Allen & Overy – a new appointment and a new app!

26
Oct
2010

Joanna Goodman

First interview of Allen & Overy's new CIO Gareth Ash

In his first interview since his appointment as Chief Information Officer at Allen & Overy LLP, Gareth Ash speaks to Joanna Goodman about launching the A&O Connect app, his strategy and challenges going forward.

Gareth Ash has been CIO at Allen & Overy LLP (A&O), since August 2010, when IT director Jason Haines was promoted to finance director.

Gareth’s former role as global head of service delivery, involved running all operations, data centres, security and disaster recovery. He was responsible for the migration of the firm’s in-house data centre to a third party and the fit out and move of the London office to its Bishops Square premises.

It is unusual, though not unheard of for an IT director to become financial director. Jason Haines remains as IT director supporting Gareth’s role as CIO and deputy IT director. In practical terms, this means that Gareth is responsible of the day-to-day running of the IT department, working closely with Jason on strategy and budgets. “Of course Jason’s promotion demonstrates his calibre,” he says. “I’m not sure whether he is poacher turned gamekeeper or gamekeeper turned poacher, but having someone with a deep understanding of IT controlling the funding of IT projects gives Jason a practical perspective of the issues and the challenges.”

Gareth modestly says that as he was promoted from the ranks, it is useful to have Jason there to provide “checks and balances”. However, he has been at A&O since 2003, after several years working in project and programme management in the financial services industry, delivering a wide variety of initiatives including application development, procurement and outsourcing.

Although A&O’s approach to IT has changed a lot in seven years, a law firm’s IT culture and infrastructure is very different from that of a financial services business. “In common with other sectors, the financial services industry necessarily has a siloed infrastructure, with separate systems for different roles and services,” Gareth observes. “For example, a teller in a high-street bank and their colleague on the trading floor will use completely separate systems and applications. The firm’s email system may be the only common system. In law firms the situation is completely different. There are several core systems and everything has to integrate with everything else. In general, everyone uses the same business and end-user tools. My objective is to ensure that these are as up to date and flexible as possible.”

A brand new app-roach
Just a few weeks into his new role, Gareth has overseen the completion of a groundbreaking project that was originally the brainchild of senior partner David Morley. Only last week, the firm launched its own app – A&O Connect, for iPhones and iPads, a quick reference directory of the firm’s lawyers, global network and expertise. Although a few other firms have experimented with iPhone apps, A&O is the first law firm to produce an app that was specifically designed for the iPad.

As well as giving the firm new ways of connecting with its clients and other stakeholders, Gareth explains that A&O Connect exemplifies a key element of the firm’s IT strategy. “We are interested in finding ways of embracing and utilising the consumerisation of IT,” he says. “The objective is not only to give our lawyers opportunities to blend their private use of technology with their business use, but to leverage some of the speed to market that we have seen recently in the consumer technology sector. We have experienced that with the Apple app.”

“Although A&O do not issue their lawyers and staff with iPads, we are looking at ways of giving people who have a personal iPad access to corporate resources,” he adds.

Towards device agnostics
Apparently the firm is contemplating launching a similar device for BlackBerry. Gareth explains that device agnostics represent an important strategic theme. “Ideally, I would like to get the firm to a position where it doesn’t matter what device people use, and I’m pushing ahead with that objective.”

Of course delivering on this vision and strategy presents certain challenges, notably security and the fact that many applications are designed to work on a particular platform. There are also maintenance and support issues. Gareth acknowledges that he and his team will have to get to know a lot more devices, but he believes that the benefits will outweigh the challenges. “This is where the world is going in terms of technology, and it will also be better for us in the long run. If people are comfortable using their own tools, they are likely to be ultimately more productive, happier and more motivated,” he explains. “Device agnosticism gives us more flexibility in what we are able to deliver.

This approach supports the findings of the recent LexisNexis survey, which highlighted that law professionals do not like switching between applications and prefer IT tools that reflect the way they work.

An iPad evangelist
Gareth admits that he is a convert to the iPad, and like a smoker who has given up, he has become something of an evangelist. “Initially, I thought it was a nice thing and that clients may possibly use, but now I have one I use it all the time.”

As well as representing a great-looking way of presenting A&O’s services, expertise and brand, A&O Connect keeps A&O ahead of the game in terms of IT. No doubt others will follow, but they will need to get their heads around creating good looking functional apps, which is clearly a challenge. Gareth is enthusiastic about the project and its outcome. “One of the most important things about creating the app, after the end product, was the process it took to get there. That was the wonderfully enlightening part of the project. The fact that we saw so much potential outweighed any problems we encountered along the way.”

A window to the future
According to Gareth, the iPad is a fantastic window into the potential of cutting-edge technology. “The biggest thing that the app has done is shown us the art of the possible,” he says.  “Apple focused on the retail market which is far more capricious and people are much quicker to buy. The corporate market is more cautious and steady and we tend to keep devices on our desks for years. Apple have brought out devices that people are prepared to order every six months.” He observes that while iPhones are ubiquitous, iPad users tend to be business people who blend business and personal use of technology. He cites himself as an example as he trials the iPad: “I listen to music and watch movies on my iPad, and I check my three email accounts on it; I also have FT, Reuters, a document launcher and various other business-related tools,” he says. “If Apple went a little further to assuage corporate concerns, they would sock it to the competition even more than they have done already.”

