How paper-light practices can help your legal firm win more cases

Few professions are as ‘docu-centric’ as law firms. Documents are important to law firms as evidence is important in a legal proceeding. In fact, documents are evidence, documents have become a unique feature of the legal profession.  A usual law firm generates or receives myriads of physical documents every year, ranging from pleadings to evidence files which are archived in shelves domiciled in a certain dark room. Emails received or generated are either printed out and physically archived or left in one’s email and on many occasions in different folders in several persons’ emails; hence central location is lacking.

Managing physical documents is crucially important to lawyers and on several occasions overwhelming, frustrating, costly and time-consuming. Of serious concern to every solicitor is taking care of any document entrusted to them. Many dream of a day when they would be able to access whatever documents, whenever they need them, wherever they are within seconds.

A Paper-light office makes it possible for you rely less on a physical document, ensures quick retrieval irrespective of your location, and provides secured storage among other benefits. Paper-light Office converts all physical documents into digitized format(s) with solution(s) that would ensure proper management of these documents. The simple goal is to turn your paper documents (physical archive) into a digital archive which can be securely stored more efficiently (in the cloud) and quickly be accessed anywhere, anytime, hence eliminating time wasting in searching for documents and the fear of losing the document.

The cost of Paper-light Office pales into insignificant when compared with the costs of maintaining an archive room, the man-hour lost in searching and retrieving documents which in some cases are never found, the actual  cost of losing the documents, and other mental distresses and inconveniences experienced as a result of depending on physical documents.     
   
From our experience in dealing with legal firms, Paper-light Office helps to:

1. Increase billable hours and improve client service quality.
2. Streamline the process of retrieving and distributing essential information.
3. Provide simultaneous access to client information.
4. Improve operational efficiency with minimal disruption.
5. Improve information security and document integrity.
6. Enable productivity tracking and accountability, ensuring turnaround requirements are always met.
7. Streamline compliance-driven documentation requirements.
8. Reduce paper, paper storage, photocopying, and faxing costs.

Migration to Paper-light Office is gradual, systematic and custom-built, hence we suggest that you first consider digitization of the most important, frequently consulted or searched documents. Depending on the volumes, cloud storage could be free. To increase your confidence in Paper-light Office, we offer, for a start, to digitize for free 1.5 % of the estimated number of pages of your documents. You determine the most important documents for this test.

We at Tecres Technologies help Legal firms realize that dream with Paper-light Office. Why not allow us to help you make your work easier and more efficient!

10 Mistakes to Avoid When Picking a Document Management Software (DMS)

1. Not buying enough scanning capacity. Too often, organisations use their average document processing volumes when determining scanning capacity.
2. Not including all stakeholders – both business and IT – in the requirements definition. In some cases, the IT department will unilaterally choose the organisation’s scanners, in turn, saddling operations with scanners that don’t meet their requirements or are not easy for operators to use.
3. Buying a solution without conducting a proof of concept. Organizations should never purchase a scanner without first seeing how it processes their documents.
4. Making decisions on front-end and back-end systems separately. An organization’s front-end scanning and capture solution must work in concert with its back-end workflow technology.
5. Not coordinating software and hardware vendors during system deployment. No one wins in this scenario. A lack of coordination typically results in wasted effort, finger pointing, and delayed implementations.
6. Not using a phased implementation approach. In their drive for fast results, too many organisations bite off more than they can chew when implementing a scanning solution.
7. Letting “fear of change” take over. Too many organisations are close minded when it comes to re-engineering their processes, falling back on the way they’ve done things for the past five or 10 years.
8. Not thinking LEAN. Organisations should always be looking for ways to do more with less.
9. Not cutting the paper cord. Many organisations use unique transaction separator sheets for each type of work that they process, creating an enormous breadth and volume of paper.
10. Not sharing – as in shared services. With the economy still struggling, and capital budgets tight, organisations should look to consolidate multiple scanning functions on a single platform.

For free analysis of your Document Management System and a look at our ECM solution, you can contact us via our website at www.tecres.com.ng or send an email to enquiries@tecres.com.ng or call on (+234) 013427176, 08020619478