Consumerization of IT Leads Enterprise to Embrace App-Store Model

May 15, 2012 - by Debbie Stephenson

Recent technology developments and trends, most notably cloud computing and the emergence of mobile devices in the workforce, is raising the expectations from end users for new levels of service from enterprise IT. The ‘consumerization’ of IT has led to users demanding not only the sophisticated technologies that they enjoy on their own devices, but also the flexibility and on-demand convenience to which they have grown accustomed to with app stores. That’s why many big enterprises are now leveraging the popularity of app-stores within their business.

Generic vs. Specialized Document Sharing in the Cloud

May 9, 2012 - by Phil Adrien

There has been a lot of buzz around the new entrant into the cloud-based document sharing space with the recent announcement of Google Drive. But not all cloud-based document sharing is the same. Specialized document sharing solutions address a fundamentally different set of business problems than a generic document sharing solution does.  So where do generic document sharing solutions end and specialized document sharing solutions begin?

The Cloud will Drive Technology Mergers and Acquisitions in 2012

Feb 28, 2012 - by Phil Adrien

According to Bloomberg, 2011 M&A deal volume in the technology industry surpassed $200 billion. Technology deals saw a gain of 36 percent outpacing an advance of about 4 percent for all M&A worldwide. Indicators suggest industry takeovers in 2012 could surpass the recent 2007 high. In 2007 takeovers reached $264.4 billion, the biggest year since 2000’s record high of $585.2 billion.

Consumers and workers alike are becoming increasingly mobile and cloud-based service providers are looking to extend cloud access from desktop and laptops to mobile devices and tablets. Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Google and HP are looking for deals that will provide increased storage, analytics and security for enterprise in the cloud.

What’s Ahead for the M&A Market in 2012 and Beyond? - Webinar Recap

Jan 17, 2012 - by Joel Lessem

Today we enjoyed an in-depth outlook of the M&A Market in 2012  with Dennis Roberts, author, Chairman and CEO at The McLean Group. His insights into how cross-border deals, technology, healthcare and an aging baby boomer population are affecting the M&A landscape, were invaluable.

Dennis spoke to the impact of new technologies on business, citing that 40% of S&P 500 companies were not there 10 years ago. He also discussed how an aging baby boomer population has accelerated growth in healthcare, pharma and biotech. He also referenced specific data related to the last year, revealing that in 2011,  one in three M&A transactions in the U.S. were cross border deals.

Top 3 reasons why SaaS is critical in a successful IT strategy

Jul 19, 2011 - by Joel Lessem

The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model of internet-based software has already transformed the way we manage our personal lives and analysts continue to predict that SaaS will further revolutionize the workplace for several key reasons:

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Five ways your firm can avoid malware threats

Apr 8, 2011 - by Randy Rosenberg

The Globe and Mail reported on April 6 2011 that four top law firms had fallen victim to cyber attacks originating from China:  Major law firms fall victim to cyber attacks

The attacks were aimed at stealing sensitive data related to high value mergers and acquisition transactions.  Hackers used email to pose as a partner working on the deal, and were able to embed attachments that contained malware, successfully infecting dozens of computers and comprising several sensitive documents.   To defend against this growing threat, many firms have chosen to take measures such as storing documents in secure third party facilities, and are realizing the benefits of secure online file sharing, known as cloud computing.

Sophisticated cloud computing solutions limit the opportunity for hackers or infected users to penetrate security layers and access confidential data.   Authorized end-users can view, upload, and change documents, but they are not able to run programs on the server - making malware based attacks impossible.

