Perspectives THE LATEST NEWS FROM PLAN-NET
SUMMER 2013
A MESSAGE FROM THE PLAN-NET DIRECTORS Unbelievably we are into the 2nd half of the year already and all the indications are that 2013 will be another strong year for Plan-Net. Our strategy of delivering highperforming, cost-efficient IT services to the specialist markets of Finance, Law and Professional Services has served us well during a prolonged period of recession and now gives us the platform for continued growth.
The landscape for all businesses has changed for good over the last 5 years but finally a period of economic growth appears to be on the horizon. It will be interesting to see how businesses now approach an expanding economy and to what extent investment and development accelerates. Exciting times are definitely ahead of us.
Our successes to date and those in the future are testament to our fantastic staff and clients who continue to make Plan-Net the success that it is. A big thank you to all. We hope you enjoy this Summer’s issue of Perspectives. Adrian, Jerry & Richard.
INSIDE PROGRESS PAGES 2 - 5 Client news across the legal and financial sectors and in general.
CUSTOMER FOCUS PAGE 6 ISO27001 for Commonwealth War Graves Commission
EMPLOYEE FOCUS PAGE 7 Adam Chandler, Service Centre Manager, Plan-Net 24
PERSPECTIVES PAGES 8 – 11
24/7 Legal IT Support Centre
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The real story behind service desk performance & how to upgrade your migrations 7
PRIZES PAGE 12 Win £50 of M&S vouchers delivered to you in your very own VIP Plan-Net mug.
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PROGRESS
Perspectives | summer 2013
MIGRATIONS, PROJECTS, UPGRADEs. PLAN-NET SUPPORTING LAW FIRMS This has been the year of upgrading for our law firm clients. A number of companies are making the decision to upgrade to Windows 7 & Office 2010 and they’re calling on Plan-Net to help. For some, Plan-Net staff are helping by ensuring the Service Desk keeps operating as normal whilst the firm’s staff concentrate on carrying out the project work needed and in others firms, we are helping to carry out the project work. Either way it’s a busy but productive time for all.
International Law Firm Signs Managed Service Contract with Plan-Net We were proud to announce in February this year that International law firm Lawrence Graham LLP agreed a 3-year IT Managed Service contract with Plan-Net. This sees Plan-Net providing 24hr IT support to all Lawrence Graham staff across its London, Dubai, Monaco, Moscow and Singapore offices and 1st line support is now provided from Plan-Net 24, our 24/7 Legal IT Support Centre located in Central London and Desk Side support is delivered by a Plan-Net on-site team.
We are pleased to have made this appointment. Plan-Net has significant experience providing IT support to City law firms and we look forward to benefiting from an improved level of service that is more closely aligned to the requirements of our firm. Rod Fripp, Head of Information Technology at Lawrence Graham.
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IN LEGAL
Plan-Net 24
New name & logo Along with the growing demand and success of our 24/7 Legal IT Support Centre, based at our head office in London, it also now has an official name - Plan-Net 24.
AWARD SEASON CONTINUES… The flurry of award news from last year continues into 2013 as the Plan-Net outsourced IT department at law firm Davenport Lyons was nominated for the Team Achievement Award at the TheKnowList Awards held earlier this year. TheKnowList organisation is a global network of professional service firms to share best practice and knowledge. Well done to all.
Plan-Net Joins the Legal Support Network
To show our support to the Legal Sector, we’ve joined as an official partner of the Legal Support Network. The Legal Support Network is a community for people who work in the operational, business services and support areas of law firms and solicitors practices throughout the UK. You can visit our partner page on the LSN’s website for our news and views on the Legal Sector at; www.legalsupportnetwork.co.uk/network-partners/plan-net We are also attending the LSN’s regular networking events so come and meet us there - all legal support staff can attend for free.
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Perspectives | summer 2013
PROGRESS
IN FINANCE
RBS & Plan-Net Launch the EMEA Support Centre Training & Development Programme Plan-Net Client, CLS, Wins Project of the Year 2013 for Service Desk Upgrade Project. Plan-Net client, CLS plays a fundamental role in the foreign exchange (FX) market – it operates the largest multicurrency cash settlement system to mitigate settlement risk for the FX transactions of its members and their customers. Plan-Net has provided Co-Sourced Support to CLS for over six years, ensuring its London-based Service Desk has the capability, capacity and flexibility to run to the high levels of performance the financial firm demands. The Service Desk at CLS, including the Plan-Net team, recently went through a major Service Desk Upgrade Project which saw it winning the Hornbill STARS Supportworks Project of the Year Award. Well done all at CLS.
