Hosted VoIP Solutions

With so much attention turned toward the recent news concerning the recession, unemployment, and the financial markets in the United States, it's no wonder that so many firms are looking for intuitive ways to save money without compromising quality and providing the same excellence in representation for their clients. Consumers are spending less and cutting corners where they must to make ends meet, which equates to less revenue for small to medium-sized law firms ' while the cost of doing business in many areas has increased.

VoIP Features

Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) is a technology that leverages the flexibility and structure of the Internet to provide telephone services to companies of any size. This technology makes it possible to place local and long distance phone calls using any existing broadband Internet connections and can provide additional lines at a fraction of the cost of traditional telephone service. VoIP solutions can also integrate additional communication services such as voice, facsimile, voice messaging applications and enhanced hosted CRM & Exchange services such as Microsoft OCS.

At Kimmel & Silverman, a consumer lemon-law firm based in Ambler, PA, we've recently implemented such a system. With the help of Alteva, an enterprise-hosted VoIP provider, our firm has added new capabilities and reduced the operating costs of telephone services by over 50% while still providing the same level of service our clients have come to expect.

Alteva's hosted solution uses state-of-the-art network routers provided by Edgewater Networks that offer the same quality and reliability that we expect with traditional analog phone systems and also provides a multitude of benefits that go above and beyond what one might normally expect. The decision to replace our telephone system was not difficult once we weighed all of the options.

For several years, our firm relied upon an aging telephone system that was managed using a single desktop computer from the mid-90s. This archaic computer used Windows 95 with MS-DOS-based software that was difficult to navigate and nearly impossible to administer without calling on technical support. It didn't allow for switching extensions for employees or making system-wide changes without the help of the vendor who originally implemented the system and managed it for us. The system required the use of T1 network cards that connected to the copper phone lines that came into the building. The hardware was ancient and the cards would fail often, requiring constant replacement. These maintenance demands were not only frustrating, but cost the firm time and money, adding up to hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars every month.

In addition, our system was inaccessible to the firm's other offices, leaving us little choice but to maintain separate phone systems for five remote locations. To call an employee in another office it was necessary to dial 1 plus the area code, using up expensive long distance minutes with our telephone carrier. If an attorney had to check messages, he or she had to dial in as if they were out of the office, even if sitting at his or her desk. It was cumbersome to say the least.

A Hosted Solution

Alteva's hosted VoIP system solved many problems almost immediately. The firm's five remote offices are now directly connected to headquarters and centrally managed using a Web-based system. The capability to directly dial any phone in any office using only a three-digit extension allows for easier communications, collaboration between team members and easy conference calling. Attorneys in one office can confer with attorneys in another office or participate in depositions when needed with greater efficiency. Clients can now be transferred directly to an attorney or paralegal in any office, without having to take a message or asking the client for a return phone call. Clients can now utilize our toll-free number to reach anyone in the firm, saving them money as well.

We now have direct control over the flow of calls in and out of the office, freeing up time from our receptionist and routing callers directly to any department or person in the firm based on options that can be easily programmed and updated in just a few minutes. The ability to transfer calls between offices is invaluable and provides for a better customer service experience for our clients.

Perhaps the most exciting features for those of us in IT who support Kimmel & Silverman are the redundancy features and configurations available with the Edgewater routers. Each router includes full firewall and packet-switching capabilities that rival other manufacturer's equipment, providing us greater control over our network configuration. With a secure site-to-site VPN tunnel that is stable and reliable connecting our remote offices, it frees our IT staff to concentrate on other areas of the firm.

Most exciting of all is the redundancy features available that have auto-sensing capabilities to detect when there is a problem. In our firm, we use FIOS as our data connection and dual T1 fiber lines for our voice. When a problem occurs, the router can sense that a connection is down and automatically switches over to the other connection when needed, without IT having to restart any equipment or switch any cables.

One particular instance comes to mind that clearly demonstrates how valuable this new system is to our firm. Recently, our local T1 carrier was performing regular maintenance to repair and replace aging equipment and accidentally severed the lines that provided our firm with Internet access and telephone service. This fiber cut disconnected us from the rest of the world including Internet, e-mail, telephone service and our connection to our satellite offices. All was not lost however. The Edgewater routers that are the backbone of our service have built-in capabilities for handling this type of situation and, using a backup FIOS connection to the Edgewater routers, detected the problem and began switching over our service immediately. The whole process was nearly seamless and within a minute's time, our firm was back online and doing business as usual.

Had this problem occurred with our previous analog telephone system, it would have taken two hours or more waiting for the telecommunications carrier to reroute the connections to restore service, costing the firm thousands of dollars in lost revenue and downtime. This was not the case with Alteva's hosted solution using the Edgewater routers; such worries are a thing of the past.

Our Client Services department responds and dispatches hundreds of calls and e-mails each day from consumers who are anxious to have their problems resolved. Because the area of law we practice in provides a means to represent clients without charging a fee (the party being sued must pay fees by law), our IT and communications are even more heavily relied upon than a typical law firm. Our field is also so competitive that every call or e-mail we receive can represent another stream of income from another case. If one of our representatives is not available to help a potential client, it is quite possible that we may lose that client to another firm.

After a case is signed, we rely heavily on fast and efficient communications with opposing counsel, the courts and our clients to resolve their claims. Without a reliable telephone system, our firm could not offer such a high level of client services and be as successful as it is today.

It's important for other law firms to realize the potential of such a system as it offers a great deal of flexibility for adding and managing their phone system ' tasks that were sometimes difficult using traditional PBX systems. As illustrated by our experiences, the benefits of this superior technology should be enough to convince any business to make the jump to hosted VoIP; saving money is just icing on the cake.