Legal Sector to Drive Video Conferencing Growth
Posted by Campbell Williams | 11 Jan 2011
Category: Industries
If there's one technology trend that's constant it's this: we'll all be using more video technologies in the future than we do right now. The legal sector is no exception; indeed, many observers (this author included) expect video conferencing growth to be especially strong for small, medium and large firms of lawyers.
Any legal firm with a criminal and/or commercial practice will find an application. The driver behind the former is clear: Criminal Justice Organisations and their ongoing investment in video conferencing. Whether it's the MoJ, HMCS, CPS, HMPS, or plenty of other CJOs with which (jury duty aside) I'm happily unfamiliar, the benefits are clear. The various CJOs are able to speed the process from charging to trial considerably, saving time in the process. Solicitors and barristers (not to forget advocates, for my fellow Scots) can cut down on their levels of travel to courts/prisons, freeing up their time for more billable hours during the working day.
With CJOs under the same budgetary pressures as all public sector bodies, it may be only a matter of time before video conferencing use is mandatory (saving the manpower associated with prisoner transport) and some predict that HMCS real estate may end up be culled as part of a move towards virtual trials for certain offence types, also freeing up cash.
For lawyers in the corporate sector, the drivers are similar to all B2B professional services organisations: the desire for a richer client experience. Multinationals can save on unnecessary travel and multi-sited lawyers can do likewise. But the drivers are more than just cost control: increasingly, clients want more than just a phone call and the need for rich collaboration is clear (e.g. viewing application documents and court materials). Moreover, clients themselves feel the need to manage their own time and to eliminate unnecessary face-to-face meetings, especially for drawn-out legal matters.
For the legal firms themselves, use of video conferencing in this way will deliver two key benefits. Firstly, it can drive new revenue streams as video provides a new way to communicate: they can charge more than a phone call but less than a face-to-face meeting, providing better value for the client and more billing time for the lawyer. Secondly, it will provide differentiation. How long will it be until the availability of video conferencing is a "must have" and the option to have full High Definition and rich collaboration is a differentiator?
I believe that the tired old cliche of the "luddite lawyer" is on its way out. Whilst it may still be true in some areas, their clients and other third party organisations have moved on, so the legal sector needs to innovate to keep pace with life in the 2010s.
The technology itself needs to deliver the following:
- Open Standards: based around IP and SIP
- High Definition: video, even at low-ish bandwidth rates
- Collaboration: shared file viewing and full interaction
- Ease of Use: as easy as using a digital television
- Multi-vendor Integration: the ability to "fine-tune"
Our video solutions provide these and we'd be delighted to talk to legal firms or any other businesses with an interest in changing how they work.
