The Milan-based company, SEA WEB S.r.l., is the owner of egregioavvocato.it, a platform offering a digital showcase to lawyers, law firms and qualified practitioners.
Egregio Avvocato’s user experience integrates the Google Maps Platform, in order to put people in touch with lawyers practising in their local areas.
Benefits:
- Geographic location of lawyer professionals using the precision of Google Maps
- Flash implementation of geolocation functions, under the expert guidance of Web Geo Services
- A simple and easy user experience
The missing link between the digital revolution and the legal sector
To clarify our understanding of the turnover figures defining Italy’s legal industry, Chief Technology Officer of SEA WEB Srl, Camillo Alexandre Bovio, explains that “Italy’s legal sector is worth 1.3 billion euros per year.” This is a true giant in business, which has, nonetheless, resisted the digital revolution. “Only one in three lawyers has a website or is connected on LinkedIn”. Egregio Avvocato seeks to help lawyers enter the digital world by raising their visibility on the internet, but also by “helping locals who, while grappling with the very issue requiring them to find a lawyer, also run the risk of overburdening themselves with the difficulties of choosing a lawyer”. Bovio emphasises that an internet search for a lawyer must include proximity criteria. “If I had a lawsuit in Milan, then I would not be looking for a lawyer in Palermo. I would need to find a lawyer local to where I am. The legal sector is, predominantly, a local one, so Geolocation is very important. I realised that we needed Google coverage because, also in terms of maps, it ranks number one”.
“When a platform takes off, the risk of a sudden budget overrun caused by the flow of traffic will always be there. Being in a position to rely on experts, such as Web Geo Services, is very useful for enhancement and correct implementation of services.”
— Camillo Alexandre Bovio,
Chief Technology Officer at SEA WEB
Lightning-fast growth – all down to Google Maps and Web Geo Services
It only took a few months, between May and November 2020 during the height of the Covid pandemic, to develop the platform. Bovio said: “For the implementation of Google Maps, we experienced no difficulties at all. I took care of this myself, with it taking me only 15-20 minutes. It was super-fast thanks to the React.js ecosystem which allowed us to reduce the time required for developing it. Using fully customizable libraries supported by an international community made it easy to convey egregioavvocato.it’s brand identity. This was decisive! I was more than happy to adopt Google Maps instead of any of the other free-to-use solutions.”
The service currently in use is Google Maps Places Autocomplete. “I would enter an address using Google autocompletion”, there then follows the conversion of the textual address into X and Y coordinates. “Once the address has been selected, a map appears, showing a list of professionals”. By using the search results and consulting the legal profiles, the user can immediately view the address of the firm on its professional page. With the expansion of the platform, Bovio is interested in looking into the integration between Location Intelligence and Advertising. Therefore, clicking on an ad would take you to a page that shows only local lawyers, sorted by distance from the user’s location.
The collaboration with Web Geo Services began when Egregio Avvocato was still in development. “In order to launch the platform, we were looking for a partner specialised in Google Maps”. Therefore, Web Geo Services was recommended to us for its comprehensive advice, which covered issues from contractual factors, such as the activation of the Google license, to operational and management practices. “Being in a position to rely on experts, such as Web Geo Services, is very useful for enhancement and for correct implementation of services. This is because, when a platform takes off, the risk of a sudden budget overrun caused by the flow of traffic will always be there.” Practicality and speed are key. Egregio Avvocato’s user experience had to clearly demonstrate the added value gained by using digital, compared to the traditional search methods used for lawyers. Web Geo Services identifies, in a platform with Geolocation functionality, all the areas that could be improved, in order to help the customer choose the most targeted tools while providing the best methods for getting the best use out of these.