Moving from paper-based workflows to digital with document management is an essential effort of law firms across America. The paper-intensive legal field is inundated with critical, confidential documents daily, and keeping up with regulatory compliance can be a nightmare for firms. But, mismanaging documents also costs firms money. Recreating lost documents and searching for misfiled data costs firms an estimated $9,071 per lawyer every year in lost productivity and funds. If you extrapolate that out, a firm with 100 attorneys is faced with nearly $1 million in lost revenue every year all due to the lack of a dedicated document management system. That’s why more firms are turning to document management. Doing so saves money, increases productivity, and makes life easier. Here’s why:
Document Management Enhances Security – Document management software allows firms to control access to sensitive data even when files are stored on a shared network. With document management, you can determine whether certain groups (like all firm partners) or individuals (like particular attorneys) are authorized to access specific folders within your firm’s files. Because document management gives you the ability to set explicit permissions, you can better control access to confidential client and firm information, ensuring its security.
Document Management Improves Regulatory Compliance – Government-imposed regulatory compliance requirements can be a daunting task for even the most organized businesses. Firms around the country are reliving themselves of the burden and hassle of maintaining Sarbanes Oxley compliance by implementing document management software. Because it is designed to automate processes to remain compliant, recordkeeping has never been easier, and you’ll be stress-free if you’re ever required to provide appropriate paperwork.
Document Management Makes Retrieval & Collaboration Easy – With document management’s systematic, easy naming convention, retrieval of your documents has never been easier. No more wasted time looking or reproducing lost or misfiled paperwork. Moreover, collaborating with colleagues is made simpler with document management. Workable files are accessible from multiple locations and version control keeps older versions of the same document available for retrieval later. Because attorneys and paralegals oftentimes work together on cases, this feature of document management is helpful for law offices of all sizes.
Document Management Is Key to Backup and Disaster Recovery – Whether your office faces physical damage from a fire or flood or experiences a cybercrime through ransomware or a hacker, losing data can be catastrophic for law firms. Document management includes Disaster Recovery solutions that will prepare you for data loss and quick recovery to get your team back to work.
If your firm needs to enhance its security, increase compliance, improve data retrieval and collaboration, or implement disaster recovery efforts, document management is a great solution that will keep your attorneys productive and your data secure. Contact Monster Technology today if you are a law firm that would like to learn more about our document management solutions.