Holland & Knight

Global Law Firm Enhances Client Services with Windows Vista

To manage growth and improve current IT management, Holland & Knight has embarked on a test pilot of the Windows Vista™ operating system with the aim of improving search capabilities, enhancing security, capitalizing on IT to provide business continuity, simplifying application updates, increasing the firm’s ability to serve its client base, maintaining Holland & Knight’s reputation as a company with cutting-edge technology, promoting rigorous testing and standardization (hallmarks of the firm), and improving remote access capabilities.

A TCO analysis conducted by IDC indicated that once the firm upgrades to Windows Vista, it can anticipate saving U.S.$334 per PC annually in IT support costs and user labor:

• IT labor is projected to decrease by 36 percent, or $129 per PC.
• User labor is expected to decrease by 29 percent, or $205 per PC.

IDC estimates that Holland & Knight will realize a 610-percent return on investment and a payback period of three months.

Situation

Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Holland & Knight LLP is one of the world’s top law firms, with over 3,000 employees worldwide, 1,200 attorneys, and U.S.$550 million in annual revenues. The firm provides representation in a wide variety of areas, including litigation, business, and government law. A one-firm structure and interdisciplinary approach allows Holland & Knight to offer services globally to growing number of clients.

Currently, Holland & Knight operates 3,000 client systems. This includes:

• 70 percent desktop computers, 28 percent notebook computers, and 2 percent Tablet PCs across 20 locations
• Utilizing 280 applications, eight of which are critical line-of-business applications
• Utilizing four images
• Running the Windows® XP Service Pack 2 operating system
• HP and Compaq hardware
• Microsoft Systems Management Server

We are excited about the opportunity to leverage the technology of Windows Vista. Our professionals will be able to more effective and efficiently serve our clients. Ralph Barber Chief Information Officer, Holland & Knight

The firm’s last corporatewide deployment involved the Windows XP Service Pack 2 operating system and Microsoft Office 2003 Editions. Holland & Knight has implemented many IT policies, processes, and practices that conform to a set of industry-standard best practices, including ITIL, ITSM, COBIT, and the Microsoft Operations Framework.

Security is a key aspect of Holland & Knight’s IT operation. At present, passwords with a security policy are the only tools in use for secure authentication. Windows technology is used to firewall 100 percent of the firm’s desktop and notebook computers. Although all desktops are safeguarded by antivirus software and spyware-fighting software, such is not the case for the company’s notebook computers. A virtual private network (VPN) provides remote connectivity for all notebook computers. Upgrading to the Windows Vista™ operating system will offer greater management flexibility and security.

The IT department’s image strategy calls for one corporatewide image, with limited customization by groups and users. The firm currently uses four images, so the anticipated reduction will result in significant cost savings.

Holland & Knight plans to use Microsoft Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) Lite Touch methodology when it undertakes its corporatewide deployment of Windows Vista. By incorporating BDD best practices, Windows Vista Lite Touch Installation has been significantly enhanced to gather information using zero-touch installation (ZTI) technologies. The Lite Touch script gathers entered data and the default configuration information to automate the Windows Vista deployment in bare-metal, machine-replacement, refresh, and upgrade scenarios.

Solution

Holland & Knight has deployed a Windows Vista pilot in a test lab environment within the IT department. The production deployment will be automated using Systems Management Server.

IDC estimates that it will cost Holland & Knight U.S.$35 in IT Labor per PC to deploy Windows Vista throughout the entire organization, with specific costs noted in Exhibit 1.

“We are excited about the opportunity to leverage the technology of Windows Vista. Our professionals will be able to be more effective and efficiently serve our clients," says Ralph Barber, Chief Information Officer at Holland & Knight.

Benefits

Based on the pilot, the Holland & Knight IT team believes that Windows Vista will deliver improved search, enhanced security, better image management, and improved service delivery.  The company is looking forward to moving from the pilot to broad deployment.

The workplace is changing. People are working on the road. Windows Vista will enable our increasingly mobile workforce. Ralph Barber Chief Information Officer, Holland & Knight

IDC projects that Holland & Knight can anticipate reducing annual IT labor support costs by 36 percent overall (40.5 percent for the service desk and 17 percent for desktop support). In addition, IDC research into organizations of similar size has shown that user time spent in self-service tasks such as troubleshooting one’s own or a peer's PC, installing and configuring applications or the operating system, rebooting, and recreating files reduce by 25 percent, generating $74 in user productivity improvements annually for each user.

The Windows Vista pilot at Holland & Knight has led to noticeable improvements and returned a host of benefits.

• Ability to install printer drivers at Holland & Knight client sites using Group Policy. "The workplace is changing. People are working on the road. Windows Vista will enable our increasingly mobile workforce,” says Barber.
• Enhanced security with Windows BitLocker™ Drive Encryption, which helps safeguard sensitive data in the event of the loss or theft of a computer. BitLocker prevents a thief who boots another operating system or runs a software hacking tool from breaking Windows Vista file and system protections or from performing offline viewing of the files stored on the protected drive.
• Reduced image management time from one week per image for the current four images to one day per image on a quarterly basis. Windows Deployment Services (WDS), the next version of Microsoft Remote Installation Services (RIS), provides for the storage, management, and deployment of images. WDS uses PXE (Pre-boot Execution Environment), which lets IT professionals automate client-PC management specification.  

The following savings have been identified for Windows Vista:

• 88 percent decrease in file search time, from 4 to a mere 0.5 minutes
• 75 percent decrease in minutes per month installing or configuring software applications, from 75 minutes with Windows XP Service Pack 2 to 20 minutes with Windows Vista
• 75 percent decrease in minutes per month troubleshooting peer PCs, from 75 minutes with Windows XP Service Pack 2 to 20 minutes with Windows Vista
• 55 percent decrease in minutes per month installing or configuring the operating system, from 20 minutes with Windows XP Service Pack 2 to 9 minutes with Windows Vista
• 50 percent average net gain in reboot time of 2 minutes per reboot

When users compared Windows Vista to previous operating systems, they gave particularly high ratings to the timesavings achieved. Windows SuperFetch™ scored 5 on a scale from 1 to 5, where 5 indicated an outstanding improvement over the previous operating system. Windows SuperFetch helps manage memory to get the most out of available RAM.

Outlook

Following its pilot deployment of Windows Vista, Holland & Knight will shortly deploy the new operating system at its Fort Lauderdale, Florida, location. Holland & Knight plans to deploy Windows Vista throughout the company within one year.

Windows Vista
Windows Vista can help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to find and use information more effectively. You will be able to support your mobile work force with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies to enhance corporate IT security, data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.

For more information about Windows Vista, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsvista

For More Information

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www.microsoft.com

For more information about Holland & Knight LLP products and services, call (813) 227-8500 or visit the Web site at:
www.hklaw.com

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.