Plan-Net welcomed its first intake into the RBS EMEA Support Centre Training & Development Programme in April. Plan-Net employees Jack, Jordan, Saadia & Rebecca (all above) started at the centre based in Kegworth, Derbyshire earlier this year and have since received intensive RBS training, as well as formal Customer Service training as they begin to work at the centre. In the photo too is Hilary Williams from RBS who is managing the overall programme at the Centre & Justin Whyley, PlanNet’s Service Delivery Manager for RBS. We look forward to continuing to develop the programme with RBS and we are planning to introduce another 20 young people this Summer.
In other news at RBS, congratulations to Plan-Net employee Alex Charamlabous. Alex completed his yearlong IT & Networking apprenticeship with flying colours in March this year and is working in Trade Floor Support in Central London.
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IN GENERAL…
NEW PLAN-NET CLIENT: CO-SOURCING & CONSULTING TO the COURTAULD INSTITUTE OF ART
A bar at the Folies-Bergére, by Manet, displayed at The Courtauld Gallery. For a virtual tour visit www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery
We are delighted to welcome one of our latest clients The Courtauld Institute of Art. Based at Somerset House in Central London, The Courtauld Institute of Art is a world-leading centre for the study of the history and conservation of art and architecture, and its Gallery is renowned for its unrivalled collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. Plan-Net is working
with Alasdair Sowerby, Information Technology Manager at The Courtauld, supplying the IT department with flexible Co-Sourced Support to assist with the extra support requirements as they undertake various IT projects. We are also providing The Courtauld with some consultancy work in the area of Service Management.
Plan-Net increases productivity for Ashford Borough Council’s staff with Microsoft Exchange Upgrade with the quality of service they received in the process. “We found Plan-Net and its consultants to be extremely responsive, flexible and attentive. They were particularly accommodating to out of hours work so as not to affect staff Therefore, when the Council was looking to carry out an infrastructure productivity during the day.” explains Gareth Simmons, Data project to upgrade from Microsoft Centre Support Technician at Exchange 2003 to Exchange Ashford Borough Council. 2010, it looked to Plan-Net for help. Ashford Borough Council chose Plan-Net as it was confident “It was also helpful to take advantage of Plan-Net’s Microsoft we had the right knowledge and expertise around the technology to Partner status when we needed information and assistance from the deliver an effective upgrade. technology vendor. We wouldn’t However, the IT team at the Council have been able to achieve that speed of response from Microsoft were also once again impressed Plan-Net has provided Ashford Borough Council with specialist IT services for a number of years. The council runs an in-house IT team, but tends to turn to Plan-Net when it needs specialist assistance.
had we been doing the project ourselves.” “Ashford Borough Council now has a future-proof email platform which is stable and much faster than our previous system. It now performs to the levels demanded and expected by the 500 staff based at Ashford Borough Council and has increased their productivity.” Gareth concludes; “We were very satisfied with our service from the team at Plan-Net and we’re already looking to do another project with them in the near future.” Thanks very much Gareth. 5
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CLIENT FOCUS customer focus
Perspectives | summer 2013
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission achieves ISO 27001 certification with the help of Plan-Net The decision to attain ISO 27001 Certification, the internationally recognised standard in information security, had sponsorship from the very top. The Director General of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission wanted the organisation to achieve certification in order to demonstrate to the general public and its funding national governments that its Information Security Management System is world class. The Commission is responsible for the care and maintenance of cemeteries and memorials at 23,000 locations in 153 countries. It is funded by the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India Governments and holds over a quarter of a million data records in its Register of Commonwealth War Dead. Due to the sensitive nature and sheer scale of the information in its possession, ensuring correct handling of this is a key priority for the Commission. The Commission engaged with Plan-Net to initially carry out a Gap Analysis to highlight what preparation was needed in order to pass the audit. Following this, Plan-Net provided expert guidance and assistance to ensure the Commission had covered and documented all the necessary requirements for the ISO 27001 audits.
