Communication is essential in the legal industry. Attorneys, judges, and staffers must be accessible at a moment’s notice. Missed calls or messages are unacceptable. To keep communications going, even while mobile, a simple, effective, non-invasive mobile communication system is needed. Tango Networks Abrazo Unified Communications (UC) Solution delivers the just such a solution.  See examples of UC Solution here.

Don’t Miss a Call

A case is on the verge of breaking. Where is the attorney? Is the judge available? Don’t guess, just dial one number. By pairing an individual’s mobile phone with the office or court communications center, Abrazo enables a mobile phone to act the same as an office phone, even displaying the office number when dialing out. Abrazo keeps legal and judicial employees connected while ensuring their personal number is never compromised.

Essential Capabilities

Abrazo UC extends the functionality of an office’s communications system, IP-PBX, or UC Platform to any mobile phone, including:

• One Number and One Voice Mail Box
• Transfer Seamlessly between Mobile and Office
• Access to PBX Advanced Calling Features
• Continued Access to Firm or Agency Internal Dialing Plans

Law Firm & Agency Benefits	Staff & User Benefits
Improved client service – Abrazo facilitates more intelligent, personalized interaction with clients and colleagues.With Abrazo, attorneys can be reached any time or placed based on specified policies.	Accessibility – Single number, Single voicemail box with integrated MWI, and the firm’s Calling Line ID delivered from the mobile phone.
Improved attorney productivity – With a single number and single voicemail, attorneys can answer calls either on their desk phone or on their cell phone. In addition having a single voicemail box with a common message-waiting indicator simplifies voicemail alerting and retrieval.	Easy to use – Your mobile phone behaves like the enterprise desk phone with transparent access to the corporate dial plan; allow/deny lists, boss/admin features, presence, location, and much more.
Improved attorney security – The Abrazo allows calls from the mobile to appear as law office calls by displaying the law firms office number as the Calling Line ID.	Productivity - improvements through increased reachability, improved first call completion, access to corporate directories and integration with enterprise business processes.
Recover mobile billable hours – The Abrazo captures call details for mobile calls which allows the firm to bill for time that an attorney spends with a client while using a mobile.	Seamless Communications – You can seamlessly move calls from your mobile to your desk phone and back without anyone knowing you’ve changed devices.

Flexible, Scalable and Affordable:

AbrazoMeets the Critical Needs of the Legal Industry

In addition to being an incredibly simple solution that improves the communication efficiency of legal professionals, Tango Abrazo is a flexible solution that can support nationwide law firms or multisite judicial offices regardless of the mix of communications platforms currently in place. It is scalable. Allowing a business to start small and expand as needed to support increased number of users or addition of new staff and facilities. And, finally, it is affordable. Using existing mobiles of any type and providing an option to new desk phone installations, the Abrazo UC helpsreduce the communication costs of legal firms and judicial offices.

Examples

State Court Scenario

Situation

Judicial District Court is seeking ways to perform more efficiently. As employees of the court system, from presiding judges to probation workers, are moving about constantly, it was decided to focus on making these mobile workers more productive.

There are four separate court locations. In addition the court system is growing rapidly. At approximately 100 employees, it has double in size over the past five years and is expected to continue growing for the next 3.

Requirement

The court would like to increase accessibility and productivity of its mobile staff. They understand that staying connected by voice and text (IM and email) is paramount to keeping the busy court system working efficiently. All this must be done at the lowest possible cost.

Solution

The Abrazo Unified Communications system offers a highly cost effective mobile solution that addresses all the needs of the court in a simple, easy-to-use manner.

Abrazo Mobile UC capabilities combine to create a solution that dramatically increases staff productivity while reducing costs. Improved reachability streamlines business processes, meaning more work is done. In addition, Abrazo enables direct cost-cutting measures. Court Employees Use Abrazo to Increase Productivity and Decrease Costs

Immediate Impact

• Mobile employees are accessibly using one number regardless of where they are
• Inexpensive mobile phones can now replace costly desktop phones ($800-$900 per unit)
• Using the Presence Management Features, employees are able to determine the best way to contact other staff members including voice, instant message, email, or simply unavailable.
• Addresses needs of four key groups: Probation Officers, Judges, Administrative Staff, and Staff Attorneys
  • Probation Officers can spend time in the field while simultaneously maintaining contact with their co-workers and colleagues as though they were in the office.
  • Judges are able to move between locations while keeping in contact via voice, email and IM, and they also have Presence and Contacts at their fingertips. Judges can now be even more highly available, without having to lug a bunch of equipment (cell phone, laptop, and pager) with them as they roam between locations.
  • Administrative Staff are able to react to news and communicate quickly with team members and those that need to know what is happening in the court.
  • Staff Attorneys handle multiple cases simultaneously and need to be highly available in order to expedite matters. Abrazo keeps them connected regardless of their location.

Added Value:

The improved collaboration provided by Abrazo’s unique approach to mobilizing business voice– through Mobile UC – is helping to save tax payers money.

 

Large Law Firm

Situation:

Large law firm with two locations and over 100 employees sought means to improve effectiveness of mobile devices within its organization. As with many busy law firms, this one utilizes mobile devices such as cell phones, smartphones, PDAs, and laptops. In many cases, attorneys provide services to clients over their cell phones.

Requirements:

• Solution to take advantage of mobile calling functionality
• Work across multiple mobile phones
• Be simple to manage and use by staff.
• Ensure attorney personal mobile phone numbers are not released
• Track attorney usage while on mobile devices

Solution:

The Abrazo solution transparently extends the attorney’s desk phone to the mobile providing the following benefits:

Immediate Impact

• Improved client service. With Abrazo Cellular, attorneys can be reached any time or place they are needed. Abrazo facilitates more intelligent, personalized interaction with clientele.
• Improved attorney productivity. With single number reach and a single voicemail box for the office and mobile phones attorneys can communicate much faster.
• Improved attorney security. The Abrazo allows calls to and from the mobile to appear as Law Office calls. Calling Line ID for outgoing calls from the mobile display the Law Office number. For incoming calls where the attorney’s office number is dialed the call can be answered on the mobile.
• Increased Billable Hours. The Abrazo captures call detail records for mobile calls. This allows the law firm to bill for time that an attorney spends with a client while using his mobile. This data can be pulled in 30 minute intervals offering near real time mobile billing information. If say one hour per month per attorney in billable time is recovered that becomes a very powerful ROI.

Added Value:

Tango networks partners with Element 55 to provide time capture for attorney’s cellular phone client engagements. The Legal 55 system captures attorney time spent on client documents, email and telephone calls. Abrazo provides the Legal 55 system with mobile call detail records every 30 minutes. This allows the accurate billing of mobile activity in the same fashion as office-based attorney-client activities.