Second Opinions

How to Avoid Upgrade Exhaustion

By James A. Eidelman

LIKE continuing legal education, upgrading is a fact of law life. But you can avoid chaos if you follow these guidelines:

1. The Client and the Bottom Line

To win a case or close the deal, you do the right thing for the client. If you need a more powerful computer, a better scanner, or a certain application to win a case or to increase your revenues, then waiting for prices to come down is a false economy. If it won't impact the client or make money for you, then don't upgrade without another good reason.

2. Timing and Product Life Cycle

Obviously, you want to upgrade when the purchase will stand the test of time and give you the most "bang for the buck." To do that, you need to understand the technology product life cycle. Here is the product life cycle of any technology, where volume sold is the left axis and time is the bottom axis:

The very "early adopters" are the techies, followed by the visionaries or leaders who want to use the technology to advantage and are willing to figure out how to do it. The "late adopters" are those who want good references from others who are using the product, and they don't want to have to figure it all out themselves.

The best time to buy any technology is early enough in the product life cycle that you still have most of the useful life of the product ahead before it becomes obsolete (replaced by the next generation). With commodity products, such as processors, PCs, modems, and printers, there is a "sweet spot" in the market at any given time that optimizes value: late enough on the curve that prices have dropped and bugs are out of the product and the integration process; early enough that you still have most of the useful product life left.

There are overlapping curves for each generation of product. You'll see the curves rise and fall over the years for processors, modems, printers, and just about everything else as the products become faster, higher resolution, more powerful, and easier to use.

The second graph shows what the curve looks like, conceptually, for processors. Best times to buy are indicated by the star.

3. Timing and Staff

Some firms upgrade at the worst possible time. If key people are involved in getting out an important brief, don't make them change word processors in the middle, or upgrade the billing system at the same time.

The big cost of changes is not the hardware, but rather soft costs for training, conversion, and lost billable hours. Try to organize your upgrades so that people can be trained on several new things at once.

4. Enabling Technologies

Upgrade your hardware and platform to support enabling technologies. Sometimes a hardware or platform upgrade is needed to run the next generation of software. You had to upgrade from a 286 to a 386 to run the version of Windows that supported multiple applications in one window, and then Windows 95. These were major breakthroughs that allowed for more powerful and user-friendly software. Similarly, a fast Internet connection, a fast scanner, and a color printer all fall into this category.

Upgrade to the current versions of software. Most of the time, when publishers release new versions, they add features you want or need; improve performance; and/or fix bugs.

Once the word is out on the street that a new version of software is stable, go ahead and upgrade to stay current. Monitor vendor Web sites for "service releases" that plug security holes and fix problems. Most of these upgrades are easy to do, and may have a significant impact on how well your software runs.

5. Organize your hardware and software

When possible, use the same brand and model of computer for all of your attorneys and staff. Use disk imaging technology (such as Ghost) to make it easier to upgrade the systems. If you are customizing screens and creating macros, try to do it in a way that will be "upgrade friendly."

Finally, consider moving your software to an online "ASP" (application service provider), and let your ASP vendor handle upgrading.

James A. Eidelman is an attorney and consultant with Eidelman Associates.