Due to the sensitive nature and sheer scale of the information in its possession, ensuring correct handling of this is a key priority for the Commission. James Potter-Irwin, Senior Consultant at PlanNet, worked closely with Peter Holton, Information Security Manager at the Commission to ensure that they successfully passed both stages of ISO 27001 Audit to become fully accredited. Here’s what Peter had to say: “We had a lot of work to do at the Commission in preparation for the audits and working with James, I really felt like we were in it together. We were confident that Plan-Net had the specialist knowledge to assist us, but James’ calm, committed approach helped immensely too. Achieving certification in ISO 27001 is something the whole organisation is proud to have.”
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When did you start at Plan-Net and what were you doing? I joined Plan-Net in 2011 as a Team Leader at our Managed Service Desk for Simmons & Simmons. During my time there I assisted the Service Desk Manager in building the Service Desk team into one I am proud of. The 24/7 aspect of the ADAM CHANDLER service was always intended to be offered to multiple Law firms and while at Simmons & Simmons I saw this being achieved. As this part of the service expanded, the service evolved in to a separate entity and I was given the opportunity to manage the team.
What does your current role entail? Plan-Net’s newly named ‘Plan-Net 24’ offers a service in providing 24/7 professional IT support specifically to law firms. This means the team need to have a good understanding of multiple law firm applications and needs, so that regardless of who is contacting us, the end-user considers the team as part of their internal service desk and not a call centre. As Service Centre Manager, I work closely with the team, the clients and on-site service desks to ensure that we are providing the best service and working seamlessly as one IT support function. I also keep a close eye on what is occurring within the team and at the clients’ sites so we can focus additional resource where it will be most beneficial.
What do you enjoy about your work? I’ve always thrived in a busy environment that has a sense of humour, Plan-Net 24 offers exactly this. We ensure that the customers receive a professional and high level service from us while balancing this with a friendly and social mix within the team.
EMPLOYEE FOCUS
EMPLOYEE FOCUS
GETTING TO KNOW ADAM CHANDLER, SERVICE CENTRE MANAGER AT PLAN-NET 24
What has been your biggest challenge? Since taking the reins, Plan-Net 24 has expanded significantly. We have taken on new clients and built up the team so that we have resource to look after existing clients and are prepared for future ones. The challenge has been to make sure the right team members join and to ensure they have the high level of knowledge that is required to support our clients. I have faced this by tailoring the recruitment process to meet our demands. Knowing Law firms’ requirement for analysts who are adept in Microsoft Word, all analysts are tested on their ability before considered for interview. In the interview they are assessed on their fit in the team as well as on their investigative and technical skills.
What has been your biggest achievement? It sounds like the obvious answer, but I am proud of where I stand as Service Centre Manager for Plan-Net 24. I’m not going to say it’s always smooth running, IT never is, but the team have successully managed through everything that has passed their way and show an eagerness to improve themselves and the service centre. I hope that I have helped in building this into the team in some small way and look forward to leading them to achieve all of our goals.
What advice would you give to those looking to progress in the world of IT? IT is an ever changing entity and that qualification you gained three years ago is now redundant. I believe that managers want to see the impact you provide and that is the best way to progress. Whether this means completing your job to the best of your ability and proving your technical and investigative prowess; or if you see areas of improvement and can offer feasible ideas and/or solutions that will add to what we do.
And finally, what do you do for fun? My wife and I are keen travellers and we never stay in one place on holiday. We have climbed a mountain and scuba-dived in some of the most beautiful places in the world, but some of my favourite trips have been closer to home in the UK. adam.chandler@plan-net.co.uk 7
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PERSPECTIVES
Perspectives | summer 2013
The Real Story Behind Service Desk Performance in Law Firms As a managed services provider to the legal industry we get to see the mechanics of existing Service Desks before we engage. Our approach is to take 12 months’ worth of tool and ACD data and analyse it to the point where almost every second of a Service Desk’s life is accounted for. The results make interesting reading and raise a number of issues that are handled in ways that are pretty much unique to the Legal industry. Richard Forkan, Director at Plan-Net plc, richard.forkan@plan-net.co.uk
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To Manage, First You Must Measure. Basic metrics of a Service Desk’s performance can be constructed in a number of ways but the ‘giveaway’ measures are usually; First Time Fix (FTF) - We define this as a fix applied on the first call without further escalation or input from elsewhere, Service Desk Resolution (SDR) defined as a fix applied by the service desk without escalation regardless of time taken, and finally, Abandonment rate (taken from the ACD and usually split with a threshold.) The ACD metrics tend to be a fair reflection of fact, but a Service Desk tool will only produce statistics based on input, so it is important to ascertain exactly how comprehensively the staff use it before relying on the data. (Our view would be that everything should be recorded for a number of good reasons but that’s a separate article on its own.)
