Lawyers often become overloaded by their numerous files and clients, leading them to miss deadlines, dissatisfied clients, lawsuits, and a loss in income. Document management software helps lawyers gain efficiency, control, and transparency in all legal affairs as it automates storage, sharing, and tracking management for paper case files.
Lawyers and staff members alike can quickly locate information with document management software. In addition to real-time collaboration, document management also makes legal teams more sophisticated by matching resources with business performance objectives more strategically. Legal document management solutions may be purchased independently or integrated into larger programs like Salesforce.com; an ideal legal document manager includes features like enterprise dashboards, document automation capabilities, and reporting for workload and priority management.
What Is Legal Document Management ERP Software?
Firms can utilize legal document management ERP software to communicate, edit, manage and organize case files, digital files, emails and client profiles effectively. Note that document management software differs significantly from legal practice management ERP software.
Legal practice management offers more extensive collaboration tools for overseeing firm records and activities, while document management tools enable attorneys to quickly and effectively organize digital legal documents. Cloud-based platforms designed to facilitate wider practice management with document management ERP software could prove extremely advantageous to you.
Why Use A Legal Document Management System?
90% of professionals experience difficulty in finding their contracts, spending an estimated 50% or more of their workday creating and updating paper documents instead of working directly on manual tasks. Law firms in particular often need to produce archive documents for multiple clients at once and use legal management ERP system for this very reason:
- Organization of Documents: Legal DMS automatically organizes and saves all incoming documents into specific folders for easy searching, accessing and storage of their document verification.
- Enhancing security: Legal DMS utilizes secure cloud storage instead of email or local machines for document storage purposes, thus protecting them against unwarranted access by third-parties.
- Legal DMS reduces operational costs: by employing intelligent automation to automate manual document processes, saving an impressive 80% in operational expenses.
- Legal DMS helps increase productivity: By handling all aspects of document management for law professionals, Legal DMS frees them up from administrative duties so they can focus on doing actual legal work instead.
- Compliance: Legal DMS assists law firms in being compliant should audits come up.
Benefits Of Legal Document Management ERP Software For Law Firms
Increased Productivity
Before, most law offices stored their files on hard drives, USB keys or cabinets that weren't shareable or searchable efficiently enough. Attorneys frequently struggled to access files quickly enough which caused delays, arguments and miscommunications among staff and clients alike. Now it is easier for law offices to increase productivity with cloud technology by keeping all their documents accessible via shared cloud servers, making sharing possible across a law practice without sharing the burden equally across staff or clients alike.
Alternately, attorneys can store and manage document types online with searchable centers using cloud-based document management ERP software. As a result, critical dockets and data can instantly be seen and accessed by anyone authorized. A plaintiff's surname could help an attorney find invoice processing, court records, email exchanges, and any other relevant document security stored therein.
Maintain Happy Clients
Document management ERP software can also assist attorneys in quickly informing their clients on their cases and responding to inquiries quickly and accurately. For instance, using search features of document management software, you could quickly obtain answers if someone asks when their personal injury lawsuit should be filed, while OCR technology also comes built-in.
Find Out More About Comprehensive Conflict Checks
According to conflict of interest regulations, lawyers cannot represent clients whose interests collide with either theirs or those of an earlier client. Attorneys who disobey such regulations could face severe repercussions, such as negative internet reviews and bar complaints for failure to abide by them.
Document management ERP software can be an excellent way to conduct conflict checks efficiently. By consolidating all client information in one location, document management software makes conducting comprehensive checks easier than manually searching through hard drives, USB keys, drawers or storerooms for records that contain conflict checks.
Strengthen Collaboration Among Teams
Legal document management applications make sharing information between staff members easy. Some programs even enable assigning repetitive tasks and receiving notifications once completed; chat and comment systems allow communication among collaborators; version control makes sure your law firm document management system remains effective over time.
