Moving to digital conveyancing without workflow disruption — VSID

Many conversations are being had across the legal sector relating to the adoption of eSignatures digital ID verification and Anti-Money Laundering processes, but how easy is it to dispense with the old manual processes and what are the benefits?

Improve efficiency

Freeing up unnecessary administration time so that your fee earners can get on with the job in hand is a good place to start when reviewing digital options, but you may be worried about seismic changes that unfamiliar or complicated software might bring which could result in a low ROI, costly employee re-training or internal resistance to change.   Using a single, multi-dimensional software solution as part of your existing workflow could be the answer.

Allowing your team to work from home securely also comes into play.  Gone are the days where physical documents need to be signed by multiple parties and put in the post for witnessing before being physically returned to the office.  Most steps in any transaction or matter can now be done remotely, safely and securely but it is essential that you scrutinise the cyber security risks and credentials of the supplier you select.

Automation tends to reduce the incidence of human error and save time correcting data inputs.  It can handle a higher volume of workload, more quickly and efficiently, saving time and duplication of work.

Digital methods allow easier interaction with third parties.  From automated reminders for your clients to sign a document, to sharing information with a lender or estate agent, a good software solution will connect all the dots for you and remove the headache of repetitive, unnecessary work.

 

Reduce risk

Using the right provider can help your firm reduce risk by ensuring compliance requirements aren’t missed.  Not only will there be less risk of a regulatory fine being imposed for non-conformance, but the risk of your firm or an innocent party being victim to financial or identity fraud can be substantially reduced too.   All this is achievable if you use a solution that allows all the relevant compliance steps, ongoing monitoring and built-in fraud detection to be incorporated into your existing workflow.

What can be automated?

• eSignatures

eSignatures are widespread now and although legally acceptable in law, there are varying levels of reliability.  For example, a Simple eSignature (SES) will demonstrate that a document has been electronically signed but it doesn’t provide any form of authentication. Advanced eSignatures (AES) involve a basic level of signer authentication and ID Qualified eSignatures are now accepted by HMLR for deeds and eWitnessing as the technology involved ensures an extremely high level of confidence that the person signing is who they say they are.

 

• ID verification

ID verification can be carried out remotely and is a fast, secure and reliable way to support Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.  It usually involves a three-step process of your client using their smart phone to; receive a One Time Passcode (OTP) for authentication, capture the photo page of a valid identity document (passport or driver’s licence) and take a video selfie.  Guidelines recently issued by the SRA advise using a Government listed Digital Verification Service (DVS) for identity verification.

 

• Source of funds and anti-money laundering checks

Open banking has allowed secure and fast access to clients’ bank information, so that banking activity and bank statements can instantly be returned to solicitors carrying out source of funds checks . In addition, unusual banking activity can be detected automatically, saving hours of trawling through paper bank statements looking for anomalies that might flag a money laundering risk.  Know Your Business, Ultimate Beneficial Owner, Bank Ownership, PEPs and Sanctions and other credentials checks are now instantly available with reverifiable authenticity certificates that can be relied upon at a future stage, if needed.

• Automated Decision-Making Forms

Intelligent, AI driven automated forms now make the completion, exchange and filtering of data easy and instant.  The time spent on the process of clients accepting, completing, signing and returning client engagement letters or standard conveyancing forms can be shortened significantly and selected data used to inform next steps. In can also help drive decision making questions and automatically carry out various background checks.

 

Can you keep your existing document management or case management system?

In most cases – yes is the answer.  Many CMS/DMS can be integrated so that the processes mentioned above become a seamless part of the existing workflow.  This can save huge costs with software development and is a good way to consolidate multiple functions into one system.  Additional advantages include little or no staff re-training and little or no disruption to your service.  The beauty of this set up is its fast and painless implementation.

What about cost?

VSiD has long been a pioneer of combining all the elements of legal workflow (particularly in the conveyancing field) into one solution and as such our software is proprietary, in-house technology that does not rely on multiple providers for different functions and this is how we keep our costs competitive.  Factor in our straightforward terms (one annual licence, unlimited users and the ability to roll over credits or top up as required without penalty) and you can soon see why 90% of our clients have come to us from Docusign or Adobe.

 

Free trial to see how you get on?

We offer a free trial to ensure you are happy with our platform.  It provides the opportunity to test the service with no obligation on your part.  If this is of interest to you, please feel free to contact us.

VSiD are the leading digital onboarding experts, offering a broad range of eSignature, KYC and AML solutions with built in fraud detection and document automation and are listed on the Gov.UK Digital Verification Services (DVS) register.