DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT IN LEGAL AND FINANCIAL
on and off – hence the prevalence of shared drives and SharePoint for this
use in their legal and finance departments,” he says. “Our customers come from every industry and whether is manufacturing, wholesale trade or legal and finance businesses, the sheer volume of paperwork they deal with can be overwhelming, and that’s where a DMS can be a game-changer.”
functionality. Typically, corporates would end up with multiple DMSs to meet the usage requirements of different departments. “Now, due to the level of data most firms must deal with, a fragmented document management approach is rapidly giving way to best-practice DMS. With cloud a mainstream technology, coupled with the post-pandemic era of flexible and hybrid working, a cloud-based DMS is today an indispensable, business-critical solution. “Firms want to be able to access and share work and documents from anywhere, at any time, from any device. They need enhanced collaboration capability. In the absence of a central repository of documents and work products, professionals can spend an inordinate amount of time searching for documents – and when not finding them, ‘reinventing the wheel’ to complete tasks and activities. Such situations are an enormous drain on their efficiency and productivity.” Relieving burden Phil Jones, senior business development director at Quadient, notes that legal professionals always need quick and clear access to the right document. “Otherwise, they risk making mistakes that could cause reputational damage, severely impact upon the end users experience of their services and expose them to GDPR compliance issues,” he says. “Externally, legal businesses are prioritising effective communication and collaboration with clients to enhance customer service and expedite case resolution – enabling them to handle more cases without increasing operational costs. As a result, they are increasingly turning to DMS to alleviate the paperwork burdens and manual toil associated with these processes.” Benedikt Dischinger, vice president finance and people & culture at DocuWare, says that they find the demand for a DMS comes from legal and finance departments across all industries and not only from legal and financial industries. “In fact, in 2023, 55% of our new customers adopted our DMS for
Typical solutions But the solutions legal and financial
businesses require can vary significantly. Roy says that most firms today are adopting a cloud- and mobile-first IT strategy. “Therefore, a cloud-native DMS is a logical choice,” he says. “In a hybrid and remote working environment, a cloud-native DMS provides ubiquitous computing and mobility capabilities to accommodate flexible working patterns as well as local and global collaboration needs. “User requirements can vary, be that on an individual, departmental or corporate- wide basis. These requirements range from a heavily disciplined approach to an almost invisible solution that looks no different from a standard file share. Firms now want DMS that can offer multiple interfaces to handle the different user requirements but with a single, central repository at the back end. “Additionally, with most legal and financial services firms having adopted Microsoft technology, their users want the same look and feel, and intuitive useability. So DMS that offer seamless integration with Office 365 are preferred. “Firms are looking to address the challenges posed by fragmented and siloed data. DMS that easily integrate with third-party business systems to help create a seamless firm-wide operational environment is often the goal. These systems typically include digital signatures, matter management, metadata management, knowledge management, unstructured data management, document compare, PDF manager and such – capabilities that are complementary to core document management and enhance the productivity of professionals.” Michael adds that legal and financial businesses typically look for DMS that offer
Richard Stewart workspace portfolio marketing manager
canon.co.uk
“
Demand has only grown as hybrid working has become the ‘new normal’, meaning businesses now need to meet compliance requirements across a network of remote and at- home devices.
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