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Cantor Arkema, P.C., founded in 1979, is a Richmond, VA-based law firm combining
an established commercial business practice with a highly regarded litigation
practice. The firm includes attorneys recognized by their peers as leading practitioners
in Virginia and among the best lawyers in America. The combination of
business and trial attorneys uniquely positions the firm to handle complex transactional
and litigation matters, including mass tort, pharmaceutical, class actions
and business litigation. A direct result of the firm’s reputation for experience,
results and dedication to its clients, the majority of Cantor Arkema’s clients are
referrals from other lawyers.
The Challenge
With no in-house IT staff of its own, Cantor Arkema had, for
the past few years, utilized an outside contractor to
provide technical support for its 20-seat office of attorneys,
paralegals, and administrative staff. Under this arrangement,
the contracted support engineer would visit the
Cantor Arkema offices a few hours per week and resolve any immediate issues as
well as perform ongoing maintenance to workstations, servers, and routers.
However, in the course of the past year, Cantor Arkema had identified a need to
re-evaluate its technical support. “We wanted a neutral, third party to come in
and evaluate our systems to make sure we were getting the most out of our
contracted IT support, as well as help us prioritize future maintenance and
upgrades so that we could plan our IT budget more strategically,” says Priscilla
Winkler, Cantor Arkema’s Office Administrator.
The Solution
Winkler’s inquiries about potential candidates resulted in Nortec’s recommendation
by the Richmond Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators. After
an initial meeting to establish goals, timeline, and roll-out plan, Nortec Senior
Engineer, Allen Brown, recommended implementing Nortec’s Network Status
Report. “Cantor Arkema wanted system documentation of what they had in place – a system credibility check – as well as identify areas that were underutilized or
perhaps due for an upgrade,” says Nortec’s Southern Virginia General Manager,
Steve Estep. “That’s exactly what the Network Status Report would give them.”
Nortec’s Network Status Report (NSR) assesses the network on a variety of
metrics and criteria, and provides clear, concise reports on network status – very
quickly - with no interruption of workflow. Nortec engineers then use the NSR
to provide recommendations on necessary repairs, reconfiguring, upgrades, or
new equipment purchases. Beyond identifying critical areas of concern, the NSR
can also help prioritize projects in order of importance so that clients can
address critical items first, and plan – and budget – for other projects later.
Cantor Arkema’s Network Status Report was initiated and completed in a little
over a day. “Nortec couldn’t have been more professional. [Nortec engineer]
Allen Brown came in and went right to it – he was very unobtrusive and we had
no interrupted workflow or downtime,” says Winkler. “I would have him back
any time.”
The Benefits
Richmond law firm Cantor Arkema wanted to ensure its IT budget dollars were
being spent wisely, as well as implement a better disaster recovery and backup
plan, level set the network’s security, and improve remote access capability. To
achieve those goals, the firm brought in Nortec as an independent third party
to assess not only the credibility of Cantor Arkema’s contracted IT support, but
the credibility of its network as well.
Nortec’s Network Status report for Cantor Arkema uncovered areas where the
firm could cut costs, as well as identified underutilized areas could be maximized
to improve performance without incurring additional expense. As a
result of the NSR, “Cantor Arkema will probably save 50% in IT services costs,”
says Winkler.
In addition, the NSR recommended strategic upgrades and safeguards, such as
an offsite backup system, so Cantor Arkema now has a roadmap to help align its
goals with its budget, and a plan for future IT spending. |
