An Appia Case Study

The Challenge

Krieg DeVault is a 130‐year old Indianapolis law firm with 230 employees and offices

in Indiana and Chicago. The firm has a broad corporate practice and has been recognized

as one of the top firms in Indiana.

Krieg DeVault uses an aging PBX system connected to the firm’s three remote offices.
“The phone system was coming to end of life,” said George Smith, the firm’s IT director.

The communications system was tested by disaster in 2006. “In April, the high rise we
were in was hit by straight‐line winds and we had to vacate our building for 12 weeks,”
said Smith. “We have a remote office in our area and we went to that office, but the PBX
system could not handle the 120 additional extensions we needed. The biggest challenge
we faced during that situation was to give all of our staff access to a telephone.”

Understandably, disaster recovery was an important consideration when Krieg DeVault
explored options for its new office in Noblesville, IN. The firm was also looking for features
its PBX system did not offer, such as unified messaging, call history, and extension
mobility.

“Scalability was also a driving force,” said Smith. Krieg DeVault wanted a solution that
would integrate with its existing PBX system, while enabling the firm to expand the
system later to include its remote offices. They did not to spend money at existing sites,
but wanted a platform to build on.

“We opted to install the Appia solution in the new [Noblesville] office to test it out and to
see how it worked,” said Smith. “A hosted solution made sense because it saved us on
upfront costs.”

The Solution

Appia‐hosted IP phones were installed at the Noblesville office, and an integrated access
device was installed at the headquarters’ PBX system. This solution allows the PBX to
interface with the new IP voice equipment in Noblesville.

Krieg DeVault also added a second T‐1 for redundancy, “If we were to lose one of the
connections to the office, we can simply switch the voice and data to the other
connection,” said Smith. “This is part of the flexibility we did not have with our previous
system.”

The Results

“As we gradually added more users to the IP voice system, we realized the benefits of that
system. Extension mobility and caller ID reduced long distance costs.” The attorneys are
using voicemail to email, which has enabled them to respond to client calls faster.

Smith continued, “Since management has lived through a disaster situation, they
recognized the importance of disaster recovery. My firm has lived through this and they
know that it can happen to them, because it has happened to them. Disaster recovery is
very significant; we see that as value for the future.”

The Future

Krieg DeVault plans to migrate its entire voice system to Appia’s hosted solution in 2008.