We apologise but we are unable to name the client for security reasons.

Upgrading your IT infrastructure can be a daunting task. In our extensive experience the biggest problem when doing this is change management and in particular involving staff so they are enthusiastic about the change. If staff are not involved with the change and consulted about their needs and wants this can produce issues for the whole project.

A legal firm contacted us in January 2010 who had 20 staff in a single office location. They had been using different technology providers to supply and manage their technology needs for approx 9 years. A different company looked after the following:

• Software, hardware (desktop and local servers)
• Specialist legal software
• Telecommunications both fixed and mobile
• Network infrastructure and security
• Internet connection.

It was calculated they were loosing approx 1/4 an hour per day per staff member because they were using multiple technology providers and therefore their IT department was not integrated and when something went wrong their was a lot of finger pointing. All staff were billed at an average of $300 per hour so it was costing them about $75 per day per staff member. This worked out to be five times more expensive than using Reddog Technology - see pricing.

During consultations with the legal firm their current IT infrastructure we found the following risk areas:

1. Their entire network including computers and servers were reliant on a single server. This server provided or was required to provide access to all of their files, emails, internet access and their specialist legal software. This created a single point of failure which could bring down their entire business in the event of failure.
2. While this server had backups, the backups the server created required identical server hardware for a quick recovery (within 48 hours) and without the identical server hardware recovery times were approx 1 week, well outside acceptable. The backups had never been tested by their IT company.
3. They had no disaster recovery plans in the event of a server failure or an issue with thier office
4. They were unable to access newer technology because their existing technology provider did not have the skills and resources. For example they wanted to upgrade their telephone system, get iPads and iPhones and generally start using more productive technology.

The Reddog Technology business analyst consulted with managers about their business model and staff about how they worked to make sure we maximised the productivity gains. Including staff in the process ultimately led to a wider acceptance of change when it did happen.

The legal firm owned all of their hardware and software, it was not leased. We worked with the financial controller to find the best financial outcome for disposing of these assets. We came to the decision to sell some of the higher value equipment (printers, servers) which had an OK resale value and donate the remaining equipment. Because they donated the equipment to a charity they were able to write off the remaining value of their IT infrastructure Vs getting appox 1/3 of its value back had they sold it. Reddog Technology dealt with the donation, including removing any company data from the equipment, all the legal firm had to do was provide us with a amortised value of the equipment. This resulted in the maximum financial gain.

After several meetings we had worked out the specifications for their IT department:
1 x Office location
1 x Internet connection (fastest available in thje area, no extra bandwidth charges - fair use policy applies)
1 x ADSL Modem
1 x Corporate Firewall
1 x 48 Port switch (segmented into two networks, one for data and the second for phones)
1 x Wireless Network
1 x Small colour multifunction laser printer
2 x Medium colour multifunction laser printer
5 x Workstation Standard (20-21.5 inch screen)
1 x Workstation Large (27 inch screen)
15 x Apple MacBook Pro 15 with Apple OSX
20 x Microsoft Office 2011
15 x Apple iPhone 4
4 x Apple iPad
1 x Local File Server

Backups were moved to automated and incremental with the ability to install the backups to different server hardware. The backup software backed up to 2 different server locations.

2 x Offsite backup accounts
150GB of automatic offsite backup (15 minutes between backups)

For their specialised legal software we installed the following:

1 x Windows 2008 R2 Virtual Dedicated Server hosted at a Tier 2 datacenter (Reddog Technology owns and manages the racks)
20 x Windows 2008 R2 accounts
20 x Windows 2008 R2 client access licenses
1 x CPU
4 x GB RAM
50 x GB Hard Drive
20 x GB Bandwidth
20 x Microsoft Office Standard 2007 (this software is upgraded as new versions come out)

They wanted a phone system which did everything from voicemail to email, interactive voice messages, VOIP

1 x PBX 50 (phone system with up to 50 extensions)
20 x Corporate Desk Phones
4 x ISDN2 phone lines (6 lines total)
4 x Corporate quality VOIP lines for lower outgoing call rates (configured to send their phone number as caller ID). Reddog Technology supplies these

We moved their web and DNS hosting onto our servers and implemented a backup schedule.

1 x Domain hosting (level 3 - 3000 MB bandwidth, 300MB storage)

We moved their Groupware (email, calendar and contacts) to our clustered Zimbra (Exchange) server to maximise redundancy.

20 x Groupware accounts (email, calendar, contacts)
15 x Groupware accounts with mobile access
80 x GB of groupware storage

The legal firm signed off on the changes and we planned out a migration strategy.

To reduce the risks in their existing infrastructure we migrated everything except the legal software from their main server. This resulted in very few changes for the staff in how they interacted with their technology and they saw an immediate improvements making them much keener for the next stage.

1. Internal DNS and network security was moved to the firewall, greatly increasing security and network monitoring.
2. Files were moved to a separate local file server which mirrored authentication instead of connecting to the authentication server.
3. Groupware was moved to our clustered email (software as a service) infrastructure.

Once this was migrated we supplied and installed the following:

• iPhones
• iPads
• Phone system and desk phones including configuring their phone lines and VOIP lines
• Migrated their internet connection to a Reddog Technology supported provider

Once this infrastructure was moved and the staff had seen the many benefits of upgrading to the latest technology we were able to move forward with changing the desktops, laptops and printers. This posed the biggest risk because we were going to fundamentally change how the staff used their technology. There were a few issues with some staff not wanting change but they quickly came around when they saw other staff genuinely enthusiastic about the change and using the new technology with ease.

Management of the legal firm and Reddog Technology project managers decided it would be best to switch all the remaining hardware and software at once (except their legal software). While this would reduce productivity in the first few days after starting on a new system, it would ultimately result in them getting the productivity gains of the latest technology quicker.

Two weeks after first migrating the data from their local server we installed the rest of their IT solution (except legal software it was still installed on their old local file server). In one weekend we arrived with everything and installed it within 12 hours (Saturday), on Sunday we arrived and completed all the little configurations like cleaning up cabling and cleaned up. On Saturday afternoon the network was usable for Management and a couple of the managers of the legal firm came in and got their new laptops and started working.

Two weeks after this we migrated the specialised legal software from the local file server to the data center. We changed the IP address configuration for each staff member and to them nothing happened except the noisy old server was removed from the office.

During the months after migration there were a couple of things left to clean up.

1. We changed their mobile plans so they could take advantage of cheaper call options. We did not change providers only plans and they did not notice anything except reduced bills.
2. We installed a dedicated internet connection for VOIP calls so they could use up to 10 lines. By using corporate quality VOIP their bill landline phone bill went from $5,000 per month to $500.