Implementing Your Technology Solution: A Brief Methodology

Frequently when investing in a technology solution, people do not have a methodology for its implementation. For a technology solution to work at its best, an organized and comprehensive approach to implementation is needed. Otherwise there will be delays, interface problems, user resistance, and other issues.

Planning:  The first step in implementation is to identify your implementation team. One person from your firm should be the implementation leader. This should be a person who will actually read the manuals and take responsibility for the success of the solution. If this person and your leadership are completely comfortable with the in-house skills available for installation, roll-out, training, and maintenance, you can move ahead. If not, you need to identify technical support that will help you through this process. At this point, vendor resources may be valuable if the vendor provides these kinds of services and if your implementation leader has the skills to monitor the vendor. Otherwise you may need additional support. For many technology solutions, your regular IT support will frequently be sufficient. For specialized solutions, regular IT support may not have the attendant skills and knowledge. Before committing to using your regular IT support, ask them to review the technology solution with you to ensure they have the appropriate skills and knowledge. Finally, your implementation leader should identify other internal resources who can or should help with some phase of the implementation process.

Now it is time to identify your users more precisely. Many programs have permission levels that limit access to sensitive information and/or limit the operational capabilities (which can prevent accidental problems). The less need or ability a user has, the more their permissions should be limited. The different permission levels can be used to determine different training regimens.

Once you have identified your implementation team and your user levels, you are ready to develop a time and action plan for installation, training, and roll-out. The plan should be designed to achieve minimal disruption to normal activities. Before beginning implementation, be sure training materials will be ready and available and that support will be in place.

Installation: Try to plan installation so it does not disrupt normal activity. If you need to disrupt normal activity, make sure everyone affected understands what the disruption will be, why it is necessary, and how long it will last. Try to be as detailed in your plan as possible and leave time for problems that may arise in the process of installation.

Training:  Training can be problematic. People have many different learning styles. Many are resistant to training, either because of the time involved or because of insecurity about learning new technologies. Hopefully your technology selection and implementation process has helped get buy-in and a commitment to making the new technology work. Many people will learn well in a group class. Others may need on-on-one attention. Allow your users to self-assess whether they need individual help or not. Following training sessions, encourage your users to use available tutorials for additional instruction and practice. If at all possible, try to follow up with each user daily until they have stopped having issues. It is important also to have on-line reference support available including user manuals, links to user groups and other on-line support, and, if possible, some kind of wiki-style support.

Roll-out:  When installation and training are complete, it is time to start actually using your technology solution. Sometimes incremental roll-out is better and sometimes full-tilt boogie is the way to go. However you do it, have a detailed plan of who starts doing what when and be sure to monitor the roll-out closely for the first few weeks.

Maintenance:  Be sure your users know how to get support and where. They should understand the escalation process within your firm and with the manufacturer. Everyone should know what kind of outside support is available, what the cost might be, and when it is appropriate to use it. Frequently outside support is only accessed through a small group of users. This allows more sophisticated users to help solve problems before incurring out of pocket costs. Documentation materials should be checked to see if there is routine maintenance required. If so, responsibility for it should be assigned and scheduled. An administrator should be assigned to monitor support needs and upgrades.

That's Just Wrong: Bad Video on TV, May 11-15, 2011

Happens to the best of them, albeit the errors are smaller and harder to see. Finally watched last week's "Treme". There were old cartoons showing on a TV screen and the frame dominance was backwards. Very small and only for a few moments.

Final game of the Miami/Boston NBA playoffs on TNT. "NBA Cares" spot in 3rd quarter had bad lip sync. Then on Sunday in the 1st quarter of the Memphis/Oklahoma City game on ABC, a Russell Westbrook interview also had bad lip sync.

Then there's the Kroger "Yellow Tag" spot. I've only seen it on WCMH-TV, but both times (Friday afternoon during "Ellen" and Monday during the 6 o'clock news) there has been field reversal. The fast animations look particularly bad. Monday the lip sync was off, too. I keep looking for the spot on other channels, but haven't run across it yet. It does not look like a station issue. I'd be pretty upset if I were paying for that spot.

