When you think about automating your firm, it can become overwhelming!
That’s why we created this Quick Start Guide.
When thinking about automating your firm, you've likely asked yourself more than a few questions:
Why automate? What are the benefits? What does automation in the law firm really mean?
How difficult will it be to automate my firm?
And, of course, the big question: Is it really worth the time, effort, and cost?
Main Benefits Of Automation
Efficiency - When your firm transitions to a legal case management system, the automation it provides will immediately reduce the time and effort required for menial, non-billable tasks. An automated law firm capitalizes on that time by increasing its entire staff's productivity. This can be your firm.
Accuracy - The more times a task is repeated, the more likely mistakes can occur. Automation guarantees the completion of tasks, to the exact standards you specify. Strong case management software, built around automated procedures, makes relentless accuracy the norm. This can be your firm.
Client Satisfaction - Keeping current clients satisfied is critical, but your bottom line depends on a balance: Your attorneys also need to bring on and foster new clients, and nurturing a positive attorney-client experience requires careful attention. Automation assures more of this follow-up without having to dedicate more time, which translates into increased revenue. This can be your firm.
What Does Automation In The Law Firm Really Mean?
Today, using technology to your advantage is the norm and automation is a necessary foundation for any firm to stay competitive. It guarantees all tasks are done accurately and efficiently so that firms can focus on the work that truly adds value to their clients. Think about where your firm needs to be in order to improve your bottom line, maximize the productivity of your staff, and elevate your clients’ experience with your services. Wouldn't it be convenient to have a case management system that made each facet of your firm fit seamlessly together?
SmartAdvocate has the tools to make sure that every stage of every case is handled in an appropriate and consistent way.
WorkPlans are like a checklist that can automate routine processes. They allow you to have everything in one place so that you can see all of the items needed to complete a project. Teams will no longer need to spend time figuring out what needs to be done, who needs to do it, and what is the next task.
Automated Procedures enable you to create repeating tasks, send automated text messages or emails to clients, create multiple reminders, or automatically generate documents. These can be triggered by various events in the case.
Dashboards & Reports help you track critical case information, (SOLs, medical records requests, etc.) plus vital firm financial and operational details (including advertising campaigns, outstanding fees, calendar reports, etc.). Reports can be set up to automatically be emailed to your team, so you never have to remember to run them again.
Document Templates can easily be created from your existing Word, Excel, or PDF documents and forms, which are then available for use in all of your cases. Once these templates are created, SmartAdvocate can begin to automatically insert information from cases into those documents using 4,000 available merge codes. Templates can also be copied from case to case as needed.
Extensive Office Calendaring enables your firm to easily maintain and view the full calendar for a specific case, the entire office, any group, or a single individual. SOLs, Critical Deadlines, and Appointments are pushed to your staff's calendars.
125+ Integration Partners helps every firm customize SmartAdvocate to fit their needs with integrations like eSignature, accounting, texting, medical records retrieval, and much more.
The Client Portal provides clients instant access to their case information, including documents, case calendar, notes, and more, freeing up staff time for other responsibilities. Your firm maintains complete control over what the client can see on the Portal.
iPhone and Android apps provide on-the-go access to your case information on your phone or tablet from virtually anywhere. Send a text or email, view a document, view the calendar and add appointments, and much more.
How Difficult Will It Be To Automate My Firm?
Implementation of a new legal case management system can take time, but the payback is that you get out of it exactly what you put into it. It's important to implement a true data conversion, which is the process of transferring the data from one system to another. This means mapping fields to capture all your data, which will maintain your data integrity.
Is It Really Worth The Time, Effort And Cost?
The most frequent rationale for automation is to save time, but how much time does it actually save? And, what does that time saved mean for your firm? It is easy to underestimate the value of automation because common tasks like sending an email to a client, or merging information into a document, and then completing a template do not take long to accomplish manually. While those few minutes do not seem critical, it’s when you multiply them by the number of tasks that you do across the course of a day … or a case … or a year - it adds up!
Imagine a system in which routine emails are auto-generated, all repetitive pleadings are created through near-instantaneous merge functions, and scanned documents automatically attach themselves to the appropriate case files. You do not need to imagine this; you simply need to research your options and then choose to implement them.
Book a free consultation today... Take the next step
If you are ready to maximize efficiency within your law office, reduce your costs of operation, cut down on the opportunity for error, and provide improved client satisfaction, then it is time to learn more about the SmartAdvocate legal case management system.
Get started today
Let SmartAdvocate help your law firm get organized and practice more efficiently.
Have questions? Call 1-877-GET-SMART (1-877-438-7627)