Unified Communications Helps Law Firm Serve Clients

A professional education trains someone to be a lawyer, doctor, or accountant, but it rarely teaches them how to run a business practice – that's typically learned from experience. Ken Wolfe is a worker's compensation lawyer in Chicago with 25 years experience.

When he hung out his own shingle, he realized that in addition to being a lawyer, he was now managing his own business operations.

Among other things, that meant making decisions about choosing the best telephone system for his business needs. Wolfe thought he was playing it safe by setting up his operation with phone and Internet service from a leading telecommunications provider, using traditional technology.

But before long, he realized he missed many of the services that had been available at his previous firm, which had used Geckotech's hosted IP-based phone system. Lesson learned, he switched providers after a year.

Hosted System Brings Voice and Data Together
Because the replacement phone system was hosted, Wolfe no longer had to worry about leasing, managing, or maintaining the phone system. Because it was IP-based, his firm was able to take advantage of capabilities that integrated voice and data together.

For instance, his employees could easily forward calls to a different number, such as a home phone or cell phone if they expected an important call from a client – they could also route less crucial calls to voice mail if they arrived after hours.

Because Geckotech offers a variety of reports regarding phone services, Wolfe Law could track length of calls by client, which made professional services billing simpler. It could also track outbound calls by employee, inbound calls, and call length, among other metrics. It was also easy to add new employees to the system, simply by plugging in a new IP phone.

Increased Productivity, More Control
Wolfe Law also benefits from Geckotech's 24-hour support from a local help desk, a dependable monthly bill from one service provider, and built in disaster-recovery.

As Wolfe says, "In my practice, phone calls are extremely important, but they also can be the bane of my existence. Geckotech helps me keep them manageable and under control. I cannot imagine running my practice without it."

When it comes to telephone service, bigger is not always better. Sometimes smaller firms using IP-based hosted services, like Geckotech, can offer more creative ways to help businesses to not only track their communications expense, but gain valuable business insight from that data. Think about what kind of data you might be able to glean from your telecommunications system.