Making It Easier To Onboard New Team Members
Onboarding new employees is challenging enough without teaching them how to use various organizational centralized platforms, too. A single legal management program makes learning simpler, while automating documents on autopilot workflows further reduces the amount of training necessary. Document management software with automated workflows also contributes to this aspect. Automated workflows (sometimes referred to as workflow automation ) employ rule-based logic in order to execute operations without human involvement.
Workflow automation generally utilizes an iteration of if/then logic statements to initiate subsequent time-consuming tasks, like when someone fills out a form and clicks a scheduler after receiving an email asking them to set up a meeting from workflow automation. Once their appointment date and time have been confirmed, an automated thank-you email from workflow is sent back with details.
Enables Remote Work
With cloud-based types of document management software, employees are able to track time, save time, communicate with clients, manage dockets, and check databases from any internet-enabled device, regardless of location or device access limitations.
Also Read: Master Legal Practice Management: ERP Software Impact Worth $10K?
What To Look For In Document Management ERP Software
Now that you understand the benefits of digital document management software, here's what to keep an eye out for when searching for legal document creation apps. Bear these factors in mind as you compare legal management ERP software applications.
Matter-Centric Functions And Features
Your document management software should ideally organize around each topic for easy access to messages and materials pertinent to each case, providing easy access to emails, monitoring participants in cases, log calls, plan meetings, oversee workflows and remember important dates with just a single system.
Integral Timekeeping System
An effective volumes of document management platform should feature an easy-to-use timekeeping system with accounting solution integrations for complete visibility into productivity and profits. Users should be able to utilize this timekeeping solution when working cases and valuable time tracking should also provide insight into productivity levels as a whole.
Ironclad Security
Physical File Storage Storing client files in physical locations like storerooms and cabinets is no guarantee of security for client information, nor can natural disasters like floods, fires and earthquakes damage files unless adequately protected with security features like locks. Employees could tamper with or misplace them if there's insufficient physical protection available - while files stored on hard drives or USB keys could easily become lost, compromised, altered, stolen, etc.
Cloud-based practice management platforms offer many benefits for law firms, including reduced risks and costs associated with protecting confidential data. Unfortunately, not every physical document management software program provides enough cybersecurity controls, so be sure to research each vendor's security protocols and practices carefully before selecting one as your cloud-based solution provider.
Mobility
Legal professionals demand accessing data and working on cases from any device at any time - be it tablet, phone or other connected. Therefore, an ideal document upload management software must ensure full functionality via tablets, phones and other connected mobile devices.
Affordability
Document management ERP software prices can range significantly depending on factors like user volume and storage needs.
Choose an option that doesn't rely on current software and hardware upgrades; accessible via PCs and Apple devices alike; as well as being mobile friendly.
Availability
Document Management Software Should Always be Accessible
A reliable electronic document management program must always be accessible, making the digital tools, products, and services of its software available to employees, clients, or any other users who access it.
If the vendor website doesn't specify an SLA uptime estimate for its software, contact them and inquire whether this estimate includes planned outages.
Recoverability
Hardware failure, power outages and other unexpected events can result in data loss. Therefore, when choosing critical document management software providers it's essential that they can quickly restore data from backup in case of emergency to minimize downtime before returning to normal business procedures. Otherwise you risk long delays before getting your operations back underway.
Find a document management software vendor who:
- Provides an effective data backup policy with recovery time objectives and point objectives in mind.
- Maintains regular backups of its databases, custom reports and any customized files such as spreadsheets.
- Store multiple backup copies on external media devices
- Backing up their databases regularly and recovering them as necessary are both key strategies in protecting information assets and managing business risk.
Conclusion
Legal document management software can play an instrumental role in streamlining legal firm operations and increasing productivity through automated workflows, task management, time tracking, signature management, collaboration, and secure sharing. More businesses recognize its worth every year; so its adoption only continues to rise with time - make sure your choice best aligns with both your needs and budget by exploring all available solutions on the market today.
