Complete IT Infrastructure Build - Regional Law Firm

The Challenge

Four partners of a large Southern California law firm decide to create a new firm of their own. While they had been considering this move for months, once they made the decision, there were only 22 days before their doors needed to be open. Compounding this problem was the fact that they had zero technology or telecommunications infrastructure to start with.

The Goals

With over 450 cases in active litigation, the possibility of extending the office opening date was not an option. Typically, a new IT infrastructure build for a firm of this size would be a 60 day project (not counting the planning stage). Acceleration was the new word of the day.

The Solution

Our Brazen team, along with the customer, immediately created a project plan, drafted an equipment list and created a tentative budget. A separate contingency plan was created, to address a number of issues that we knew could be show stoppers, and alternate solutions were outlined. Given the short time available, a step by step methodology could not be followed. Design, procurement and implementation became concurrent events.

In week one of the project we made our first site visit, only to find that the new office was still under construction. After meeting with the general contractor, we arrived at a compromise that would allow us to work around his other contractors and begin implementing the layer 1 infrastructure (Backup power, racks and cabling). Since the office had no doors and no locks a temporary staging area was created in Brazen's facility to receive and configure equipment prior to installation. We also found out during the first week that the blended T1 voice/data circuits the customer wanted were not even a possibility given our time frame. The best we would get would be analog lines for voice and DSL lines for data. Since the Voice over IP (VoIP) phone system the customer wanted could utilize T1 circuits or analog circuits, but not both, we began chasing down some loaner gear as well. By the end of week one, the voice/data circuits had been ordered, work was under way on the layer 1 infrastructure and the initial equipment order had been placed.

In week two, just as the initial equipment order began arriving and configuration had started, we found out that the employee count had grown by 20% and a second office would be opened. A call from the provider of the voice/data circuits alerted us that the connection needed from the customer's office to the telco room down the hall was not in place. The circuit was somewhere else in the building, but neither the provider nor the property manager could tell us where it might be. With the Layer 1 infrastructure under way, we began working with Time Matters (specialized software for the legal industry that tracks client information, court dates, billing, etc). While Brazen has application expertise with general business applications and messaging, we always bring in a specialist for industry specific or niche applications. As the work with Time Matters was being done, another Brazen engineer began loading and configuring all of the other necessary applications. While these tasks were under way another technician created an image that would be used to set up all of the PC's and laptops. This image would make setup much quicker, and also enable rapid redeployment of any failed machines down the road. By the end of week two the mysterious telco circuit was located, cabling was nearly completed, the second equipment order had been placed and a large portion of the equipment configuration had been completed.

On Monday of week three, there were still no locks on the office; a challenge as installation was slated to begin that day. By Wednesday morning the locks were in place and equipment began going into racks. Servers, network gear, storage arrays and a tape library were all installed and tested. A verification of the data was performed and the first backup was successfully run. On Thursday, final application testing began, PC's were set up (on furniture where furniture had been delivered, or on the tops of boxes where it had not been delivered), the network was brought up and wireless was enabled. By Friday morning the office had a fully tested and functional network. All that was needed now was a connection to the outside world. With the voice/data circuits scheduled to be turned up that afternoon, there was nothing to do but wait. In the meantime, the rest of the PC's had arrived and were set up. Printers, scanners and fax machines were configured and tested as well. On Friday evening the voice/data circuits were turned up and the first email ever sent from the customer's domain arrived at Brazen's headquarters. Congratulations were sent in return. However, this feeling of success was short lived. When the phone system was brought up on Saturday it did not work. A flurry of activity ensued and calls were made to the equipment manufacturer, to the provider of the voice circuits and to our engineers not already engaged on the project. As the other critical tasks were completed on Saturday, no resolution had been found with the phone system. On Sunday, a system's diagnostic showed a healthy phone system, and the carrier's diagnostics showed a healthy voice circuit, but calls could not be made or received. As the day continued, it was unclear if this problem would be resolved. If the issue was faulty hardware, parts would not arrive before Monday morning.

The Results

At 8am on April 3rd the phones began ringing. After a late night of troubleshooting, the issue was finally diagnosed as an incompatibility between the voice circuit settings and the phone system hardware. Once the provider of the voice ciruits made the appropriate changes, the system performed as expected.

Over the next few days, less critical details were addressed, documentation was created and minor trouble shooting was performed. The office was open for business, and to the outside world it appeared a fairly trouble free event.

A few weeks later the permanent voice/data circuits were brought up, the second office was brought online and connected via VPN (virtual private network), and even more equipment was installed to accommodate the firm's rapid growth. Brazen was pleased to be part of this process and proud to help the customer launch this new firm under some very difficult circumstances.