Legal Technology Journal

Chris Petrie, director of IT, outlines his problem-solving philosophy that underpinned Stephenson Harwood’s successful IT update.

Stephenson Harwood is an international law firm with some 88 partners and over 600 staff worldwide, 420 of whom are based in the UK. The firm has offices in five countries across Europe and Asia: UK, France, Greece, Singapore and in China in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

In November 2007, after several months of planning and testing, IT director Chris Petrie undertook a comprehensive systems overhaul covering all aspects of the firm’s IT deployment. This included migrations from GroupWise to Outlook and Office XP to Office 2003, a new matter-centric desktop incorporating Interwoven’s WorkSite 8 document management system and virtualisation of the entire data centre. At the same time, the firm embarked on a major hardware upgrade with new PCs, laptops and a range of printer/scanner/copiers. ‘We have an in-house IT team of 18 split into several teams, so we realised that we needed the help of a number of partners to deliver this major project,’ explains Petrie. His strategy for a smooth transition to the new system with minimal disruption to the business depended on selecting the right partners – in terms of suppliers and consultants – to work in partnership with the firm’s IT team to install and integrate the best solutions for the business. By March 2008, the UK office had an entirely new system, which is now being rolled out to the firm’s international offices.

Deploying WorkSite

According to Petrie, ‘The efficient migration from DM5 to WorkSite and GroupWise to Outlook were central to the success of the entire project. Interwoven was not the only option, but it was the obvious solution for Stephenson Harwood. WorkSite is a popular, best-of-breed system that fits our requirements. That felt like the easy decision. It was then a matter of finding the right people to take the project forward,’ he adds.

Petrie chose Phoenix Business Solutions to install the system and integrate it into the new matter-centric desktop. What influenced his choice? ‘Phoenix had undertaken many similar projects and their experience enabled us to avoid common pitfalls,’ he explains. Petrie had worked with Phoenix previously and was confident that they would work seamlessly with his in-house team and other external partners on the desktop integration.

Although the switchover to WorkSite was organised on a just-in-time basis with minimal down time, a significant amount of preparation was required prior to migration. This included the secure transfer of some five and a half million documents and six million e-mails while giving users continuous access to active files – a significant undertaking. The migration to Outlook was carried out by ANS Group, a Manchester-based company, who had previously worked with Stephenson Harwood on several projects.

Integration was another important part of the project. The desktop image brought together all the software – Outlook, Interwoven, Carpe Diem, etc – and a number of revisions brought about by bugs and end-user input were required to achieve the desired result. Petrie’s deputy, Grant Perry, focused on communicating with the various partners involved and coordinating their efforts. This communication was key to minimising down time and ensuring that everyone in the firm was kept informed.

End-user training

As well as being involved in the move to the new desktop, Stephenson Harwood’s in-house trainers played a significant part in its development, testing various processes and offering input. Petrie emphasises that this was not simply a matter of technologists putting together a solution and then everyone having to adapt; it was also about people in the firm, and experienced helpdesk and training staff in the IT team adding their valuable insight to the development process.

Phoenix’s training capability was an important consideration in appointing them to handle the Interwoven project as the in-house team was involved in a number of concurrent projects. Once the system had been installed, initial training was delivered to each department. ‘It was important to give our fee-earners and staff the right type and amount of training, and to deliver it in a timely manner,’ says Petrie. ‘This often meant repeating training sessions at different times in order to fit in with our lawyers’ busy schedules.’

Tailored course materials were developed in collaboration with Joanne Humber, director of training at Phoenix. Training sessions were delivered by Phoenix’s team of trainers, while the firm’s in-house training team provided floor walking and additional user support, given that some users were much more IT-savvy than others and everyone had to adapt to new ways of working. ‘It was an excellent co-operative process and the feedback surveys for those people receiving training were all very good,’ adds Petrie.

A successful trial migration in November 2007 was followed by a department-by-department roll-out between mid-January and early March 2008, starting with the litigation department, who had bravely volunteered to be first. Petrie emphasises that this involved a lot of hard work and tenacity from his entire team. ‘Once you have done the first department, it is simply a matter of getting around the whole firm. At this point it was essential to test everything, deal with the minutiae and get the system right in order to minimise future issues. We had a great deal of help, support and forbearance from our management and end users, as well as superb co-operation with our external partners.’

International offices

Although Stephenson Harwood has a significant international presence, the new desktop focused on the London office. Petrie and his team are currently deploying the same system in the firm’s Paris, Greece and Singapore offices. The offices will be linked to each other, but they will also be able to operate independently. ‘Although all the core applications will be the same, each office will be able to operate autonomously if necessary,’ explains Petrie.’

Virtualisation

‘The opportunity presented by a major technology refresh was too good to miss, VirtualizeIT (VIT) an award winning VMware consultancy were selected to assist Stephenson Harwood with the transfer to a virtual infrastructure. Virtualisation is a gift for simplifying systems,’ explains Petrie. ‘Following VIT’s recommendations, we installed a small farm of VMware VI3 ESX virtual host servers, so that every new server required by our new system, including Interwoven, Outlook and all the other new applications on the redesigned desktop were built directly into a virtualised system. The next step was to convert existing servers into virtual servers, replacing 100+ servers.’

Petrie realised that as well as facilitating technology, virtualisation would offer significant advantages from a green perspective as well saving cost and space. ‘Virtualisation makes excellent commercial and financial sense,’ he says. ‘It gives us mind-boggling flexibility and excellent disaster recovery options. There are also obvious environmental benefits and reduced costs. Our hardware budget is, of course, lower as we do not have to purchase, maintain and refresh and recycle equipment on the same scale as before. We also consume far less power, running and cooling the equipment, so our fuel bills are lower. It is a win-win situation,’ he adds, emphasising that transforming this idea into reality required collaboration between a number of external and internal groups, and the support of partners and management.

Communication

While virtualisation facilitates technology, Petrie and his team are equally focused on finding more ways to support busy lawyers and make their lives easier. Current projects include replacing the firm’s Network infrastructure. Stephenson Harwood is in the late stages of a tendering process for a new VoIP telephony system.

Remote access

Every aspect of the new desktop can be accessed remotely via a system that combines VMware virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and Quests Provision Networks. Petrie explains: ‘The complete integrated desktop can be accessed via a per-user VDI session, that can be accessed externally – from any PC connected to the internet at home or while travelling, on Vista, XP and MAC. Whatever PC you use, if suitably authenticated, you can log into the Stephenson Harwood system. You simply enter the URL and log on using a security token.’

Stephenson Harwood’s success is reinforced by continued improvements to the firm’s IT infrastructure, systems and training. As well as working in partnership with external experts and suppliers, ‘It is not about IT,’ he says. ‘It is about identifying business problems and doing our best to solve them.’

Chris Petrie is director of IT at Stephenson Harwood.