Allen Matkins technology head Frank Gillman reviews his decision to become an early adopter of the new Windows 7 operating system

Deciding to become an early adopter for Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system was one of those moments when all of the stars aligned. It was time to replace the hardware at Allen Matkins, and we wanted to improve the efficiency and administration of our technology environment as well as help our lawyers be more effective with 24/7 access to mission-critical tools.

Windows 7 happened to become available at the right time, and the operating system performed as well as the marketing materials said it could. Allen Matkins is an entrepreneurial firm by nature, so this fact, coupled with our track record of choosing effective early solutions, made it relatively easy to gain firmwide approval.

Challenge: improve technology tools but retain old applications

At the start of 2009, Allen Matkins was dealing with several challenges that influenced the decision to upgrade our technology environment for the 500 employees working in seven offices across the state of California. Our goal was to create an environment that would help conserve costs and facilitate more timely service to clients. To support this goal, we recognised the need to improve our lawyers' technology tools while still supporting our older applications that work properly and meet our current business needs.

The majority of the computers were running an older version of Windows: the Windows XP operating system on 130 portable computers and Windows 2000 on 350 desktop computers. Many computers were still on Windows 2000 because we were early adopters of previous versions and wanted to maximise the investments we had made in purchasing and deploying them over the years.

Another challenge we faced was the vast array of specialised applications that our attorneys require for certain cases, practice areas and other specific uses. In many instances, these critical legacy applications only function on older operating systems, which discouraged us from making any wholesale upgrades or operating system changes.

This created additional problems. Having outdated images, for example, meant that restoring a failed computer could take as long as two-and-a-half hours. Because so many applications had to be installed manually, it could be easy to forget an application, resulting in additional delays for lawyers and an enormous burden on our IT staff.

We also needed to ensure our lawyers were always equipped to deliver superior client service, and to that end we provided third-party options for remote connectivity so that they could respond quickly to clients, wherever they were located. Yet instead of using the best connectivity method for the location, our attorneys tended to choose the one with which they were most familiar and comfortable. If that didn't work, they'd call us for technical support or opt for time-consuming alternatives. Both of those options created frustration on the part of our lawyers and unnecessarily consumed valuable time for all parties involved.

Solution: migrate to Windows 7

In March 2009, we had planned to upgrade our desktop infrastructure by adopting Microsoft Office Professional 2007 and move the 350 desktop computers on Windows 2000 to Windows XP. We did not view Windows Vista as an option. Although I had heard positive feedback about the capabilities of Windows 7, we were sceptical about the difference that it could make for our firm. However, after personally seeing the product in action, I told my team that we needed to move to Windows 7 right away.

A few reasons stand out in influencing this decision. First, I believe that Windows 7 can enhance our ability to serve clients. By providing our attorneys with a flexible remote access system, we can position them to improve client service worldwide. Doing so can increase the daily efficiency of each attorney to meet client demands and deadlines, and it can eliminate loss of billable time for administrative functions.

The firm also views Windows 7 as a solution to improving our professional and support staffs' access to resources. The DirectAccess feature in Windows 7 gives us fast, remote connectivity to corporate resources. We are finding that DirectAccess is flexible and easy to use and believe that our attorneys will find it easier to effectively connect remotely. Since DirectAccess can detect user needs, we're planning on time savings and reduced frustration for everyone.

Windows 7′s AppLocker feature is also important for better control of our software. The capability helps us to make sure that our users are kept from accidentally loading software or applications that cause their core applications to become unstable.

Solution: Microsoft application virtualisation

Another important solution for the firm is to extend our investment in existing software by running our dated applications in a virtualised environment. For those applications that are too old to work with Windows 7, we're using Microsoft application virtualisation, where the application layer itself is virtualised, not the entire operating system. This technology is part of the Microsoft desktop optimisation pack for software assurance and it enables us to run separate, virtual versions of up to 30% of our applications. Microsoft application virtualisation is enabling us to continue to gain value from our older applications and maximise our investment.

We will soon be creating and running multiple virtual machines on a single computer running a Windows operating system. Each virtual machine can run a different operating system, such as Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 7. This enables our attorneys and professional staff to run older applications that do not work with Windows 7. We are not forced to replace those applications and can therefore adhere to our cost containment goals.

Implementation update

As of October, we had a pre-released version of Windows 7 running on 28 computers, nine of which are used by members of our IT department and the rest by word processors and other personnel. We used the Microsoft deployment toolkit to aid the initial installation and have found that the Windows 7 operating system does an excellent job of recognising new hardware.

The system automatically installs about 98% of the necessary drivers, so it takes significantly less staff time to make the computers fully operational. We will also upgrade several server computers to the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system to take advantage of image multicasting and other advanced features.

We've been pleased by the stability and performance of Windows 7. Our core applications run well on it and we anticipate that more of our software will be compatible when we expand our deployment across all of the firm's computers. We waited for the general release version of Windows 7 to broaden use and now plan to utilise Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 for future deployment and system updates.

System Center Configuration Manager lets us assess, deploy and update our servers, clients and devices across physical, virtual, distributed and mobile environments so that we can gain better control over our IT systems. It also addresses some of the challenges that we experienced by ensuring that IT systems comply with the firm's desired configuration to improve availability for our attorneys, along with increasing security and overall performance across Allen Matkins.

Benefits to date

While we are still early on in the Windows 7 roll-out, we are already realising benefits. We have eliminated several third-party products, such as those that provided us with remote connectivity options. We expect an annual licensing saving of up to $60,000 (£37,516).

We are also utilising energy efficient features in Windows 7 to realise related cost savings due to Windows 7 improved sleep mode. We've found that sleep mode recovery with Windows 7 is far more seamless than with other operating systems. Since waking from sleep mode quickly reconnects the computer to network resources, our users are less likely to switch away from the energy efficient default settings. We're expecting this use of energy saving features to continue as implementation expands for ongoing savings.

Another benefit that we have realised is increased maintenance efficiency. Our IT staff are restoring Windows 7 computers five times faster than before, and the restored computer receives the right applications automatically. This is enabling everyone to get back to work more quickly.

Like most firms, we had to reduce the size of our IT staff in response to the recent economic downturn. Windows 7 is helping us to increase the efficiency of our team and improve their ability to run our firm more smoothly. We now have more time for higher-priority tasks.

As the roll-out expands to more lawyers and professional staff, we expect that our users will be able to think less about technology and more about serving clients. We can see how Windows 7 will increase their efficiency due to better remote connectivity so they can be more responsive to clients.

Frank Gillman is the chief technology officer at Allen Matkins Leek Gamble Mallory & Nastis. A version of this article first appeared in Legal Week sister title Law Technology News.