“Partnering with Covisia is just like having a full-time IT person but without having to pay someone a full-time IT salary and benefits. We estimate that working with Covisia is about 25 percent of the cost of hiring someone to do the same work.”
Frank Tessitore, Partner
O’Donnell & Tessitore LLP
Key Benefits - Covisia Solutions Managed Services
· Lower cost – 25 percent of hiring a full-time IT professional.
· Stable computer network – downtime almost never occurs.
· Easy to access technical help – remote support capability resolves problems faster.
· Willingness to help with any problem – even those that don’t fall under scope of coverage.
THE CHALLENGE
As a small law firm, O’Donnell & Tessitore LLP faces IT challenges similar to most small businesses. The firm can’t afford to have significant computer downtime, and hiring a full-time IT support person to maintain and respond to emergencies on servers, printers and PCs would be cost-prohibitive.
“We need to focus on our core business, which is to provide legal services to our clients,” said Frank Tessitore, one of the firm’s partners. “It does not make sense for us to allocate resources to maintain our computers. But we also need our network to function properly all of the time so that it doesn’t negatively impact our business.”
O’Donnell & Tessitore LLP recognized the value of outsourcing the support of its computer network in the early 1990s when networking first became viable for small businesses. “We learned a long time ago that in addition to the cost of hiring an IT professional, it’s also costly to keep an internal resource up-to-date on the latest technology,” Tessitore said. “Technology is constantly changing, so we would need to invest regularly in keeping an internal resource current on the latest technology.”
Because of these factors, the firm searched for a managed support services partner it could count on to keep the computer network running and to keep the firm up-to-date on the latest technology.
THE SOLUTION
More than 15 years ago, O’Donnell and Tessitore LLP decided to work with DeVA Systems, and even as company ownership changed hands, and as the company name changed to Covisia Solutions, the law firm has maintained the partnership because of the consistent level of services provided. As part of the managed services contract, Covisia provides remote system monitoring and maintenance; help desk support; and on-site services to fine-tune the network and to ensure all components function properly. Covisia is also available for emergencies and responds first by remote access and then on-site as needed. This methodology allows Covisia to solve 80 percent of IT-related issues right away without losing valuable time driving to the firm’s offices. Covisia also made it possible for employees to work easily from home by deploying a seamless and secure remote access solution via Citrix.
In addition to preventative maintenance and emergency responses, Covisia handles all strategic IT initiatives and major technology deployments. In 2006 Covisia moved the firm’s servers and network to new offices and created a central server room. “They helped us coordinate the move with our phone and cable providers,” Tessitore said. “Covisia also worked on a Friday night and over the weekend to minimize our overall business-hours downtime.”
In 2007, Covisia upgraded their Microsoft Active Directory environment to implement a new file and print architecture and to provide a higher level of redundancy. Covisia also meets formally with O’Donnell & Tessitore LLP to discuss new technologies and to create a technology road map of what makes sense for the firm to deploy based on a combination of benefits and cost. “But the system engineers also do this on an informal basis during their preventative maintenance visits,” Tessitore said. “If they know of a new technology we should consider taking advantage of, they let us know and give us the information we need to make the right decision.”
O’Donnell & Tessitore LLP also works with legal software vendors, and when needed, Covisia will interact with the vendors to help determine the cause and resolution of problems. “Covisia does not try to hand-off problems to someone else,” Tessitore said. “Instead they help pinpoint the problem and will even get on the phone with our software vendors to help isolate problems and discuss what Covisia has already checked. This helps us get our vendors to the point where they will help us. They sometimes push back, but Covisia helps convince them when they need to take care of the problem.”
THE BENEFITS
Over the course of the 16-plus year relationship, O’Donnell & Tessitore LLP has found the Covisia partnership to be much more cost efficient than hiring a full-time IT specialist. “Partnering with Covisia is just like having a full-time IT person, but without having to pay someone a full-time IT salary and benefits,” Tessitore said. “We estimate that working with Covisia is about 25 percent of the cost of hiring someone to do the same work.”
Tessitore said that computer network emergencies have rarely occurred due to the preventative maintenance that Covisia provides. “They have also offered us a flexible emergency-response plan so that we don’t have to pay for a 7x24 plan, which we really don’t need,” Tessitore said. “We can also specify when responses are not urgent, which is another cost savings feature.”
The Citrix remote access solution deployed by Covisia has changed the way many of the firm’s employees now work. “We have the option working from home or while on the road for business trips,” Tessitore said. “This helps us expand our bandwidth when extra work needs to be done, especially during tax season, which is large part of our business.”
IN SUMMARY
O’Donnell & Tessitore LLP has now relied on Covisia Solutions to provide computer networking support for more than 15 years. The preventative maintenance visits by Covisia system engineers eliminate many problems before they occur, but when rare emergencies do happen, Covisia is able to quickly solve most problems remotely. The relationship between O’Donnell & Tessitore LLP and Covisia Solutions has grown to the point that the legal firm has complete trust that Covisia will advise and deploy the technologies that make sense for O’Donnell & Tessitore LLP so the firm can continue providing the best service possible to its clients.
“Through the past 15-plus years that Covisia Solutions has provided services to us, their system engineers have always demonstrated an unusual level of flexibility,” Tessitore said. “They are very supportive of us and strive to address any problems we have – whether or not the problems are related to the software and hardware they are responsible for. With Covisia, we don’t feel like a number, instead it feels like their system engineers are part of our team as they take a let’s-get-it-fixed approach. They show the same loyalty to us as a full-time employee would.”