DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT IN LEGAL AND FINANCIAL
CONTINUED
high levels of security, compliance and efficiency. “Features such as secure access controls, audit trails, version control and seamless integration with existing software are paramount,” he says. “Solutions that provide automated workflows, advanced search capabilities and secure cloud storage are also in high demand. “Additionally, these businesses value solutions that can handle a wide variety of document formats and facilitate easy collaboration among team members while ensuring data integrity and confidentiality.” Phil says legal professionals receive inbound content on a wide variety of channels that without automated document solutions can be difficult to organise, manage and share with clients. “Legal businesses need solutions that can intelligently process documents, enabling communication with clients across whatever channel they prefer,” he says. “These solutions also need to be able to automatically classify inbound documents by capturing specific data from incoming physical mail and emails, index the information and attach relevant case files. This saves time for employees, who no longer have to manually sort documents themselves – preventing a mundane and repetitive day-to-day schedule and avoiding potentially costly errors.” Richard agrees that customers want easy- to-use solutions to help streamline admin- heavy tasks such as organising incoming emails and digitalising legal documents. “For businesses that charge a client fee for their employee’s time, these tools help free up capacity for value-adding activity,” he says. “Canon’s document management software, uniFLOW Online, takes this a step further with the ability to allocate printing charges directly to different projects or cases, through the platform’s user-friendly cost centre.” Security Another critical aspect for legal and financial businesses is to maintain the security of documents – and this can be an advantage of DMS. Richard says that research by PwC reveals that 85% of the Top 100 law firms state that they’re ‘extremely concerned’ or ‘somewhat concerned’ about cyberthreats. “This further highlights the need for secure and user- friendly document management solutions that are designed with security at their core, helping businesses to unlock capacity, without compromising on compliance,” he says.
Michael adds that security is critically important for all businesses, regardless of sector. “However, the sensitive nature of the documents handled by legal and financial sectors – such as client records, financial statements and legal contracts – means that any breach could have serious consequences,” he says. “While concerns about security can be a barrier to adoption, modern DMS address these issues with advanced security features. “These include encryption, multi-factor authentication, secure user permissions and regular security updates. By ensuring that their DMS comply with industry standards and regulations, businesses can overcome security concerns and confidently transition to digital solutions.” Roy agrees: “With a DMS, legal and financial services firms can truly work intelligently, unlock expertise, ensure compliance and governance and minimise risk as part of day- to-day operations,” he says. “For instance, DMS use machine learning, forensics and adaptive behaviour modelling techniques to see how the firm’s data is being accessed and interrogated. This enables IT teams to detect unusual usage patterns or use IP analytics to pinpoint attacks to steal credentials, in the unfortunate event should bad actors make such an attempt. “Firms can deploy ‘need-to-know’ security barriers at scale across departments, folders and projects so only authorised individuals can ever access the data. The department can also segment data based on confidentiality so that in the event of an ill- fated data breach, the risk of data exposure is significantly minimised. With financial services corporations and law firms subject to strict regulatory obligations, with such capability, demonstrating compliance and responding to audits becomes relatively quick and straightforward. “With the GDPR and other country- specific data protection legislations, proper governance of electronic and physical records is vital. DMSs offer administrators the ability to apply flexible retention and defensible deletion policies to content. Furthermore, how professionals want to work must be aligned to the firm’s GDPR compliance policies, without causing friction or disruption in their workflow or the collaborative workspace. A DMS supports daily operations by helping to enforce the policies, ensure document security as well as assist with records and
Roy Russell CEO
ascertus.com
“
With a DMS, legal and financial services firms can truly work intelligently, unlock expertise, ensure compliance and governance and minimise risk as part of day-to-day operations.
”
38
Powered by FlippingBook