Captaris, Inc, a leading provider of business information delivery solutions, last month revealed that Ford, Walker, Haggerty & Behar, LLP, a leading law firm with 45 attorneys serving Los Angeles and Orange counties, would be deploying the Captaris Business Information Delivery (BID) suite to manage cost and growth and to improve response to client needs.
The Captaris BID suite, comprised of Captaris Workflow software, Captaris Alchemy for document management, and Captaris RightFax for electronic document capture and delivery, is expected to save the firm about half a million dollars in operational costs and up to a quarter of a million dollars in off-site storage costs during the first five years of deployment.
To find the solution, the firm worked with iDocs Technologies, a leading California solutions provider and Captaris partner which specialises in the legal market.
"iDocs helped us find a product suite that automates the entire lifecycle of a document," explained Jon Hawkins, director of finance with Ford, Walker, Haggerty & Behar. "They worked hard to provide a complete enterprise-wide solution, much broader in scope, more ambitious and forward-thinking than what we received from others."
With the Captaris BID solution, faxes will now be delivered directly to desktop computers, instead of fax machines sitting between secretaries. With RightFax, internal documents will now be digital; using Alchemy Document Management, anything which exists as a hard copy becomes digital, easily accessible and securely archived; and Workflow will direct documents around the office so the firm`s 45 attorneys have the tools to do their jobs more efficiently.
"We took a systems-level approach to solving the firm`s problems and reduced the inefficient fragmentation of disparate devices and software," said Frank Mendicina, president of iDocs Technologies. "The firm`s selection of the Captaris BID solution also demonstrates the need for integrated content management solutions at mid-market companies."
"We looked at several options and products; the Captaris BID solution was the most robust, cost-efficient and flexible in terms of our future needs," Hawkins stated. "Having all three products from the same vendor provides us with an enterprise-wide solution that is lacking from other vendors."
Reliable cost containment is enhanced by having a single vendor, according to Hawkins, and this "absolutely helps with business planning. I know what my expense is going to be for the next five years, and that it`s not going to change."
The firm expects the Captaris solution to return close to half a million dollars in operational savings during the first five years and up to a quarter of a million dollars by reducing the need for off-site storage. "As an insurance defence firm, we face a lot of cost pressure from clients," Hawkins said. "We have to be as efficient as possible to maintain our margins."
Previously, supplies, leases, paper and other expenses relating to document production cost the firm close to R150 000 per month and represented its second highest expense, according to Hawkins. "We had multiple leases with multiple vendors, even several maintenance agreements on a single machine which made tracking and managing costs difficult," he said. The Captaris solution will cut that cost by more than 30%. RightFax will also enable the firm to capture fax charges and pass them along to clients, an advantage not possible with the previous system.
In addition, the company spends in excess of R300 000 annually for document storage at an off-site facility. Avoiding off-site storage fees could add another quarter million dollars in predicted savings over five years. Attorneys will no longer wait two days or pay rush fees for retrieving case documents.
"With technology like Alchemy Document Management, off-site storage will become a fairly obsolete model," Hawkins said. "Firms are better served to store as much as they can digitally."
Business processes will also be expedited with integrated document workflow. "Captaris Workflow can make us more efficient and help us better serve clients," Hawkins said. "For instance, if an attorney is in court and needs a file, he may get on a PDA and call up something right from the database."
He gave another example: pleadings that are currently picked up and physically transferred, mailed or faxed could automatically be sent by Workflow to the courts without manual intervention.
Kevin Hurwitz, MD of local Captaris representative AmVia, predicts that South African legal organisations can expect similar savings percentages. "The high-pressure environment of a law firm is the same in Johannesburg as anywhere in the world, and in terms of document management faces the same challenges and high associated costs. By reducing this expense while at the same time improving the agility and flexibility of the professionals requiring access to this repository, our legal customers can dramatically bolster their bottom lines and enjoy a powerful advantage on this high-profile and highly competitive stage," comments Hurwitz.
He concludes: "The Captaris BID solutions, available to the local market through AmVia, represent a milestone in document flow and management in the modern enterprise. The application of this hi-tech model can help organisations in all industries, and particularly those involved in the generation and handling of a high volume of documentation, achieve higher revenue through the immediate reduction of documentation handling, archiving and delivery costs. What`s more, the digital document environment provides higher levels of data security than a conventional paper-based office and ensures regulatory compliance issues surrounding the long-term storage of enterprise information is merely a policy enforcement away."
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