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4 Ways Your Firm Will Benefit From Digital Document Management and Workflow

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Poor document processes impact your firm by creating security and compliance risk, unrecovered billable costs, and unnecessary inefficiencies.

The majority of law firms typically process thousands of paper documents every year. Documents that are anything from pleadings, motions, and evidence files to contracts, leases, wills, and trusts – it’s a lot of paper.

The majority of those paper documents and that information are handled through manual processes – inefficient manual processes.

And even though documents hold such a high importance in the legal industry, they still continue to be the source of problems for firms. Law firms still haven’t solved their document challenges – according to ABA’s Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims, the activity generating the most claims against firms is preparation, filing, and transmittal of documents.

Poor document processes impact your firm by creating security and compliance risk, unrecovered billable costs, and unnecessary inefficiencies. Not only that, but it impacts your customer service and satisfaction.

You (and everyone else at the office) need a simple and easy-to-use system that still has the ability to securely store, capture, organize, share, and manage any type of digital or paper-based document within a central repository.

And you can have it – with electronic document managed and workflow.

Digital Document Management and Workflow Makes a Difference

Some firms try to cut document costs through less expensive resources to administrative tasks. However, these less expensive resources just end up masking the fact that a firm isn’t reducing the actual time spent accomplishing tasks, but actually increasing the time and complexity.

Below is a list of 4 ways your law firm can benefit from digital document management and workflow.

  1. Security and Compliance

Protecting a client’s sensitive, confidential, and private information is vital to the practice of law (and client satisfaction) – and it’s the law. Non-compliance to the can result in monetary fines and, with the most serious of violations, imprisonment.

But since law firms experience threats from all angles, this is challenging.

Just by replacing paper documents – because they’re inherently insecure – with digital versions, you decrease the risk of exposure. And with options like authentication, password protection, and encryption, you can receive and send information safely and securely. With these features, you also won’t have to worry about the security of sensitive information if you or someone else loses a laptop or any other mobile device – it will remain secure.

  1. Decrease Costs

Research shows that firms lose up to $16 a day per attorney in unrecovered costs. How many attorneys are in your firm? Even if your firm has 5 attorneys, you’ll still lose almost $30,000 a year in cost recovery alone.

In order for your firm to be accurately compensated – regardless if your print and scan costs are rolled into fees or itemized – you need visibility into print and scan volumes, assigned output, and your actual print costs. Electronic workflow (and print tracking to account for the volume on your printers and copiers) can help you do that.

  1. Increase Productivity and Efficiency

Finding ways to improve efficiency is critical for law firms to survive.

You can complete more billable tasks in the same amount of time as before and with even greater accuracy by using automated workflows. And automating case management, with all its complexity, can eliminate inefficiencies and provide you with a competitive edge that will help grow your customer base and the business.

  1. Better Customer Service

You will be able to provide clients with more responsive and reliable service delivery.

Living in a world where technology allows to be connected at all times, it’s no wonder clients expect the same connectivity experience from your firm.

Electronic workflow and documents allows your office to answer any queries related to a client and review and approve information from anywhere at anytime – securely – through email and mobile devices. Which benefits the client, but also allows you to move on to your next task faster than before. 

Technology has caught up with the needs of law firms. With digital documents and flexible workflow customization you can improve client experience, improve your bottom line, increase productivity, and keep confidential information, well, confidential. 

Want to know more about how you can benefit from electronic workflow? Let’s talk – we’re happy to help.

 

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Topics: Legal Solutions Document Management