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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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