Shoots and edits, not the best idea

It appears to be a trend. I see ads looking for someone who can shoot and edit. I see people who claim they can shoot and edit. And with inexpensive cameras and inexpensive software, anyone can do it. But is it a good idea? I say no.

I can shoot and edit. I've done it. I've been paid for it. My work has occasionally been praised. Does that mean I'm the person you should hire to shoot and edit? If one takes video seriously, the answer is no. Specialties exist for a reason. There's a reason for surgeons and anesthesiologists and nurses. You don't look for a doctor who anesthetizes and cuts. There's a reason for pitchers and catchers and first baseman. I mean, if you can find someone who can pitch for a .93 ERA and bat for .400, more power to you. But I don't think we've seen that kind of talent since Babe Ruth and he stopped pitching pretty young.

If using video is important to you, get a shooter and an editor. The skills are pretty different. A good shooter gets you great pictures that will tell your story. A good editor puts those pictures together to tell your story. Keep in mind that a slightly larger investment in good video will pay more dividends than a smaller investment in not-so-good video.

That's Just Wrong: Bad Video on TV, May 10, 2011

Lip sync was off on WCMH-TV early evening local news last night. Again. I told them about this problem about a month ago and they got it fixed right away. Seems a receiver at ATT (I use ATT U-Verse) needed to be reset. The problem is lip sync continues to go out. WCMH asked me to go directly to ATT about recurrences but did not give me a direct contact. And I don't think it's my job to monitor and correct the problem, especially on a repeated basis. It's easier to change the channel than to go through customer service. There's enough on TV today that I mostly don't need NBC. If it were me, I'd be doing some troubleshooting to see why this keeps happening.

That's Just Wrong: Bad Video on TV, May 6/7, 2011

Bad video on TV bothers me. Most people don't notice these things, but I do. The easy access to quality acquisition and editing tools has made video production available to pretty much anyone. However, not everyone understands the technical requirements for making good video. The complicated distribution chain with all the different formats involved today makes it even worse. Here are the things I saw over the weekend that were just plain wrong.

Saturday, Versus channel, the early Derby races: Dodge Ram spot. HD spot, letter-boxed with Dodge Ram logos, had the field dominance reversed so the trucks were jittering one frame forward and then one frame back. I couldn't tell whether this was locally originated or not. It was surrounded by full-screen HD spots that looked fine. No telling where this originated.

Saturday, NBC, Kentucky Derby: During the race, the surround sound was so hot I couldn't understand the call. Really? The rest of the program was mixed just fine.

Sunday, ABC, NBA playoffs post-game show: Sounded like the phasing between the center and side channels was off, producing a bit of unpleasant modulation especially in the low frequencies.

Sunday, TNT, NBA playoffs post-game show: Two taped segments (Memphis & Mothers Day) had lip-sync problems.

Sometimes it seems like nobody's paying attention. I will continue to point these things out in a probably vain hope that if I'm paying attention maybe someone else will too.

Technology for Lawyers: Choosing to Use a Technology Solution

Choosing to use a technology solution is not easy. Going into a technology solution without proper planning can cause more problems than it solves. There are many things to be considered. Does it really meet your needs? How much does it really cost? How will your staff react to it? And many more. It is important to have a methodology for choosing to use a technology solution and then choosing the right one. Here are four major questions to consider before committing to a solution.

What is it going to do for me?  Technology solutions should always be about increasing productivity. Whether it’s doing more work in less time so you can handle more cases, being able to get more information from your depositions or being more persuasive so you get better settlements and bigger awards, a technology solution should make you more productive and make your life easier. 

