is created differently from firm to firm, most firms benefit significantly from investing in four different types of systems to make their practice efficient and profitable: case management, time and billing solutions, document management, and document automation. Each of these has its place within a law firm and, used effectively, can be the backbone of highly profitable firms. These systems usually involve an initial capital expenditure, but most firms can get a return on their investment within 6 months. Ultimately, it isn’t necessary for a firm to utilize all of these systems, but investing in the appropriate system can be a real boon to your firm’s efficiency.
So what does the term business continuity really mean for your firm? From a technical perspective it means greater profits and happier employees. It means fewer headaches and more time to practice law. It means you can be confident in the underlying philosophy you are basing your technology decisions upon. Ultimately, I would encourage you to take a few moments and analyze how your firm is performing in each of the four areas discussed above. A little time invested in the continuity of your business can provide great returns. And whenever a consultant mentions the term business continuity, you can smile a little, knowing that you’re already a step ahead.
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