Konica Minolta: Automating repetitive back-office tasks to benefit firms, employees and clients
The Legal Industry thrives on stability, but sometimes old, rigid, and manual processes can have an adverse effect on the business, its employees, and clients. With the socio-economic pressures we all now face its vital to stay agile.
Until recently, many firms had continued to operate their business processes in the same largely manual way for decades. However, the impact of the pandemic has proven the benefit of process automation.
Adapting to change
As we head into the second winter of a post-COVID world, there is a much clearer view of the new workplace landscape. A hybrid approach combining office and home-based working looks likely to continue for many firms, and with it there have been some interesting lessons learnt which will impact the legal industry moving forwards.
Like most organisations, legal firms have needed to adapt, evolve, and invest (in many cases rapidly) to changing circumstances, in order to protect employees and clients, whilst ensuring business as usual. Whilst many of these changes have been forced upon them it is clear that there is now a strong appetite to go even further.
A survey earlier this year from Thomson Reuters suggested 86% of UK lawyers would like to change the way they work in the future – many highlighting a better work-life balance and less commuting, whilst also stating they enjoyed greater efficiency and a more productive use of technology from a more flexible approach to working.
Repetitive tasks
The reality of legal work is that it involves a lot of mundane, repetitive, and time-consuming administrative work, whether it is processing documents, generating mailings and invoices (both electronic and paper), and ensuring records are properly filed.
In most firms these tasks are undertaken by junior members of the team or dedicated administrative staff. However, for ambitious, driven albeit inexperienced juniors the arduous nature of such processes can lead to frustration, boredom and potentially errors.
This is an area of business that is ripe for the use of process automation, a well-proven software technology capable of automatically completing highly repetitive but essential tasks. Process automation is faster and more accurate than a human because it is programmed to complete the tasks assigned and it can do them 24/7 without pause.
Along with commercial advantages of being able to unburden members of staff to use their skills to service clients and drive revenue, there are also considerable benefits for the mental health and job satisfaction of the team as well. From the highest-ranking legal professional down to the office junior, the automation of the most mundane business tasks means they can concentrate on client work, putting their skills to work interacting with other people directly.
There are considerable cost-savings to be found in process automation too. Employing dedicated admin staff is expensive, as can be the monetary, time and reputational impact if records are lost or incorrectly filed. Interestingly, the Thomson Reuters survey also suggests that 80% of the lawyers surveyed felt that developing new business was a drawback of working remotely, so the additional time and resources freed up by office automation offer obvious benefits here too.
Agility
The agility of process automation enables businesses to make the most of their most valuable resource – the professional people that run it. Law firms generate up to 60% more documents than similar-sized companies in other industries and have traditionally maintained hard copies of relevant casework to ensure legal compliance. These factors are intrinsic to the way the legal industry works, but there is no reason why these tasks must be so labour-intensive anymore.
Automating mundane, boring processes not only saves money but it also ensures junior staff who would normally deal with these are now being utilised for more interesting and meaningful work. This helps with attracting and retaining new talent.
Intelligent automated systems help firms uphold the core principle of trust, whilst ensuring the business, its employees and customers also benefit from the use of a thoroughly modern and forward-facing process system. This delivers the guaranteed efficiency and cost savings of streamlined processes that are invaluable now and in the future.
For more information and advice on Digital Automation for the legal sector and the potential options for your business please contact Andrew Emery at Andy.Emery@Konicaminolta.co.uk
