subject: Law Firms and the need for Paperless Document Management Software [print this page] Law Firms and the need for Paperless Document Management Software
It is common for Law firms to have a basement or an entire floor dedicated to legal document storage. But as the documents pile up, the inconvenience also mounts. Imagine, for example, having to search through box after box of documents to find that contract your assistant archived last year. Now imagine the aftermath of a flooded basement, with decades of documents completely destroyed.
There's a reason paper storage is quickly becoming archaic. The efficiencies gained through electronic storage are enough by themselves to make a paperless office the obvious goal. But beyond even the efficiencies, the disaster-prevention benefits of electronic storage make a paperless office an insurance policy against the total loss of your practice.
Paperless document management or document organization software is both easy to use, easy to learn, and worth the costs to implement. While there will be a software cost and a cost for acquiring scanners, the efficiency gains from paperless document management will soon outweigh the costs.
The amount of time it takes to search for an electronic file on a paperless computer file management system is almost immeasurable on a watch. Compare that to the hours it can take sorting through and searching for specific legal documents in paper archives. And with paperless office software, saving incoming files takes only a few mouse clicks hyper-speed compared to the time required to pull out a new paper folder, label it, walk to the cabinet, and sort it alphabetically.
Attorneys can access computer network and data storage file through the Internet, making it possible to pull up documents anywhere there's web access. But the most important aspect of paperless document storage is that all critical files can be backed up to multiple off-site locations, effectively and efficiently avoiding permanent loss of documents.
The biggest hurdle to a paperless office for most firms has always come from the inefficiencies of moving paper documents to electronic format. Today, however, state-of-the-art document scanning and organization software applications can streamline the system to the point that it's nearly painless. File organization software, file management systems, PDF scanning software, and batch PDF conversion software are all available in single packages. This greatly decreases the overall cost of implementing paperless document management while improving simplicity. The only problem left is looking for the best document management software available.
