- Phone
- Internet
- Case Management System
Each of these presents a unique challenge because there are a variety of options presented which claim to meet the needs of such small offices. The fact of the matter is that there is no complete and comprehensive solution which will work for all offices. What follows is how I, as a technologist who has done legal work, would tackle such a challenge...and if not tackle, at least grasp at.
Phone
We know that a phone is essential...I may have not checked my voicemail at the office for 9 months, but we could probably agree a phone is indispensable. Next question is, in a small environment, how do we address this need at a low-cost but high value proposition (value also includes small office staff time).
- Google Voice: Google Voice provides immediate PBX-like functions and rules based call routing to help you weed callers out. Additionally, if you have a Gizmo account, you can add your Gizmo configured phone as one of the many phones you have registered with your Google Voice number. Furthermore, you can, for now, make free outgoing calls from your Gizmo configured device (preferably a SIP phone, infra).
- SIP Gate: SIP Gate is an outsourced IP PBX which, for the oxymoronically larger-small office can provide extensions and, most importantly, resolves your FAX issues/needs. There is a free starter account which doesn't permit outbound faxes but will get you a traditional phone number so you can test the service. One of the nicer options is the facility of adding extensions from the web-based interface.
To use either of the above services you would need a SIP-compliant VOIP phone or a softphone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softphone). As far as SIP-phones go, I'm a big fan of the Cisco/Linksys phones such as this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833150069&cm_re=cisco_phone-_-33-150-069-_-Product --
One elemental factor in your phone solution is making sure your facility is cabled adequately.
Internet
Apart from using the internet for email, in this scenario, we're also using the internet as the technology which will provide phone service...apart from cellular service. We will assume the phones in place will be using an external power adapter. If the goal is to have the phones without an external power adaptor, then the solution would be a PoE network switch which is not covered here.
To share your internet connection with your phones and computers, you'll need a router. Here are a couple of router suggestions:
- Cisco/Linksys router with wifi and virtual private network: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspxItem=N82E16833124334&cm_re=vpn_router-_-33-124-334-_-Product --for many offices, the ability to have up to 4 wireless networks is going to be overkill as is VPN support. VPN is a virtual private network...what that does is allow you to get into your network and access resources on that network. In many small offices, VPN support is truly gravy because files can be shared using Google Apps for domains and/or Dropbox. This Cisco router costs about $90/$100.
- Therefore, a more practical approach to the router/switch issue could be an Asus router. The Asus router is a commodity router which means it's probably not as reliable as the Cisco device but it will get the job done for a fraction of the price. My suggestion would be to flash the Asus router with DD-WRT micro. This device is ~$50 and provides a print-server: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320032&cm_re=asus_wrt-_-33-320-032-_-Product --
I'm partial to solution number 2 because most small offices won't need the sophistication of solution number 1. Caveat: small office person should bribe a technically inclined friend to flash the Asus router with DD-WRT firmware.
Another option, but not so viable in a small office environment, is to have a router which can take 2 external interfaces for a redundant internet connection...the reality is that even some large offices don't have a good backup connection so this might be gravy.
Case Management System
Personally, I'm a fan of Pika's case management system (CMS). Problem is that Pika is built for legal service/aid and not really for the small practitioner. That leaves the small practitioner with the option of purchasing a system from We$t or Lexi$. A different approach is running a case management system through:
- Salesforce.com --great, requires set-up/customization
- Civicrm.com --good, requires set-up/customization
- Open-source hosted solution of something like: http://www.lcm.ngo-bg.org/en --though depreciated, the small office could probably use this in it's current iteration.
I meant to keep this shorter but figured I'd knock out something I've been meaning to do for quite a while.
PS: make sure to get a duplex printer!