Technology solutions should never be approached because they are cool or au courant. They should be used in response to particular perceived issues. For example, if you feel you aren’t able to give depositions the attention they require, perhaps a deposition tool will help. You look into software options and decide several programs might help. Then you determine whether such a tool will be valuable and do a cost/benefit analysis to determine how valuable. As you do cost/benefit analysis, however, be sure to factor in training costs, maintenance and upgrades, and initial lower productivity during the learning curve.  When your analysis is complete, you will have a good picture of whether the technology solution you are looking at will have a significant impact on your productivity.

How do I evaluate a technology solution?  The first caveat is to not take advice from hardware or software vendors. They cannot help but have a conflict of interest. Get input from your staff, your peers, articles, reviews and groups you belong to that deal with your issue. The second caveat is to involve all end-users in the evaluation process. Implementing technology is a difficult process at best and there is almost always resistance to new technologies in the workplace. Involving all users in the process can be difficult and time-consuming, but not nearly as difficult as introducing new technology to unwilling and resistant users. 

First, identify the most technically savvy members of your staff who will be using and/or implementing the new technology.  These are the people who need to be able to answer all the scary questions. Honestly evaluate with them their technology skills to determine whether you need to get outside help with your decisions and with integrating and maintaining your new technology. Then identify those who will be regular users and those who will be casual users. Explain to each person where they fit in the universe of users and ask them to help evaluate the technology solution.  Important questions for them to consider are:

·      Does the solution make sense? 

·      Does it seem like it will address the identified issue? 

·      For software, does the interface seem friendly or daunting? 
·      Does using the solution seem intuitive or over complicated?

·      Most important, what scares you about this? Use the list of scary things from the last article to help them think about what might scare them.

Involving the end user in the evaluation and selection of technology solution is crucial to success. Listen to what concerns them and find out the answers to their questions before you make decisions.

As you and your staff look at different alternatives, evaluate the relative ease of use and costs.

What are the ramifications?  It’s always something. You just got a great communications tool, but your network or internet connection is too slow to get any benefit. Your new software is wonderful, but you don’t have enough memory and your computer keeps crashing. Your new video camera makes beautiful pictures, but it doesn’t record in a format that works with your computer. And so on. It’s always something. Again, go to the most tech savvy people you have. If they don’t feel comfortable (really comfortable) understanding the specifications and how the technology will integrate into your situation, get some outside help. A little help up front will almost always prevent a lot of pain later. Nothing creates more resistance to new technology than early problems and failures. 

Whoever is looking at the ramifications should be taking into account how your solution will touch the different systems in your office and evaluating what that means to each system and its interaction with your solution. Look at all the technical interfaces, but also look at all the human interfaces. How will the new technology fit into daily routines? How will it be accessed? Who should be allowed what level of access? Are there new or different kinds of handoffs that will need to be defined and managed? Examine the effect of the new technology on your process and procedures.

Is it (relatively) future-proof?  Here you want to look at the company whose product you are buying. How long have they been around and do they have a good reputation? Do they have a history of orphaning products? Where in the product’s life cycle will you be buying? If late in the life cycle, what are the ramifications of the next version? If the solution is hardware dependent, where is the hardware in its life cycle and in relation to current technology? What will upgrades cost and how often will they be necessary?


Answering these questions and the further questions your staff will come up with will make choosing to use a technology solution easier. It will also make your eventual solution more effective.

Technology for Lawyers: Fear, Over-Reaching and Acceptance

While the title says "Technology for Lawyers", this article and the next few are applicable to any business that is not technology based yet can use technology heavily. These articles are not directly about video, they address broader issues surrounding using technology in your business. Understanding these basic technology issues for your firm is crucial to being able to use video and audio technologies for their greatest benefits.  

In the lifetimes of many attorneys, we have moved from a completely manual world to a world of incredible technological depth. Where you once spent days searching through discovery documents, now you can scan them and use a computer program to run word-recognition and search for relevance. Today you can file pleadings electronically. Depositions can be reported directly to a computer with a time stamp that can be  synchronized with a videotape of the deposition and delivered almost instantly as a digital file to view and mark up on your computer.

