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https://loopup.com/en/resource-center/customer-stories/centerbridge-partners-improving-remote-meeting-e%ef%ac%80ectiveness-with-loopup/

Centerbridge Partners: Improving remote meeting effectiveness with LoopUp

Bullet points

“There are no costs to having an account and you just pay for the minutes you use, so we gave everyone an account”, said Conrad. “The PAYG subscription makes it a manageable and cost-efficient service. You cannot ask for more.”
On average, 99% of Centerbridge users are no longer dialing in to their meetings and are using the LoopUp meeting link instead.

93% of Centerbridge employees send meeting invites via the LoopUp Outlook plugin.

Neil Harris, Head of Infrastructure at Freeths
Quick, easy and painless implementation
The deployment of the product was quick and seamless. Neil provided the LoopUp team with names, email addresses and phone numbers of individual users, centrally deployed the LoopUp Outlook app and
configured single sign-on. LoopUp took care of the rest. They set up individual accounts, sent out activation emails and hosted a live 15-minute introductory session, all in a matter of hours.

“I cannot stress enough how easy it was”, said Neil. “With any of the big UC solutions, it would have taken too long to get set up and slowed our lawyers down in keeping legal matters moving”.

LoopUp’s flexible pricing model also sped up the purchasing decision. “LoopUp’s pay-as-you-go pricing meant anyone could be set up with an account as there are no fixed costs for having an account. You just get charged for as little or as much as you use” said Neil.

No hand-holding needed
LoopUp users were particularly impressed by how easy the tool is to use. “We were given a quick introduction to the tool and that was all we needed”, said Neil. “There was no additional hand-holding”. Staff across the firm are using LoopUp, from legal assistants all the way up to the top. “LoopUp has really been our ‘go to’ tool over the last six to eight weeks”, said Neil. “The fact that more than 50% of our firm are actively using LoopUp speaks for itself”.

Reliability when it matters
One feature that is critical to any remote meeting is audio reliability. Most web conferencing platforms use VoIP to carry audio by default, sending packets of data over the internet. Any latency or loss of packets leads to ‘jitter’ – words are jumbled or missing altogether, making a conversation inaudible. This isn’t typically a problem if users are on a corporate network with managed Quality of Service, where VoIP traffic is prioritised. But if a user joins a call from off the corporate network, for example from home, VoIP can lead to audio reliability issues. For this reason, LoopUp routes all calls over regular phone lines and only uses the internet for screen sharing and video. This guarantees audio reliability at all times.

Keeping lawyers and clients connected during a pandemic
The IT team at Freeths had a four-year unified communications strategy planned out but when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, they adapted quickly to ensure their firm could stay connected with each other and with clients. This meant lots of plans went on hold as they needed to implement a collaboration tool to be used immediately. Rather than forcing all employees to use a single remote meeting solution, Freeths left the decision to individual users. Because of its ease of use and reliability, LoopUp became the frontrunner. Unlike other solutions, LoopUp is quick to deploy and Freeths were able to set up a large amount of new accounts very quickly.

Wow this shows how Loopup is exploding

How a top-50 law firm rapidly deployed LoopUp to keep their lawyers and clients connected during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For over 125 years, Freeths has provided its clients with outstanding service and legal expertise. As a top-50 full-service commercial law firm with over 970 staff across 13 UK offices, keeping employees connected with each other and with their clients is essential to Freeths.

A bigger picture collaboration strategy
As Head of Infrastructure at Freeths, Neil Harris is responsible for managing telecoms services across the firm. Freeths’ lawyers had been using a range of different web conferencing tools as well as a basic dial-in conferencing solution. Many of these solutions had been mandated by their clients and the courts. This created confusion and led to spiralling costs, with separate licences required for each product.

Neil decided to embark on a unified communications strategy that would feature a single conferencing platform across the firm. It would be rolled out over four years and would integrate teleconferencing, email,
high-definition video conferencing and other online communications as well as replacing the firm’s current telephony system. “We had a bigger picture focus when it came to our collaboration strategy”, said Neil. “We had a phased plan with goals, deadlines and benchmarks. Then the rug was pulled from under us”.

COVID-19 pandemic strikes
In March 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses around the world to implement large-scale working from home. “One of our big tasks was to ensure everyone was set up with an effective communication platform”, said Neil. LoopUp was already being used by some of Freeths’ lawyers. “We had a dozen accounts actively using the solution, who were all really positive about it”, said Neil. “But because of the UC plan we decided not to roll it out company-wide. Then COVID-19 struck and it made sense to get a few more LoopUp accounts set up”.

LoopUp goes the extra mile
As more and more lawyers began using LoopUp for their meetings, Neil started receiving requests for further LoopUp accounts. “Lawyers were experiencing LoopUp calls or hearing about the tool from their colleagues”, said Neil. “So, I put in a request with LoopUp for 50 more accounts and then another 50 and another. It was like LoopUp’s popularity had exploded”. Neil realised that LoopUp would have to be rolled out at a much larger scale than initially thought. “We ended up with over 600 accounts”, said Neil.

This is where the LoopUp team really came into their own in terms of speed of delivery and the way they went the extra mile. I was bombarding them with requests and they were turned around in the same day.

Neil Harris, Head of Infrastructure at Freeths
Quick, easy and painless implementation
The deployment of the product was quick and seamless. Neil provided the LoopUp team with names, email addresses and phone numbers of individual u

Contractual disputes loom for one in four
11 MAY 2020 BY LEM BINGLEY

The latest Construction News survey has found that contractual disputes are likely to become widespread as the coronavirus crisis continues.

Around a quarter (24 per cent) of respondents to the CN survey said the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to lead to a contractual dispute or has already done so. One in 25 respondents (4 per cent) said legal action or another dispute process has already begun.

As one respondent to the survey put it: “[We] need clarity around the contractual position otherwise lawyers are going to make millions prosecuting/defending claims on contracts.”

While these figures suggest that the industry will be affected by a very large number of disputes over the coming months, many in the sector may be surprised that the number is not considerably higher. Almost half of respondents (49 per cent) said they currently have no contractual concerns, suggesting that a relatively high proportion of firms are adopting an understanding and flexible approach to contractual commitments in the crisis.

On 7 May, the Cabinet Office issued guidance pleading for that outcome, stating that all “parties to contracts should act responsibly and fairly, support the response to COVID-19 and protect jobs and the economy”.

The government guidance continues: “Responsible and fair behaviour in contracts now – in particular in dealing with potential disputes – will result in better long-term outcomes for jobs and our economy. In complex contracting arrangements, this should apply throughout the contracting chain. It will in the long term protect businesses, supply chains and opportunities in the economy. Bad behaviour will be bad for jobs and will impair our economic recovery.”

Whether anyone will heed this non-binding advice remains to be seen. Seamus O’Doherty, director of the construction practice and a specialist in contract and claim analysis at consultancy Berkeley Research Group, described the government statement as “essentially toothless” because “the document states the guidance does not override, broadly speaking, the existing contractual relationship”.

As a result, O’Doherty said, “it does not change anything and parties will be left to decide what to do on a case-by-case basis, although it is possible that it may have some impact with public sector employers who may find it more persuasive than the private sector.”

For many, the pursuit of compensation through a lawsuit or other dispute process may be less about indulging in so-called “bad behaviour” and more about simple survival.

“The industry will be very cash poor [as we exit the crisis], leading to disputes, payment issues and the collapse of various contractors, subcontractors and suppliers,” one survey respondent predicted. “Our industry was poor before we went into this.”

The CN survey also revealed that many in the sector have not yet been able to secure emergency funding to support th

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