Barriston LLP is Simcoe County’s largest full-service law firm, offering a comprehensive range of highly skilled legal services tailored to meet the needs of a diverse client base (large corporations, financial institutions, construction, retailing, municipalities, small businesses and individuals). The Barriston approach to service ensures that every client is treated as an individual rather than as a case.
THE BURNING PLATFORM
Before merging with Purser Dooley Cockburn Smith LLP to form Barriston LLP, Burgar Rowe had grown steadily over a period of years—a result accomplished by enabling and supporting their lawyers to consistently meet client needs. Technology remains a critical component for how the firm operates and delivers on its promises. Any downtime or loss of data would cost the Firm. The question was asked: “Do we have the technology infrastructure to support more growth?” The answer was no.
THE BUSINESS CASE
Burgar Rowe’s (and now Barriston’s) IT Manager, Vivian Manning, knew it was time to focus on ramping up the firm’s technology, especially after the latest increase in lawyers and staff and the addition of more remote offices. Vivian remembers, “We had small steady growth over a period of years and with the latest additions we reached our limit. We came to a point where our technology had to catch up.” All the partners understood the importance of this and signed off on the investment right away.
EXCEPTIONAL VALUE
Triella delivered exceptional value through:
- An in-depth technology assessment and gap analysis of the firm’s current systems.
- A detailed report which provided recommendations and unbiased choices, alternatives, strategies, and tactics for implementing the report’s recommendations.
- A high-level presentation to the executive committee of the audit findings.
- Delivering results within the mandate of the firm which included no unscheduled downtime and a complete infrastructure overhaul.
- Implementing a system to virtualize the firm’s network, using VMware.
- Providing remote access to applications through Citrix.
- Providing ongoing support and strategic insights to the firm’s IT department.
- Future work includes: moving from SBS to a full Window’s system and helping to sort out applications among the servers that are now present.
ENTER TRIELLA
The firm contacted Triella to conduct an audit on their technology. Triella presented a list of deficiencies and a roadmap to move the firm from where it was to where it wanted to be. Thus, when it was time to complete the upgrades, Triella was a natural choice since they were already familiar with the system and the firm’s needs. As well, from Vivian’s vantage point, “Charles is from a law firm background and familiar with the technology processes of legal firms and that gave us a great deal of comfort. Triella also had a great deal of project management experience and helping organizations through major technology changes.”
EXCEPTIONAL RESULTS
Vivian Manning is very pleased: “Our servers are now totally virtualized. If a server becomes corrupt we can revert back to a snapshot and be up and running again in a matter of minutes. We had a lot of confidence in Triella’s team and they lived up to it. ”