What actually breaks
Documents in three places and authoritative in none
A document management system, a shared drive somebody still uses, and attachments in individual mailboxes. The problem isn’t storage, it’s that no one can say which copy is current.
Email as the filing system
Correspondence that exists only in one lawyer’s mailbox is a continuity problem the day that person is unavailable, and a discovery problem later.
Calendaring that isn’t backed by anything
Limitation periods are the one deadline that doesn’t forgive an IT failure. If the calendar lives on a machine, it needs to survive that machine.
Confidentiality that assumes goodwill
Staff who can reach every matter because nobody set up who should reach what. Fine until it isn’t.
REMOTE FIRST, ON-SITE WHEN IT MATTERS
Why we don’t drive out for everything
Most of what a firm needs is remote work at $85/hr — mail, document management, software, access. On-site earns its keep for servers, network faults, and anything that shouldn’t leave the office. That’s $130/hr, quoted in full first, and included in Complete.
Pick-up and drop-off anywhere in the Edmonton area is $50 flat if a machine simply needs to come to the bench.
Client confidentiality is the whole job
You already owe your clients confidentiality, and PIPEDA applies on top. We’re not going to tell you what your professional obligations are — you know them better than we do. What we can do is make the technical half defensible: access that’s limited to what a person actually needs, admin accounts separated from daily-use accounts, backups somebody has restored from and dated, and a written record of where the files are. If a client or an insurer asks how the firm’s data is protected, that answer should already exist.
WHAT IT COSTS
Three tiers, and what each leaves out
Managed IT is $100 per user per month for Essential and $140 for Standard. Complete is quoted on scope.
Essential will not get you through a cyber insurance application. It has no backup and no threat detection — the two controls carriers scrutinise hardest. Standard is where most practices belong. The full breakdown is on the managed IT page, and the insurance side is on what cyber insurance requires.
Projects — migrations, new servers, office moves — are quoted separately at every tier. Nobody in this industry includes them.
Answered plainly.
Do you work with our practice management or DMS vendor?
Yes. We look after the environment their software runs in and the parts they hand back — server, backups, workstations, network — and we document which side owns what so nothing falls between the two.
Can you help with our cyber insurance renewal?
We can tell you honestly which of the eight controls are in place on your systems and which aren’t. We won’t tell you what to write on the form, and be wary of anyone who offers to.
What about staff who work from home?
That’s where MFA on remote access stops being optional — it’s also the single most common reason insurance applications get declined. It’s in every tier.
We already have someone. Is it worth talking?
Only if something isn’t working. We’ll look at what you have and tell you where you stand; if the honest answer is that your current arrangement is fine, that’s the answer you’ll get.
Tell us how many people, and what keeps going wrong.
Quotes are free. If the honest answer is that you don’t need a managed contract yet, that’s the answer you’ll get.