Now that you have hung your shingle you are thinking about your IT needs. Not just the laptops and Internet connection for you and your partner or two, but a year or two down the road when the practice takes off. That was the topic that SAGE's fearless leader, George Nicholson, spoke about at the 2008 DC Judicial Bar and Conference last Friday, April 11, 2008. George's advice to small firms and those attorneys looking to strike out on their own: address as many IT requirements as possible with the resources you have available.

For any small firm, IT purchasing is a matter of walking the line between getting by with the IT that will work today, or buying IT for tomorrow's growth. The accounting and finance package that works great for three attorneys will fall apart when there are twenty. The cost to upgrade to the mid-market package includes the price of the software, plus the cost of converting the current data from the old system, training, consulting, and any impact on productivity and billable hours. Viewed from that perspective, does it make more sense to buy the mid-market package from the outset?

This calculus--part crystal ball, part gamble, part investment--is the balancing act that George spoke about as part of the panel discussion. Having a good technology partner becomes vital to help you come up with a calculus that is right for your firm. Come back because we will have more posts about this topic.

Our creative director, resident futurist, and agent provocateur, Peter von Elling authored the article "Future Technology That Breaks With Tradition" appearing in the Jan-Mar 2008 issue of NoVa Network. The article focuses on technology trends currently incubating that will change how we work in the near future.

• The accelerating pace of technological change: change not only happens, that change is occurring faster than ever before. This trend holds true even for legal technology.
• Ultra-mobility where people are not just always available - like we are today - but "always capable" - able to perform any task on their mobile device.
• "Cloud computing," which is data and applications reside on the Internet rather than a desktop or laptop and accessible anywhere there is an Internet connection.
• Information management through social networking tools -- the torrent of information available will only get worse in the coming years. Surprisingly, searching, sorting, and filtering it will fall on groups of highly interconnected people and not intelligent software.

The article is currently available online at alanova.org, the web site of the Northern Virgina Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators.

Cisco has announced the plan to discontinue the Cisco PIX. After July 2008, PIX will no longer be available for purchase, with accessories sales ending in January 2009. Cisco will continue to honor only existing support contracts after July 2009, and will honor those commitments until 2013.

Models on the chopping block include: Cisco PIX 501, PIX 506E, PIX 515E, PIX 525, and PIX 535.

Why? Even though many network admins would say "mine gets the job done." Cisco says there is a greater need to support Payment Card Industry Data Security, HIPAA, and SOX standards and the PIX doesn't cut it like their new ASA device does.

Rumor has it that the biggest complaint is that the Java-based user interface (PDM) doesn't play nicely or at all with the latest Java virtual machine. (Cisco doesn't make any mention of this).

IT sometimes harkens back to 12th grade microeconomics class--namely, "opportunity costs." This post over at the Freakonomics's blog brings up the issue of lost time and productivity from a seemingly innocuous software update that cost the author an hour. The larger point that author makes is that the longer you wait to update, the more costs you can incur.

So are you asleep yet? Wake up!

The article highlights hidden costs in IT, where users wait for software updates or create time-consuming workarounds due to glitches, or little to no training. The longer one waits to resolve these issues, the higher the costs. Updates and patches that promise fixes or new features can often have unintended consequences that wreak havoc on your firm network or personal device. Testing, daily maintenance, prevention, and proper training are important to keep costs down, especially hidden costs.

Engineers are from Microsoft; Designers are from Apple, or so the old chestnut goes. While corporate America and many law firms take comfort in their conservative approach to technology and Microsoft is a comfy cardigan, Apple often upsets the computing status quo but is forever resigned to suffer small market share. With the iPhone launch almost a year on, what impact has it had on the mobile and handheld computing market?

Again the answer is that Apple's impact far exceeds its market share. With Palm and Motorola on life support, and Microsoft wandering aimlessly on the sidelines, the future looks to be a Blackberry - iPhone battle. Blackberry has ruled the mobile e-mail arena for many years, but the iPhone will become a corporate contender come June. Here is why:

1. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Those roaming the halls of CTIA, the annual mobile phone industry confab, have been struck by all the iPhone knockoffs. Touch interfaces "are in" in a big way. Even the iPhone's look has been ported over to the next Blackberry model.

2. Apple has released an SDK (Software Development Kit), which will allow third party developers to create applications for the phone. Heavy hitter Salesforce.com has already announced iPhone applications.

3. From remote wipe to remote configuration, the iPhone's 2.0 version coming in June meets corporate IT manager's wish list through the bizarre twist of Apple licensing Microsoft's ActiveSync technology. Stranger yet, first impressions suggest that Apple will greatly improve on Microsoft's functional yet uninspiring product when it appears on the iPhone.

Whether the iPhone eventually becomes the blockbuster like the iPod is irrelevant, actually. If the iPhone holds small marketshare but influences mobile computing for the better, so be it. It appears clear, however, that your next phone will come with some sort of touch screen.

Almost as a reflex, I refuse those extended service warranties the consumer electronics retailers push to boost their bottom line. Because of them, most people view warranties as scams rather than the insurance policies they were originally intended to be. Unfortunately, this thinking gets extended to the critical hardware in the server room. E-mail servers, file/print servers, domain controllers, and more sit in server rooms years past when the manufacturers warranty expires.  This is a bad situation.

What happens when an extended warranty is purchased?  A client of ours had a system board die in their warrantied file/print server. Within four hours, a technician arrived with a replacement system board and the server was back online, all covered under the warranty and free of charge.

Without the warranty, the alternative scenario plays out like this: a replacement system board has to be ordered via overnight mail, which may arrive in 2 business days depending on the ordering deadline for next day delivery. If you don't have IT in-house, you coordinate with your IT consultant to install the part, at their regular hourly rate.  Besides the costs of the part and service, figure in opportunity costs for lost productivity or billable hours for the day or more that the server is down.

What is worse than the scenario above?  Not knowing whether your servers and network equipment is under warranty or not. At the very least, you should perform an audit so you know the risks you are running.