‘Requirements’ Versus ‘Needs’ – an Important Distinction So, assuming the content, definitions and categorisations are correct it is then possible to start taking a view of the effectiveness (or not) of a Service Desk. But before any judgements can be made it is important to understand the culture of a business and ‘requirements’ of the user community. I use the word ‘requirements’ here because this is the first issue that occurs in Law firms, but not in too many other commercial environments. When assessing a user group for support we would usually be thinking about ‘needs’, by that I mean what type of support does a user actually ‘need’ to be able to perform his/her role to an acceptable standard. From this set of needs we would build the most efficient way of delivering them to achieve maximum service
for least cost. (The key word here is ‘efficient’). However, uniquely, in some Law firms a culture exists where a user’s ‘needs’ are confused with a user’s ‘requirements’. This can be as simple as the standard mantra of ‘I know the business is a Blackberry house, but I require an iPhone’. This is not to say the user shouldn’t necessarily have an iPhone, but the distinction must be made that it is not something they need to do their job.
‘Role Model’ – Best Practice Service Desks When building Service Desk models however, ‘needs’ versus ‘requirements’ can produce sizable cost differences and cause huge issues with Service provision and not just because one of the Partners insists on Apple kit. As a Service provider our starting point with a Service Desk is always efficiency. By that I mean, how is the fastest, most efficient fix speed and accuracy achieved to enable the user to return to working (billing) as fast as possible. As a starting point, the way to achieve the greatest efficiency is to build a desk that fixes as many issues as possible from that central desk location either on the phone or by using remote tools. To achieve this it is important to make two things clear to the business. The Service Desk staff at the first line are just that, and are not permitted to wander off and perform desk side fixes. An analyst at a Service Desk can achieve far more by not spending chunks of the day physically moving around. Evidence proves, that when configured correctly a model like this can achieve 90%+ SDR which supports the argument. Users are required to call the desk and not encourage face to face attention from IT. Genuine desk side fixes are then attended to by a dedicated team of a size applicable to the volume of work.
So, why isn’t Everyone Doing It? The issue with this model for some Law firms is that users, and by this I mean Partners, are able to, by the nature of their position, dictate their ‘requirements’ to IT which are often understood or accepted as needs. The most costly of these ‘requirements’ is the perceived need for a Support Analyst to physically attend a desk for the simplest of issues or in worse case scenarios actually ‘hang around the work place just in case there is a problem’. This has a double whammy effect on costs. Firstly, desk side support staff are more expensive than service desk staff, and are not as productive because of the amount of time spent in transit between floors, buildings, rooms etc., so why have more of them than are absolutely necessary. Secondly, instead of a user receiving a fix remotely in a short period of time, he or she will wait for a desk side visit, chew the fat with the Analysts, move out of his/her seat and finally get back to work after a needlessly long period of time. The Partners reticence to change is understandable though. The combination of the constant pressure to account and bill for every minute of your working day with any past frustrations or even just perceptions of unreliable, faceless Service Desks is more than a fair rationale for wanting excessive desk-side presence to ‘sort your IT problem out quickly’. However, if proper time and investment is made to address Service Desk issues and turn it into a responsive and high-performing operation, Partners’ confidence and satisfaction will definitely increase, but at the same time the whole firm will immediately benefit from the efficiency gains and subsequent increased billing and profit.
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Perspectives | summer 2013
Microsoft MIGRATION? MANAGE THE PAIN By Adrian Polley, Technical Service Director, adrian.polley@plan-net.co.uk
Windows XP has been Microsoft’s most successful desktop operating system, but few can have escaped the fact that Microsoft’s support for it goes end-of-life in April next year, and indeed for Office 2003. This raises some interesting challenges. Back in the day, a major desktop upgrade was something that happened regularly every few years, and departments got used to the pain and the cost.
