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GAZETTE

JULY/AUGUS

T 1982

Dos

1. Do make sure that local hardware maintenance is

available, including an inventory of parts and

trained personnel. This is especially important

where the system is to perform the word

processing function, which cannot be down for

hours, much less days. Do not be caught having

to send your equipment back to the factory to be

serviced.

2. Do attend a practical demonstration of all the

functional requirements that you have determin-

ed are necessary. Hold this demonstration in the

vendor's place of business and not in another law

firm. You should not be prejudiced by another

law firm that may or may not have made an

appropriate decision.

3. Do buy hardware only from a company that has a

solid background. With the myriad computer

companies, especially microcomputer vendors,

now providing equipment, it is a certainty that

failures will occur. The market is changing too

rapidly for firms to consider equipment from

companies still in the early stages of growth.

4. Do require that the hardware and software

vendors provide efficient, well written

documentation with the system. This docu-

mentation should be written so that a

nontechnical individual in the office can operate

the equipment and perform the desired functions

by reading the documentation.

5. Do hold acceptance tests (these criteria should be

documented in the contract). Acceptance tests

are tests performed, using the equipment to be

purchased, to prove that the equipment and

software work to the satisfaction of the

purchaser. Monies should not change hands until

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the acceptance tests have been completed to the

purchaser's satisfaction.

6. Do project five and ten year growth volumes and

require that the vendor(s) provide you with

calculations depicting the required memory size

and disk storage capacity. These volumes should

be couched in terms of accounting transactions,

numbers of timekeepers, and the like. If the

vendor is unable to provide such calculations, do

not deal with them.

7. Do prepare a formal Request for Proposal for

subsmission to all vendors. This will ensure that

vendor responses are more easily compared. In

addition, the RFP should state that vendor pro-

posals will be incorporated by reference into the

contract. This helps insure more accurate

responses.

8. Do investigate law firm references of similar size

and practice that have purchased systems from

the vendor under consideration. If you will be the

largest firm to install the system to date, be very

cautious.

9. Do request some financial data (income

statement, number of employees, number of

installations and dates) from the software

supplier. In many cases, these companies are

small businesses with relatively little financial

resources and assets. Their potential for

bankruptcy is high. Remember that the software

is the most important component of the system.

10. Do purchase a system that can be configured

with a letter quality printer. Even if you do not

intend to perform word processing functions,

final billing capabilities are a must.

Don'ts

1. Don't let the vendor (or salesperson) define your

requirements. Many salespersons of the large

established vendors to law firms have become

fairly knowledgeable regarding law firm

operations and needs. However, with the advent

of newer systems and more software, one should

not expect the salesperson to be very familiar

with small law firm operations.

2. Don't purchase a software package that has not

been installed before with other law firms.

Smaller law firms should not undertake pilot

projects or become test sites for vendors. The

potential for the project to go sour is too great.

3. Don't purchase a computer that cannot expand

its internal memory, disk capacity, and

peripheral devices. If the system cannot expand

commensurate with the projected requirements

for disk storage and peripheral devices (video

terminals, printers) for a five and ten year period,

the system should not be purchased.

4. Don't purchase a system that does not have a

removable medium to perform back-up. The

system must be able to copy information from the

primary medium to floppy disk, hard disk or

magnetic tape for storage.

5. Don't buy a system without a software

maintenance agreement. If the vendor is unable

to guarantee support of the software, in effect,

the software is useless.

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