If you’re a lawyer, you’re used to midnight meetings and those difficult cases. As with most businesses, communication is key, especially if you want to ace those cases and grow your law firm. Increasingly, lawyers are investing in technologies that help them grow their bottom line. Due to its many benefits, video conferencing tops the list.
Video conferencing for lawyers results in significant productivity gains, cost savings and employee safety. While large law firms have been using video conferencing for many years, recent developments have made video conferencing affordable for even the smallest firms.
You can purchase equipment that costs tens of thousands of dollars for a fraction of that cost today. Video conferencing products have become more reliable, easy to use, more compact, and even portable. While investing in the right video conferencing equipment is imperative, many firms may encounter unnecessary technical obstacles and setbacks due to poor planning.
So, what are the questions you need to keep in mind if you are the owner of a law firm wanting to invest in video conferencing? Here goes…
1) How will you be utilizing video conferencing?
If the addition of video conferencing will save significant time for many or all of your lawyers by reducing commuting time and improving their productivity then investing in it is worthwhile. Also, besides reducing travel time between different cities, there are other factors to consider.
How far are the courthouses that your firm serves? Do they allow video depositions or other video-based communication for legal procedures? Are some of the firm’s clients equipped with video conferencing?
2) What kind of resources will you need?
You need to decide which network to use. For optimal business-quality video conferencing, you should use an IP (Internet Protocol) network. If you have 384 kilobytes of bandwidth available to and from each video conferencing device, you should be able to enjoy a high-quality video call.
Also, once you define your network you need to have someone to manage it, whether it is something you do yourself, or it can be done by your firm’s IT department. Some video conferencing providers perform “managed services” that take all of the work out of your hands. Using this, you can reap the benefits of video conferencing without the need to purchase expensive network equipment and hire additional support staff.
3) How many of your lawyers are willing to use this technology?
You should talk with your lawyers and identify those who are ready to reap the immediate benefits from the technology. Those that are ready and willing should be encouraged to use video conferencing right away.
4) How much ROI can you expect?
You need to define the extent of usage. You can then calculate the amount of time that your lawyers will be freed up to work on other cases. In many instances, the time saved adds up to dozens of hours per month, per lawyer. With more time available, your lawyers can work on additional cases, thereby growing the practice.
5) Have you created the right budget?
Video conferencing is best executed in phases. You should implement those features that satisfy the firm’s most important need in the first phase. Define what you need, find out what it costs, and budget for that phase. You can then budget for future implementations as need and demand grow. You should always work with conferencing providers that create scalable solutions.
6) Can you afford video conferencing?
All you need to do is some simple math. Define how much usage your firm will have and then compare that figure to your budget.
So, now you know how video conferencing can help lawyers improve their productivity, benefit from face-to-face communication over large distances, and help grow the practice. Simply use the right video conferencing solution for your law firm’s needs and stay ahead of the curve. Here’s to efficient, economical, and scalable video conferencing…always!
For more information on how you can set up a video conferencing solution for your business, contact Actis at 022-30808080 or at contact@actis.co.in.
(Content courtesy: www.americanbar.org and images courtesy: www.wolfvision.com)