Partner Article

HEY Bendalls Property Lawyers- Case Study

Karl Irons the Managing Director of HEY Bendalls Propery Lawyers of ELY Cambridgeshire felt that his solicitors and team would benefit from having their case management system dial contacts that are on the file, saving the time taken for the call and the corresponding attendance note against the file, automatically.

He went further and wanted incoming calls to automatically display a screen showing the client and the possible matters that could relate to the call. This would allow the practice to handle calls more quickly and more professionally.

The argument in its simplest form was “if I can recognise calls on my mobile phone then why can’t I recognise them in the office and have the system tell me which matters these clients might be ringing about?“

Clearly, for this to work Karl needed their telephone system supplier- BSAS Telecoms, DPS Software – their case management software supplier and Samsung- their phone manufacturer, to work together.

The DPS case management system is already phone-enabled and the simple installation of TAPI (Telephone Applications Programming Interface, which is actually a standard for most phone systems) allows DPS to dial numbers and save the attendance notes to the case.

This part did not require any extra work on anyone’s part other than the phone supplier who was responsible for actually installing the TAPI interface. Karl then had to write a SQL script to tidy up his telephone database to provide a uniformed number (without brackets, spaces, etc).

The next part, which was called CLI (Caller Line Identification), needed slightly more cooperation and work.The incoming telephone number is passed to a module of the telephone system that reads it and then tests it against the database to find a matching client or contact with that specific telephone number.

BSAS were instructed by Karl to write a DPS CLI interface to enable the displaying of calls. The company has subcontracted the work to Samsung Xchange Specialists (Mondago) who assisted them with this project.

The module was built in 2013, and went into use in early 2014. One year later it has proven itself invaluable to the business and become a staple of the day-to-day operation of DPS at HEY Bendall Property Lawyers.

Karl Irons said: “I have done a lot of work customising DPS Outlook Office- our case management software. The telephone integration was one element which I felt took case management one step further and really turbo-charged our efficiency. I think BSAS did a great job and with DPS’s cooperation, produced exactly what we required.”

Osman Ismail, Managing Director of DPS commented on the news: ’’It’s fantastic to see users like Karl shaping the system to be what they need. This is precisely the way we recommend DPS to be used to get maximum efficiency for a business. I applaud Karl for the way in which he has pulled together all the interested parties and managed them to produce the best results for his business.“

David Nunn from BSAS said “Developing the DPS module was a relatively straightforward procedure for us as we are a very specialist company that understands the programming that connects phones and software. The case management system from DPS was already TAPI-enabled which meant that our integration and work was focused on the CLI side of things. Karl knew exactly what he wanted and specified it to us. DPS stepped in with the advice and help we needed to achieve it and the project was completed on time, on budget and to specification. We are happy to provide the same advice and assistance to other DPS users.“

If this article has raised some questions in your mind or if you are already considering upgrading your case management system, then make sure to contact DPS. Contact details and information about our practice management software can be found at— www.dpssoftware.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by DPS Software .