Law firms love the phone. They love letters too. This may be why they like faxes so much, given that they are a true combination of the two. These days they also love email, and even teleconferencing.

So if law firms like communication so much – law firms are, after all, factories creating documents and communications – it would make sense for them to see their infrastructure in communications terms. I mean that the computer network in your law firm should really be connected to – nay, the same thing as – your phone network.

It’s called CTI – computer-telephony integration. Call centres understand how much can be gained from such things. They use this kind of connection between phones and computers to know when you call them (I’m thinking of an internet bank I know) and who you are, and to make sure they have your details up and ready. Why shouldn’t your law firm be like that?

Peter Goodman, a partner at SA Law in Hertfordshire, dropped by the Law Society the other day to talk about how his firm has done exactly this. SA Law brought in a local IT/telephony company called 500 to tear out the ageing (and cranky, he told me) phones and exchange and wire everything up together. In future, SA Law hopes to save a bundle on doing voice-over-IP (you know this from the brand name Skype, probably) calls outside the firm – they’re waiting for security assurances for that at the moment.

The savings that could be made sound dramatic, and the capabilities that have become available to the firm since tying these areas together make a lot of sense. The phones are a lot cheaper, they can start recording calls easily, all voice work can be tied into case management, and their teleconferencing sounds vastly improved.

I told Goodman about a neat trick with CTI. Because the system can route calls according to rules you establish for individual clients, you can set it to route people who owe you over a certain amount to always be put through first to accounts, no matter who they dial. When they get through, accounts know why.I think he rather liked that idea…