Bringing together people’s private and professional use of IT by making the firm’s IT resources work on different devices presents particular challenges. Although the range and variety of apps available means that most practical issues can be addressed, security remains a significant challenge. “We need to address issues around people’s personal use of IT,” explains Gareth. “For example, if somebody backs up their iPad to their own laptop, they could be backing up all our documents as well. We have to balance that risk with the potential. We are looking at technologies that partition the personal part of a device from the corporate part. For example, Citrix offer products which enable PCs and laptops to have completely separate private and corporate OS elements.” A similar offering for the iPad would allow people to use their own devices for corporate purposes as well as facilitating mobile and remote working which is crucial to law firms and other professional services that bill by time.

Outsourcing
In his previous role, Gareth was responsible for outsourcing A&O’s data centre and the firm’s outsourced services include code testing, the cable infrastructure of the London office and the management of the printer estate. Gareth takes a business-minded approach to IT strategy, which includes outsourcing services that are not legal-specific, although some of them are critical operationally. “It also makes business sense to use third-party services that include an element of volume or cover areas where we don’t need to be thought leaders,” he explains. “However, there is a point at which IT is combined with legal services and here we need to retain our specific A&O intellectual property – our key skills and people.”

Outsourcing non-core IT activities enables Gareth and his global team to focus on areas that support the firm’s competitive position and its brand: areas that concern with the law and A&O-specific services rather than other areas which do not differentiate the firm in the market.

A cloud by any other name
Gareth takes issue with the ubiquitous use of the term cloud computing. “In all but a small number of instances, what is often described as cloud computing is basically data centre services or web hosting, both of which have been available for years,” he says. “We already utilise a lot of these so-called cloud services such as the hosted services that we provide to clients and the services that we deliver within the firm. We use an offsite data centre.”

“True cloud computing is sticking a cable in the wall and getting a seamless, pay-as-you-go service,” observes Gareth. “Amazon is a typical cloud service: you pay for what you need, you plug in your cable and you take the service. Google apps is also a true cloud service, but in many instances people are packaging up traditional services and calling them cloud services,” he adds.

Will law firms use true cloud providers such as Amazon? Gareth believes that they will, but not for confidential data. An important advantage of cloud computing is flexibility – the ability to switch services on and off quickly.  “Although we are not planning to move crown jewels or confidential data into that space, that doesn’t mean we can’t benefit from cloud services,” he says. “We are looking at some platforms and solutions that we can apply to circumstances and data where confidentiality isn’t a key priority – for example, if we need extra web hosting space to deliver web content, we can take capacity from someone like Amazon for a specific time period. For example we can use cloud services to cover peak activity and then turn it off when we don’t need it.” He emphasises that an important advantage of cloud services is the ability to switch them on and off quickly such as for testing.

Looking ahead: themes and variations
Two important user-related and client-facing strategic themes are consumerism and device agnosticism. Gareth and his team are also looking at global service delivery and moving towards a data centric, thin client environment, focusing on end-user tools that deliver business value and enhance flexibility. “We need to grasp the advantages of collaborative tools, notably video conferencing and document sharing. To this end we are looking to expand A&O’s Omnia matter-centric document management system into a collaboration space for transactions, facilitating communications internally and with clients.”

The key challenges focus on costs. The global economy means that running cost-effectively is more important than ever as clients keep a close eye on the bottom line. Time is always a factor for law firm IT departments; 55-60% of users are revenue generators, so the challenge is to keep the meter ticking. This means spending more time with lawyers, developing services that suit their needs and finding new ways to heighten user engagement in technology. This brings us back to the A&O Connect app. Gareth credits the firm’s leadership for the firm’s forward thinking approach as well as the excellent relationship between the IT group and the partnership, particularly managing partner Wim Dejonghe and senior partner David Morley, who had the original idea and was the driving force behind the app.

Another key element of Gareth’s strategy inspired by his department’s work on the A&O Connect app is his aspiration to emulate the speed to market that underpins Apple’s commercial success. “A key message that I need to get across to people is that we need to land small and quick,” he explains. “As a large, global firm, we can sometimes get wrapped up in trying to make a solution work for 5,000 people in 36 offices in 26 countries and that would turn us into an oil tanker. We have to realise that one size doesn’t fit all – people work in different ways. Our strategy going forward is about giving users a choice and developing tools that people will use. It is also about speed to market (for internal resources as well as client facing services). If we launch a solution and then we have high demand, we simply need to scale up to meet that demand. In the past we have tended to think big, and if something didn’t work we scaled it back. I want to turn that approach on its head and look for quick wins.”  Again the focus is on the energy and flexibility that is helping to keep A&O ahead of the game.