But the success of Windows XP has meant many firms haven’t needed to perform a desktop upgrade for some time. They’ve forgotten how painful it can be when things go wrong, and in many cases, as staff have moved on, no longer have the knowledge of how to do it well. IT departments fear desktop upgrades. It’s not just the costs and the effort involved. It’s the fact that that the project, unlike many others that the IT department undertakes, is extremely visible to the end users. In organisations where those end-users have
a high value to the firm – such as in finance, law and other professional services firms – their opinion about the IT they’re provided with carries a lot of weight. Get it right and the IT department can bask in a warm glow of success and user satisfaction, at least in the short term. Get it wrong and it can set relations between IT and the business back by several notches. So here are our thoughts on two ways to better manage the pain of a your Microsoft Migrations.
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1. GET ORGANISED, AND USE THE RIGHT TOOLS
Managing a successful desktop migration ultimately comes down to successfully managing data. Most project managers start out by considering the information they need to keep tabs on – and it quickly becomes a bit scary. First there’s the list of users and their department and location. That’s not static as people come and go and move around. Then there’s the existing and new hardware lists and whether they’re compatible with the new systems. Then there’s applications and their compatibility and packaging statuses. Once you’ve evaluated all the sources of information, you then realise that you have to manage the links between them i.e. which user depends on which applications and has what hardware available to them. Keeping tabs on these things, particularly as they change and evolve over the course of the project is a major headache. Most people go with what they know and create spreadsheets to manage the information. But trying to manage version of these so that everyone in the project is working off the same data is a major challenge. And using spreadsheets to drive a deployment schedule is a thankless task. Plan-Net has been helping companies with desktop migrations for over 20 years, so we know just how challenging this data management problem is. It’s often well worth investing in the right tools and software to help you with this challenge. One piece of software we’ve come across that is particularly useful is Dashworks from Juriba. It works on the premise of creating a single version of the project truth which means doing away with managing multiple versions of multiple spreadsheets. With everything organised in one place it can significantly help the project manager make faster, more accurate project decisions and accelerate the migration readiness.
2. GET READY WITH THE RIGHT RESOURCE
Even if your migration is planned to perfection, the reality is here still will be significant additional work that needs to be done alongside continuing to support the business as usual. The options to manage this tend to be either managing the extra workload through overtime and weekend work on the existing IT team, or run the service desk under capacity. This second option just makes what’s already a complex process even more painful for the users, whilst the first option is not only expensive but tends to exhaust and de-motivate. There is also the alternative of using contractors but that does mean you need to find the right people with the right skills and available at the right time, which is where the management and administration time starts to creep up – meaning more disruption. One of the key areas where our clients find Plan-Net’s Co-Sourced Support valuable is in specifically helping with migration project support. This takes all the pain out of finding the right type of flexible resource and provides them with cost effective additional capacity so they can manage the project successfully. Depending on how the client wants to run things, Plan-Net can either provide the project team or backfill other support roles whilst the client’s IT team focuses on delivering the project. Either way, the migration process can run smoother and with less pain for all involved.
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Perspectives | summer 2013
WIN £50 of M&S VOUCHERS PRIZES
delivered to you in a limited edition Plan-Net Mug
How to enter: Complete the crossword clues. The letters from the shaded boxes will form a popular summer event. Email people@plan-net.co.uk and all correct entries will be put into a prize draw. Deadline for entry: 31st August 2013
LAST ISSUE’S WINNERS
Across 1. Biscuit or Cake is its debate (5) 4. Ben Youngs is half a one (5) 7. Business Continuity Planning in Short (3) 8. Antony Gormley’s Northern Lady (5) 9. Homo Sapien (5) 10. Kiss (4) 11. Child (6) 14. Its government contributes funding to the organisation on page 6. (6) 15. Muslim leader (4) 18. A shade of blue (5) 20. Line dance (5) 21. Bank on Page 4 22. Test phase of a project (5) 23. Lots of words (5)
Down 1. Item of clothing (5) 2. Makes a loud noise (7) 3. Capable (4) 4. This cat’s from Egypt (6) 5. The fun part of a Mojito (3) 6. The painter on page (5) 12. Nuts (7) 13. Billboards, flyers and commercials are types of this (6) 14. Pain (5) 16. Full of Content, weighty synonym (5) 17. Results out in Summer (4) 19. Web address (3)
Ian Grayson, IT Director at AON & in Plan-Net, Matthew Pettit, Head of Internal Account Management. Enter our competition before the deadline and next time the winner could be you!
NOTE FROM THE EDITORS: Once again, thanks to those who contributed to this issue. If you want to contribute to the next newsletter or just provide us with some helpful feedback on this issue, please email newsletter@plan-net.co.uk. We would welcome your comments and news.
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