Sydney's Captivo deploys cloud comms for Brisbane law firm

Sydney cloud communications specialist Captivo Australia scored a deployment of Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral with Brisbane-based law firm McCarthy Durie Lawyers (MDL).

Founded in 1978, MDL specialises in legal services spanning conveyancing, property, commercial and litigation. The company sought to replace its patchwork of communication systems, after the COVID-19 pandemic found them to be unreliable, with outages eventually costing them customers.

“Our team is known for being contactable and able to quickly resolve our clients’ issues, which is critical when it comes to time-sensitive legal settlements,” MDL chief executive Shane McCarthy said.

“However, in 2020 the patchwork of communication systems we had in place was proving unreliable, and we lost around one day per month to the phone system being down. Our team would revert to unsophisticated workarounds, but ultimately a lot of calls died or didn’t go anywhere, meaning we lost clients.”

MDL wanted to address service availability, along with enabling hybrid work arrangements, so it turned to Captivo to deploy the cloud-based Avaya Cloud Office platform by RingCentral. The solution was chosen for its ‘office in a pocket’ capabilities for staff to allow them to call, message, meet and video conference within one environment and across physical locations.

Captivo Australia director Peter Nejaim said, “Relationships between legal professionals and clients are based on trust and reliability, which means the communication channels underpinning these pillars need to work on time, every time.”

“Our work with MDL has allowed the team to quickly remedy the previous gaps, yielding significant improvements in service delivery, and building the foundation for more personalised customer experiences in the future.”

Following the deployment, McCarthy said the firm’s productivity improved significantly, while also reversing negative customer sentiment.

“Our lawyers have been much more productive and collaborative. They no longer feel compelled to chew into their personal time to make up for the hours lost to technical shortcomings, and can better work in a way that suits their life,” he said.

“The issues with the previous system are gone, and we no longer experience down time with our phone systems.”

Avaya Cloud Office also ensured compliance and security, particularly around its MDL clients’ personal information, and also provided its services to regional communities around Queensland.

“People across the state expect and deserve a Brisbane-quality law firm, which means they have to spend time and money travelling to the city for meetings,” McCarthy added.

“Avaya Cloud Office enables us to provide depth of expertise to clients no matter where they are, so those companies and individuals aren’t limited to the services of smaller law firms physical near them. Whenever the staff in these regions require expertise or resources to handle additional cases, we can collaborate and share the load across the business.”