“Tom assembled a terrific, knowledgeable staff and they routinely go above and beyond for us. We are very happy customers of theirs.”

Ben Stevens

BACKGROUND

The attorneys at The Stevens Firm, P.A. are highly skilled negotiators and litigators who represent individuals in all facets of family law. Their South Carolina family law firm attorneys regularly participate and teach in continuing legal education programs and are active in many professional organizations. They are proactive about keeping up to date with the latest technology to help ensure the best result in each case they take on. Over the years, as their firm grew, it became a challenge to keep up with updates, new users, and technology issues without cutting into the bottom line by using valuable billable hours on IT issues.

They found that hiring an outside IT expert wasn’t an ideal solution as they often had to wait too long before receiving help for issues that arose. They didn’t think they could afford the expense of an in-house IT expert but then they were introduced to GlobalMac IT. Since GlobalMac IT can remotely manage their resources, they didn’t have to give up precious office space along with the associated expenses. Yet, at the same time, they have all the benefits of an in-house IT team.

In hiring GlobalMac IT they had several primary objectives. They wanted to make sure that team members had a go-to resource when technology issues arose for them during the workday. They also wanted to have a sense of security that their law firm’s data was always protected, even if team members were working remotely or if the technology failed in any way. They wanted knowledgeable professionals to put in the time of researching and implementing appropriate system upgrades so they could get back to the business of practicing law. And as business owners, they didn’t want IT costs to break the bank!

APPROACH

Founding partners Jenny and Ben Stevens met Tom Lambotte at a Mac users conference in Orlando. “After hearing his presentation and talking through our firm’s set-up and challenges for a couple of hours, it was an easy decision to make. As we talked through issues, we were certain were ‘unique’ to our firm, he was able to suggest some very practical and creative solutions to every one of our concerns. We knew we had the right man/team for the job right then!” says Jenny.

The intake process included team interviews to determine the biggest challenges and issues they faced. Then GlobalMac IT developed a plan of attack for onboarding their services. A point of contact was assigned and team introductions were made. “They reached out to team members individually to assess workstation needs, then they implemented strategies to better manage the needs of the team as a whole,” says Jenny.

We were interviewed at each stage to make sure needs were met and expectations met or exceeded. We also were able to communicate by phone, email, and contact forms as new issues or questions were raised or if additional training was necessary along the way,” says Jenny.

A plan was made for which computers needed upgrading and which software needed to be included in deployment packages for their network. GlobalMac IT also worked to consolidate and create one central secure location for storing all usernames and passwords for accounts. A new email system was implemented with backups and secure access.

RESULTS

Among the many results that the Stevens Firm achieved were an increase in billable hours, reduced downtime, and fewer technology headaches. “The return on investment is you can spend your time practicing law instead of working on IT issues. The other big plus that is easily overlooked is the preventative maintenance that GlobalMac IT does. They monitor everything and keep our software up to speed before problems arise, which prevents downtime, lost productivity, lost income, etc.” says Ben.

“We definitely saw an increase in attorney productivity and our staff seemed to enjoy being more confident in their use of our technology resources. We love having new employees set-up remotely before they arrive (and we aren’t having to spend hours on the weekend to do it!). We see less downtime for our team members and we even are able to call GlobalMac IT to handle vendor issues. When the internet is out GlobalMac IT will take the lead with dealing with our local provider to get us back online as fast as possible,” says Jenny.

“I have to let my fellow family law attorneys know of a huge mistake I made for the first two decades of my legal career—handling most of my firm IT needs myself in order to save money. For instance, when one of our computers had a problem I thought the best course of action was to try to solve it myself instead of having a professional do so. All of that changed late last year when we finally realized that the best course of action was to outsource certain functions in order to allow us to spend more time doing what we do best—handle family law cases. We are beyond pleased with the results. They understand how to set up computer networks for law firms, and I don’t have to worry about issues arising, if they do, I know the team at GlobalMac IT will be there to save the day,” says Ben.