Like other industries, the legal industry is being forced to pivot in response to changing consumer demands, shifting economies, and a major departure from the traditional in-house office work to remote or hybrid work situations. With these shifts comes an emphasis on building out in-house technologies and technical abilities — something that law offices have been traditionally resistant to in the past.
But the digital transformation that is sweeping every type of business format is taking hold stronger than ever in the world of legal operations, setting in motion a series of trends that directly impact the ability of firms to respond to changing conditions in a positive and resourceful manner. While we will explore several trends in this article, our focus is on the ability of one strong, cost-effective way to stay abreast of these changes — by employing a robust document management system.
Trending Operational Changes and Document Management
As legal firms position themselves for success in the coming years, more law offices are choosing to adopt technologies and strategies that will exploit the rapid changes occurring in the realm of operations to stay competitive and productive. Here are our favorite tools legal offices can use to establish a lead over their competitors:
Improving the Client Experience
Legal clients’ priorities have shifted right alongside businesses. Most prominently is the change in spending for legal services, which has resulted in clients wanting their legal hires to be able to do more with an even smaller budget. The three things they are most interested in include:
- More efficient service
- On-time, relevant advice
- Efficient sharing of knowledge
Firms who can respond to these desires will find themselves at the top of the call — and retainer — list when legal issues crop up. Document management systems (DMS) make it easy to hit all of these points with just one technology. By streamlining workflows and optimizing business processes, DMS’ give law firms the power to provide high level legal assistance at a lower cost by remaining efficient and agile. With information at their fingertips, legal staff can respond to queries quickly and accurately to provide the right advice in an efficient manner. And, with data security protocols inherent in document management software, knowledge-sharing is not only supported, but also protected.
Adopting Emerging Technologies
As more businesses adopt technology to help them work smarter and more cost-effectively, law firms are picking up speed with their own digital transformations. Now, artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to augment many legal tasks from drafting of contracts to jury screening and virtual courtrooms and meetings are becoming standard practice. By leveraging technology, law offices can offer a higher level of service to existing — and potential — clients than ever before. Document management is one of the easiest technologies to explore in a legal office, as documents are an integral part of any law operation. By minimizing the burden of storing, securing, and sharing the huge amount of paperwork generated by legal staff, your law office can streamline business operations to get work done faster and with fewer errors. Additionally, document management software is designed to help law firms stay compliant with various data privacy and protection requirements, giving staff, owners, and clients more peace of mind over the sharing of personal and sensitive data that may be relevant and necessary to a positive legal outcome.
Doing Better Business Has the Document Management Solution Your Law Office Needs
More legal offices are turning to technology to help streamline the process of conducting matters of law. Not only can restructuring business processes with an eye toward efficiency and productivity help reduce staff frustration and assist in retaining high-level talent, but it can also help firms protect data better and drive revenue.
At Doing Better Business, we provide our legal clients access to leading-edge document management systems, such as DocuWare, Laserfiche, and Content Central to provide a wider range of choices to fit your specific business needs. Our team of industry experts can help you evaluate your current challenges and goals and find a document management system that can dovetail neatly with your business strategies to help you reap the benefits of current operational trends.
Help your legal office exceed client expectations with a higher level of efficiency. Contact a representative from Doing Better Business and learn how our document management solutions can help your office become more productive, compliant, and profitable.