You use email, on-line research, trial presentation software, time tracking software, and much more. It’s a veritable Candyland of technology, if you can use it effectively. Some of you are still resisting the technology because it scares you, some have found an accommodation that balances technology with productivity, and some have jumped in over your heads from either lack of knowledge, over-confidence or just pure exuberance.

What’s scary about technology for lawyers and other non-technical people? Well, lots of things and many of them are legitimate concerns if you are not technologically savvy. Is it secure? Can it be implemented without a lot of pain? Is it hard to learn? Can people who are not computer literate use it? Is it really productive and cost-effective? What extra hidden costs like ancillary programs and updates will there be? And the biggest one, is it reliable? Will it crash right when I need it?  Is it going to bog down my network? Will I lose all my work if it dies? How easily can I accidentally screw it up? If I use "the cloud" how reliable and secure is it? That’s a lot of issues.

Getting past the fear and finding a balance requires having some sort of methodology, a way of approaching your technology issues that makes sense and helps you make informed decisions that will work for you and your firm. The next article will address choosing to use a technology solution.

Noise in your audio monitors

One of the most common issues I get asked about is clicking and other noise in audio monitors that you cannot hear in playback. With the proliferation of editing systems in places that don't have in-house technical support, there are many possible sources for noise. These include unbalanced inputs and outputs, unshielded wiring, unshielded speakers, among many.

But when the noise is only in the speakers and isn't repeatable when you play the audio back, It's almost always from a cell phone. In my experience it has always been from a cell phone. The interaction of speakers and phones can differ a lot, so just because you used a phone many times without hearing noise doesn't mean that's not where it's coming from. So, if you don't like hearing intermittent pops and clicks, turn the phones off. All the way off. And you should probably turn off those mobile tablets too.

Use Skype for remote depositions, save time and money

It is not always feasible to travel to a remote location to do a deposition. A telephone deposition is not fulfilling because you can't see the deponent's facial expressions and other non-verbal cues, which can be crucial to a true understanding of what they are saying. There are plenty of options for doing a remote video deposition, but they can be expensive. More and more small firms, and some larger, are using Skype, a free video calling service. It is relatively easy to use, but there are a few things to consider that will make Skype a more reliable and powerful tool.

First, make sure your computer is powerful enough do a good job of maintaining the connection and displaying the video well. For various compatibility reasons, I recommend using a PC running Windows XP, Vista, or 7. Macs will work, but some Skype features and many associated programs will not run on them. Minimum specifications for a PC that will work with the setup I will describe here are a 2.4 GHz Intel® Core™2 Duo, 2 GB of RAM, FireWire connections, and a monitor with a minimum resolution of 1280 x 720. Sooner or later you will probably want to record a call, so I recommend a large amount of storage - at least a terabyte. External FireWire storage is becoming more and more inexpensive and it is not unusual to find 2 TB drives for under $300.

The next crucial parts of the circuit are your internal network and your internet connection. Your internal connection should be high speed. I recommend a broadband internet connection with minimum 4Mbps download and 512Kbps upload speeds.

For a webcam, I think the Logitech C910 is an excellent choice. Many people skimp on the webcam, but, for something important, spending $100 rather than $35 isn't a big difference. The C910 has excellent video and audio quality, good automatic color, and an optical zoom. The zoom and other adjustment features can be very helpful if you want to show more than one person.

When your system is set up, be sure to do extensive testing in advance. Depositions can last a long time, so make a few test calls that last at least three hours. During these test calls, use Skype's "check settings" tool to make sure everything is working correctly. If you have performance issues, there is a free utility, Game Booster, that can help your computer run faster while using Skype.

When you begin using Skype for depositions, a few simple steps will help ensure the fewest problems. First, contact the right person to make sure Skype will be set up on the other end. This is frequently a court reporter, but could be a law office or even the deponent. Be sure to add a contact to your Skype list. Test the connection at least a day before the deposition and then again the day of the deposition. Finally, be sure to make your deposition call 15 minutes before you are due to start so you can have full confidence in the connection.

Coming soon: recording, editing, and synchronizing Skype depositions.