Law firms are increasingly opening multiple offices in disparate locations. This exposes communities to new expertise and enables firms to add clients in areas that were heretofore difficult, if not impossible.

Technology facilitates this outreach by enabling companies to easily maintain connections and transfer information. For example, people use email to share documents whenever they need to, wherever they are. The addition of office-wide networks enables firms to maintain access to centralized data and activity, like calendars, documents, boilerplate, time tracking and billing.

Such access and collaboration can enable new levels of production, but they do have a cost.

This level of collaboration requires 24/7 access to important data, work and communications from multiple locations. It requires a reliance on computers and networks like never before.

A network server must be purchased, maintained, occasionally fixed and its software kept current. Since servers usually provide access to the Internet, a whole new level of technology must be understood and implemented, for intrusion and virus detection. Remote access must also be provided, to facilitate staff working closely together when they are in different locations.

To put all this there and keep it functioning requires technical expertise. Thus, any firm that wants the benefits of such access and coordination must ultimately rely on knowledgeable IT people.

Historically, there have been two ways to deal with this situation: hire contractors to build and maintain a firm's servers and network (as well as to maintain computers and software in the office), or hire IT staff to build and maintain a firm's servers and network (as well as to maintain computers and software in the office).

In the first instance, average IT support costs can be prohibitive and unpredictable. Such costs only include the time it takes to design, purchase, implement and maintain a firm's IT infrastructure, and not the cost of hardware or software. While workable, this option can be expensive and impractical.

In the second instance, the cost of hiring technical staff and buying and maintaining hardware and software is simply out of reach of many offices.



onthenetOFFICE provides an Internet-accessible virtual office that any authorized person with an Internet connection can access and work in. This enables each member of a firm's office to log into the firm's account from wherever they are: home, a satellite office, a trade show, court, conferences, wherever. Once logged in, that person can access the exact same data (documents, time and payroll data, etc.) that coworkers access, and use the same applications to work together and complete the task at hand. This minimizes the inconvenience of losing track of document versions and enables centralized organization of documents and data. Everyone can know where the most current versions of documents and data reside.

Since our clients use our servers, onthenetOFFICE also eliminates the need for in-house network hardware. We host and maintain your server and keep its hardware and software up to date. All in our facility, not yours. While each onthenetOFFICE virtual office includes Microsoft Office, our clients can also install any productivity software they use (Word Perfect, Timeslips, Quicken, Abacus Law, etc.). Thus, the software only needs to be installed once, yet any authorized employee can use it. Our maintenance processes ensure that each virtual office is active and available around the clock, all year long. Our clients can access all their work whenever they need it. This enables staff to seamlessly work any time of day in one location or in many locations as if they were in the same office.

For example, a partner in a satellite office is working on a contract with a paralegal in the home office. As the contract is worked on and emailed back and forth, it is easy to confuse which version of the contract is the most current. onthenetOFFICE eliminates this, by enabling the users log in and collaborate directly. In this case, the paralegal and the partner log into onthenetOFFICE. Both people look at the same document, while the partner gives instructions about what to do over the phone. The paralegal does the work while the partner watches and comments. When the document is done, the paralegal emails the document to the partner. Still, availability means nothing without security. Therefore, onthenetOFFICE has established state-of-the art, enterprise-level security systems, with around-the-clock monitoring. This ensures that our client's virtual offices are always safe from hackers, viruses, malware and spyware.

Only authorized users log in via multilayered authentication, using 256 bit encryption, giving them secure access whenever they need it. Other options, such as two-factor authentication and hardware VPN, are available upon request. To protect data in the event of disaster, each onthenetOFFICE account includes daily offsite backups, along with weekly server snapshots and disaster recovery procedures. In any event, our clients can quickly return to normal operation. Our security and protection measures give our clients confidence that they never have to worry about downtime, loss of valuable data or breach of trust. They also help our clients stay in compliance with the appropriate regulatory requirements, such as HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, FISMA, etc.

Finally, every onthenetOFFICE account includes unlimited, dedicated technical support. Our technical team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to answer questions and address concerns.

By taking the network out of the office, onthenetOFFICE erases the technological hassles of collaborating on site and remotely. It also standardizes the costs of such collaboration, because the rates for onthenetOFFICE service are fixed. Thus, our clients always know what their IT costs are going to be and can plan their yearly budget accordingly. There are no surprises.