Published on 12-Jul-2006
Validated on 01 May 2009
"Avoiding the cost of the external solution means that the i520 will pay for itself within two years." - Jason Cummings, IT Manager, Mewburn Ellis LLP
Customer:
Mewburn Ellis LLP
Industry:
Professional Services
Deployment country:
United Kingdom
Solution:
Optimizing IT
IBM Business Partner:
Triangle
Overview
Mewburn Ellis LLP is one of the UK’s largest firms of patent and trademark attorneys. Founded in 1890, the firm helps its clients to protect their intellectual property in all corners of the globe, with a particular focus on the UK and Europe. Mewburn Ellis LLP has offices in London, Bristol, Manchester and Cambridge, employing 21 partners and 21 other qualified Patent Attorneys, Trade Mark Attorneys and lawyers.
Business need:
Reduce cost of disaster-recovery plan, and cut potential downtime; enhance performance of core business systems
Solution:
Worked with IBM Premier Business Partner Triangle to implement an IBM System i5 520 Express Edition solution – one of the very first sold in the UK; moved existing IBM iSeries system to different site
Benefits:
Mewburn Ellis LLP estimates that the System i5 solution could potentially pay for itself within two years, since the company no longer needs external contractors to manage its disaster-recovery program. The i520 delivered an immediate performance boost for overnight batch processes, cutting the batch run from approximately five hours to around 90 minutes. The company has also seen a 20 per cent improvement in response times for interactive users.
Case Study
Mewburn Ellis LLP (www.mewburn.com) is one of the UK’s largest firms of patent and trademark attorneys. Founded in 1890, the firm helps its clients to protect their intellectual property in all corners of the globe, with a particular focus on the UK and Europe. Mewburn Ellis LLP has offices in London, Bristol, Manchester and Cambridge, employing 21 partners and 21 other qualified Patent Attorneys, Trade Mark Attorneys and lawyers.
Much of the administration of patents and trademarks is moving from paper documentation to full electronic records, raising the importance of resilient IT systems for Mewburn Ellis LLP. The partnership had a contract with an external company to recover its core business applications within 72 hours of a total system failure. As reliance on electronic processes increases, the company wanted to reduce the recovery period and cut the costs associated with an external service contract.
Jason Cummings, IT Manager at Mewburn Ellis LLP, comments: “With the majority of important information stored in electronic form, we could no longer rely on temporarily working from paper copies while we waited 72 hours for core systems to be restored. Working with Triangle and IBM, we have cut our restore time to less than 24 hours, reduced annual costs and gained full control over recovery.”
Performance boost
Mewburn Ellis LLP engaged IBM Premier Business Partner Triangle (www.triangle-group.com) to implement a new IBM System i5 520 and move its former production server – an IBM iSeries system – to a different site. Triangle offers businesses a radical yet proven approach to the selection and deployment of solutions across all IBM hardware and software products.
Triangle installed the new server and upgraded the operating system to i5/OS V5R4, migrated Mewburn Ellis LLP’s applications and data, then conducted two weeks of testing to check everything was running as expected.
“We were aiming to complete the switch-over to the new i520 on the first day of the new financial year, which is a particularly busy time for the firm,” says Cummings. “It was crucial to get it right first time, and Triangle’s expertise and commitment helped us go live on schedule and with no problems.”
The new i520 runs core business systems for records management, accounting and billing, all developed in-house by Mewburn Ellis LLP. “The core value of the System i5 platform is its ability to run software developed on previous generations of the platform with no need for modification,” comments Cummings.
He adds, “The i520 delivered an immediate performance boost for overnight batch processes, cutting the batch run from five hours to around 90 minutes. This helps us complete monthly processes such as trademark renewals more quickly and efficiently. We have also seen a 20 per cent improvement in response times for interactive users.”
Rapid return on investment
Rather than pay an external supplier for disaster recovery, Mewburn Ellis LLP has its former iSeries server standing by to take over production. The firm can recover all core systems in less than 24 hours, reducing the risk to its productivity and business reputation in the event of a disaster.
“The old disaster-recovery solution left us reliant on a third party, and required us to wait for a new server to be delivered and installed,” says Cummings. “We now have a spare system ready to be used, and avoiding the cost of the external solution means that the i520 will pay for itself within two years.”
More options, low costs
While improved disaster-recovery capabilities were the key objective for Mewburn Ellis LLP, the firm also wanted more flexibility and capacity to grow. The System i5 520 offers Mewburn Ellis LLP ample performance and scope for further increases in workload, and i5/OS V5R4 offers improved application portability, simplified performance management and new features for modernising applications.
“The 5250 Web Facing tool in V5R4 will help us to create more user-friendly interfaces, whether for internal users or for external clients who log in to use our systems,” says Cummings. “Beyond the cost savings and performance improvements, the new IBM and Triangle solution gives us more options for the future.”
Products and services used
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Hardware:
System i: System i5 520 Express Configuration, System i: i5 Server, System i
Operating system:
i5/OS
Legal Information
PO Box 41 North Harbour Portsmouth Hampshire PO6 3AU The IBM home page can be found at ibm.com IBM, the IBM logo, and the eServer logo are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Other company, product or service names may be trademarks, or service marks of others. IBM and Triangle Group are separate companies and each is responsible for its own products. Neither IBM nor Triangle Group makes any warranties, express or implied, concerning the other’s products. References in this publication to IBM products, programs or services do not imply that IBM intends to make these available in all countries in which IBM operates. Any reference to an IBM product, program or service is not intended to imply that only IBM’s product, program or service may be used. Any functionally equivalent product, program or service may be used instead. All customer examples cited represent how some customers have used IBM products and the results they may have achieved. Actual environmental costs and performance characteristics will vary depending on individual customer configurations and conditions. IBM hardware products are manufactured from new parts,or new and used parts. In some cases, the hardware product may not be new and may have been previously installed. Regardless, IBM warranty terms apply. This publication is for general guidance only. Photographs may show design models. © Copyright IBM Corp. 2006 All Rights Reserved.
