From the Developer: Mike Kollen, CTO/Architect, eSyncTraining
The Internet and mobile technologies have made it easier than ever for businesses to identify and work with the best people for the job, no matter where they are. But in the legal industry, issues such as information security, ongoing collaboration, and trust often still lead to an emphasis on more face-to-face communication. Whether meeting with clients or opposing counsel, many attorneys will travel across the city or even across the globe to meet in person. Legal professionals are understandably looking for ways to bring the benefits of online collaboration into their work without sacrificing personal, secure interactions.
Face-to-face meetings come with many challenges, ranging from high costs to delays to difficulty coordinating schedules. For example, time spent traveling is simply wasted for any attorney or other legal professional who closely tracks the time spent on cases. Finding a way to effectively eliminate travel would be a big step towards reducing costs and enabling legal teams to focus their time on more productive activities for their firms and clients. Fortunately, a wider range of proven online meeting technologies are available today, offering enhanced security and the tools to collaborate smoothly.
As an example, take Veritext, a leader in court reporting and deposition solutions in the United States, whose customers rely on them to provide services and technologies that streamline the deposition process and help manage even the most complex cases. Seeing the potential benefits of virtual meetings, Veritext set a goal to create a secure web conferencing system that enables legal participants to share documents and ideas in real time, just like they would in in-person meetings, except without the time, costs, and delays of travel, and worked with us at eSyncTraining to accomplish this.
The solution we came up with was StreamText Legal, which we further customized for Veritext’s own Veritext Virtual. Based on the web conferencing software Adobe Connect, the solution offers high-quality live video and not just screen-sharing. It is a more secure file sharing that lets attorneys upload documents or exhibits for all participants to see. The StreamText Legal solution and Veritext Virtual also go a step further, offering a virtual legal deposition and transcription pod for Adobe Connect. With this technology, meetings and depositions gain live, instantly searchable transcriptions for a clear and accurate record.
With these services, suddenly online meetings feel a lot more like in-person interactions. Attorneys can meet “face-to-face” with clients or opposing council and review documents together, all in a highly secure environment. In addition, Veritext Virtual brings some added benefits only possible in online meetings by archiving all audio, video, documents, and transcripts instantly for a complete record of the deposition.
Technology is making the world a whole lot smaller with telecommunications, telecommuting, and teleconferences. It’s no surprise that tele-depositions are already gaining in popularity. Enhanced, more reliable online collaboration is removing physical barriers from business, even in industries like legal where resistance to new approaches is often understandable given concerns about security and other issues. By taking distance out of the equation, clients are free to work with the best legal teams and apply the technology best suited for their situation, no matter where they are located.
For more information on the solution, a case study can be viewed here, and you can learn how to get ahold of the pod here.