VoIP is the next wave in communications. VoIP stands for voice over Internet protocol.

This protocol is
the networking standard that allows web contents and e-mails to transmit over the internet. VoIP allows
the PCs within your office to communicate by converting analog voice into digital packets that are sent
over the same networks that carry data.

VoIP has evolved from mere internet telephony to full-scale integration of IP-enabled voice, data, and
video communications. Consequently, large companies around the world are starting to transition their
communication systems to VoIP, indicating that VoIP is here to stay.

How can the technological advances of VoIP be applied to a Law Firm? See how VoIP is applied in the
day of the life of a lawyer.

Benefits for your Office:

Aside from increased productivity, VoIP is also cost-effective, giving the office a significant return on
investment. International calling, for instance, is relatively inexpensive as long-distance carriers are
bypasses in favor of the free internet. For MACs (moves, adds, or changes) VoIP is a cheap and effective
way of scaling for new hires or summer interns, without the significant expense of line changes inherent
within a traditional PBX system.

With the transition to VoIP inevitable, it is best to take advantages of the cost-savings and network
efficiencies today. The sooner you adopt, the sooner you save.
Day in the Life of a Lawyer:

6:00 AM Wake up, read 50-100 emails on your Blackberry from the late night before.

7:30 AM Early morning conference call with client. Because your VoIP has a desktop control panel that
integrates with your existing personal information, you just click on a contact name to dial.
Furthermore, each call is time and date stamped and you can add notes of your discussion.

8:00 AM Post-meeting work: if youre on the clock, you can sort the call history by client number at the
end of each month and you instantly generate billing for all calls for each client and matter with
time/date, duration, and annotations.

8:15 AM Coffee Break.

8:30 9:00 AM Second meeting. A few new clients are on call. Luckily, when your VoIP receives an
incoming call, a caller ID screen pops up fiving you all of the callers contact information and the call log
for that person. Phew, disaster averted. The call history feature displays any relevant notes from last
time keeping you prepped on prior discussions.

9:00 10:00 AM Start 200 page markup set on desk from yesterday. Prepare with meeting for Texas
bigwig client, in regards to summary judgement motion in an employment case. Click Answer, or
Send to Voicemail, or Forward to your secretary or associate working on the case.

10:00 AM Court Case.

10:37 AM Walk out of the Court Room. Realize you forgot your files, again. No worries, you have a
saved copy in your Cloud.

11:00 AM Prepare for verdict summary with clientele. Use VoIP to monitor conference line and alert
you when everyone is available, a feature known as presence awareness. Just drag and drop a name
into the conference box to add the person. Someone calls in late. The caller ID screen-pop lets you see
who it is. Its Dougagain. Click Add so he can join in, while making a mental note to talk to him about
being on time for conference calls.

11:45 AM Check Voicemail. Four different clients have already sent voicemails on other projects, and
there are two more meetings planned, both for calls at 12:30.

12:30 PM Important call. You realize that your associate, Jim, needs to be briefed on a few points in
the call in order to appear informed. Using VoIP, you privately message Jim during the call to keep him
up-to-date of recent client developments. You record the call and save it as either a .wav or.mpeg file
for later review.

1:00 PM Review case material for meeting that was pushed back. Listen to voicemails which have been
organized by your VoIP in descending priority and automatically cataloged according to client of origin.
No longer have to scribble notes or exhaustively memorize key points from voicemails, VoIP has done
the heavy lifting for you.
2:30 PM Call forwarding. With so many clients assuming that they are the only one, it is important to
convey an image of always being available, or at least appearing to be. By setting up multiple call-
forwarding profiles, you can manage client and office communications according to hierarchy; senior-
management has full contact access, whereas the general public goes to your voicemail.

4:00 PM Get on train for ride into city for meeting. Arrive at the city office location, where you are
assigned a phone. Simply punch your ID into the VoIP, and Voila, all of your profiles, speed dials, call lists
and address books are downloaded from the network. No one will know that you are not in your office,
as the VoIP can connect to the network anywhere.