© 2004 Baker Robbins & Company IT Outsourcing in Law Firms: Threat or Opportunity? An Overview of Market Issues and Baker Robbins’ Sourcing Services
© 2004 Baker Robbins & Company
IT Outsourcing in Law Firms: Threat or Opportunity?
An Overview of Market Issues
and Baker Robbins’ Sourcing Services
IT “Sourcing” Defined
Sourcing assessments are an aspect of
IT planning.
Sourcing is about improving IT effectiveness and value and making informed decisions.
Sourcing assessments don’t push a firm to outsource.
Sourcing involves defining services, service level agreements and performance measures.
Market Expectations
Service expectations are increasing
Few firms have outsourced to save money
Some firms are using service levels and ‘cost of services’ information to deliver services better internally
Market is immature Firms are not experienced in engaging suppliers
Suppliers provide poorly fit bids
IT Services Subject to Sourcing
Primary Areas Today Help Desk Level 1 – offsite or onsite IT Operations and Support (Almost) Full IT Department Business Continuity WAN Management
Additional Areas of Opportunity Storage Management E-Mail and Document Management Phone and Voice Systems Business Processes
Top 250 U.S. firms
Market Overview: Current Status
50% - Open minded; generally need to be facing changes to make an outsourcing decision
10% - Already partially outsourcing
40% - Will not consider outsourcing
Market Overview: Suppliers
Legal-specific:
Aspire.net (Union Square)
Thomson
Intelliteach
Bowne
KKL/LexisNexis
Office Tiger / Hildebrandt
Steelpoint and Ringtail
Niche players
Savvis, NetDocuments, HubbardOne
Big players and BPO:
Perot, IBM, Deloitte
Sourced Performance Indicators
Service Levels
System availability: 99.97+%
Help desk response time: 20 seconds for phone calls; 15 minutes for e-mails
Guaranteed problem resolution times (2 hours for Severity 1 systems)
24x7x365 operations
Optional off-site, centralized operations
Standardized PC and server builds for centralized operations
Business Performance Indicators
User and management satisfaction
Adaptability
Collaboration with internal staff or other suppliers
Opportunities We can control how outsourcing is used
We design and manage the solution
60% of our sourcing clients will turn to us rather than an outsourcer
Creates projects in smaller firms where little opportunities previous existed
Outsourcing can cannibalize our services.
We decided to get ahead of the curve rather than wait for it to
happen to us.
Baker Robbins Services
Assess Opportunities
- Evaluate Service Levelsand Costs
- Compare to ExternalBenchmarks
Design Solution
- Improved Processesand Service Levels
- Establish BusinessContinuity Solutions
Select Suppliers Manage Transition
Lead IT Improvement Projects
- IT Upgrades, Interim IT Positions,Business Continuity, etc.
Resulting Projects
Network Design (e.g., centralization, capacities) Continuing IT Planning Business Continuity Planning Transition Project Management System Migrations IT Organizational Improvement Projects Business Impact Risk
Projects during the outsourcing term
Spotting IT Sourcing Opportunities
Signs to Look For Firm Examples
Poor service levels, lack of IT processes, inconsistent service across offices
Proskauer Rose
Aggressive firm growth or mergers; office moves or expansions
Piper Rudnick
Major new technology changes
(storage, Server 2003, disaster recovery)
Andrews & Kurth, Norton Rose
Small or medium firms who want professional IT like a big firm
LeClair Ryan,
Frommer
IT moving away from infrastructure focus; management doesn’t want the hassle
Hunton & Williams, Linklaters
Long Term
Can BRCo make projects out of closing gaps in IT performance we do not focus on today?
Can BRCo complete a full IT transition and hand over only support to an outsourcer?
Should BRCo outsource IT services?
Can BRCo outsource business processes? Business analysis capabilities Financial processes Litigation processes Enterprise content management (DMS + RMS + E-Mail)
Points to Take Away
Sourcing Assessments = IT performance and value
Use term “outsourcing” sparingly
Good IT management benefits from sourcing
Even firms with no interest in outsourcing should know services, service levels, costs and risks