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Technology Industry

Lay down the law - Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom L.L.P

Communications News, June, 2001

Service provider offers 24x7 infrastructure management.

Skadden Arps, one of the world's largest law firms, with locations around the globe, has long sought an alternative solution to the big carrier/one-stop shopping approach to WAN implementation and management. As a result, the firm initiated a one-year search and evaluation of viable alternatives, which resulted in a move to a multivendor, outsourcing approach to augment support of its WAN management.

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Skaddens' solution includes best-of-breed partners to provide the WAN infrastructure, including transport, hardware and integration. The firm engaged Genosys Technology Management to provide the 24x7 infrastructure management services for maximum uptime of the WAN and its components. Genosys, a management service provider (MSP), is utilizing its intelligent network operations centers (NOC) to provide proactive monitoring and fault resolution of WAN infrastructure components.

As Skadden's Enterprise Technology Manager Bob Carey states, "Experience has taught us that the single-vendor approach for managing our global WAN infrastructure simply does not work for us. Our objective was to solve this problem by finding a solution that provides us with the right balance of expertise and services from best-of-breed partners."

Skadden faced multiple challenges in support of its global WAN infrastructure, Carey says, because it did not have the right model in place to proactively manage and support its environment. "We all found this experience extremely frustrating because, first and foremost, our customers suffered. Our technical support staff also suffered due to its inability to provide the high level of service our customers require," he offers. "Additionally, our IT communications personnel were consistently bogged down with tactical management issues that kept them from completing projects that were strategic to the firm."

Secondly, Carey cites service-level agreement (SLA) management as inefficient. The company needed an effective process to monitor carrier performance and to recoup costs when carriers failed to comply with established SLAs. "Since these failures carry significant financial penalties, it pays to create a situation by which the carriers know they are being watched," Carey says.

Finally, Skadden's leverage in negotiating WAN component purchases was not as strong, Carey contends, since these were part of a carrier master deal. Within the context of this new arrangement, the company is free to negotiate deals independently.

"Our one-year search included multiple discussions with various vendors with similar offerings in the WAN implementation and management space," Carey says. "Our discussions focused on finding which service provider was best qualified to provide the depth of services that provided our internal and external customers with the most reliable service.

"While cost-effectiveness is always important, it was not the primary reason for choosing the multivendor approach," he adds. "For us, it was more about improving customer service by creating an appropriate balance of services based upon a simple premise: Let people do what they do best."

At the end of the search, Skadden had created a strong team of business partners with a shared commitment to effectively implement and manage an effective WAN management model. The solution includes all the critical components of a global WAN, and it allows the firm's business partners to focus on the strengths associated with their core competencies. Some of the components include: a telecom carrier (one for data, one for voice) to provide the firm with transport services; a data communications hardware supplier; and an integration partner who is able to leverage its expertise with Skadden's router and switch staging.

Finally, Skadden selected Genosys to provide the critical 24x7 fault monitoring and resolution to ensure maximum uptime of its WAN investments. "Working with Genosys provides us the ability to leverage its expertise in global infrastructure management, as well as its fully developed suite of network and application monitoring tools," Carey notes. "This precludes our firm from incurring the significant and ongoing expenses associated with purchasing the additional software and hardware necessary for effective WAN management.

"Our decision to move forward with this new approach to WAN support was one that was widely accepted by our technology organization," he adds. "The approval was based upon the reality that this solution would be a more effective way for Skadden to support our internal lawyers and support staff, and our firm's clientele."

Skadden reaps benefits from a cost perspective, as well. Contributing factors to the cost justification include: avoidance of capital outlay for management tools; leveraged economies of scale of an MSP with centralized NOC and staff; better negotiation point without a one-stop-shop approach means lower prices for WAN components; and improved SLA management provides more cost-effective carrier management going forward.

Technology Industry

Lay down the law - Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom L.L.P

Communications News, June, 2001

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