Economic Forecasts for the Industrial World (or Not so Industrial Anymore)

Oct 26, 2010 - by Joel Lessem

Last week I attended a breakfast with Craig Alexander the Chief Economist – TD Bank.  It was a refreshing experience given all the noise and uncertainty coming out the media regarding the economy. Here are the broad strokes:

• Europe and North American are becoming a smaller part of the global economy
• As a percentage of Global GDP the “Industrialized World” has gone from c. 70% in 1990 to 50% today and that trend will continue as emerging markets will represent 70% of the world GDP by 2025 or so
• The “Industrial World” businesses will constantly have to improve productivity to compete

Alexander predicts that North America will face slow growth (approx. 2-3%) over the next 5-7 years.  Europe is in a significant bind.  Governments are supposed to save money in the good times and spend money in the bad economic times to stimulate the economy.  Unfortunately many of the EU nations spent money in the good times, and now that the economy has soured and their tax revenues have fallen off – they have nothing but huge debts, deficits and shrinking revenues – and rather than spend to save their economies they are faced with “austerity” measures.  Worse, there is little appetite for spending cuts from their electorate – in other words they are rioting and going on strike.  Unlike Toronto that just elected a Mayor on a platform of spending cuts – some European populations appear to believe money grows on trees and it’s not their collective problem.  As a result, Alexander believes a number of countries (Spain, Greece et al) could exit the EU and restructure (i.e. print lots of money to pay off their debts).

Corporations Choose SaaS Solutions for Secure Online File Sharing

Sep 16, 2010 - by Aaron Booth

In the past six months, we’ve noticed that corporations of various sizes across multiple industries have been turning to SaaS solutions to share large volumes of critical information beyond their office firewall.  More specifically energy, biotech, manufacturing, health care and pension fund sectors have been actively seeking a more secure way to share and collaborate internally and with external parties.  It appears that no matter what business you are in or what your businesses processes are, there is always a need to securely share large volumes of information easily and cost effectively.  Email, FAX and courier are not secure enough and continue to be cumbersome and prone to error.

Historically, sharing documents online in virtual data rooms have primarily been used for due diligence in M&A , fund raising, refinancing, and real estate transactions.  Corporations are now recognizing the value of sharing information online to complement or improve document intensive processes, streamlining real world business challenges such as RFPs, Engineering, Procurement and Construction compliance, financial reporting, audits, board communications or simply having an accessible repository of key legal documents.   Documents are often more secure online than stored on in-house computers, flash drives or distributed as attachments using email.  Using Firmex, clients organize and access literally millions of documents in a SAS 70 compliant environment with encryption transmissions, and fully segmented and secure databases with mission critical redundancy, which is often not the same environment that office computer storage provides.

Offsite data back up: Another cloud computing benefit

Aug 25, 2010 - by Nicole Black

One of the benefits of using a cloud computing platform in your law practice is offsite data back up and business continuity.  It’s a convenient and simple solution for data back up, it happens automatically and gives you one less thing to worry about.

Not only that--it can sometimes be a lifesaver. If your files are stored in the cloud, they are safe from inadvertent data loss caused by, for example, a local computer or server failure or a natural disaster.

For example, this article from The Telegram, describes how, in June 2010, a Canadian law firm’s office building caught on fire and the offices of the law firm, Roebothan McKay Marshall were completely destroyed.

The Economics of Cloud-based Software Services

Aug 5, 2010 - by Nicole Black

One of the most common benefits touted by cloud computing proponents is the economic benefit of switching to the Cloud. With SaaS, there’s no need to purchase servers and software; no need to pay expensive annual licensing fees or software upgrade fees; no need to hire IT staff to maintain the servers and stay on top of software updates.

The software upgrade and installation song and dance with which most law firms are familiar becomes a thing of the past with SaaS-based services. Before cloud computing, law firms purchased and installed desktop or server-based legal software. In many cases, with traditional legal software, software updates are provided free of charge for a specified period of time after the initial installation of the software, but an additional annual licensing fee must be paid for access to updates after that time period expires.

With cloud-based services, you simply pay a monthly fee and the SaaS provider hosts the software for you, at no additional cost. You don’t have to worry about keeping track of and installing software updates. The provider automatically updates the software for you on their end. After the update is complete, the next time you log into your account, the changes to the software system will be in place, ready for you to use.