Telford-based managed service provider e-know.net has been selected as the preferred IT partner of the UK's first genuine price comparison website for law firms. 

When it launches in November, Wigster will be the first site to give consumers instant, like-for-like pricing across a whole range of worktypes, as well as providing service features, location details and star ratings to enable comprehensive comparison of competing offerings.

As well as the delivery of a complete IT infrastructure, including managed desktops, networking and communications, e-know.net is also providing the complex CRM and Dynamics NAV engines that drive the Wigster website; its consulting team designed and integrated both Microsoft solutions and will be responsible for their continued development.

Commenting on the rationale for going the managed services route, Tony Bowler, Wigster's operations director, says: 'The availability, performance and security demands of the website always meant that we would be looking at an enterprise-grade data centre for hosting. But we thought, why stop there? Why invest heavily in our own IT function and in-house systems when we can leverage e-know.net's multi-million pound infrastructure and support capability to underpin the entire business? 

The managed service is scalable, it affords us almost unlimited capability and scope, and gives us access to a pool of IT expertise as and when we need it. Moreover, it leaves us totally free to focus on our core objectives of building the Wigster brand, improving the consumer experience, and generating increased revenues for our law firm members."

Nigel Redwood, e-know.net's managing director, confirms that more and more start-ups are applying the Wigster logic. "When you set up from scratch, you have no legacy equipment issues, no people issues, nothing that gets in the way of making a decision based on sound business sense. And the sensible option is not to turn yourself into a technology specialist - and spend six or seven figures doing so - to support your business when there are dedicated providers already out there who can do it better, faster, more reliably and more cost-effectively than you. Let companies like e-know.net share the business load by taking on the IT burden."