Law Firm: The Issue - Cost and Accuracy

This company is a regional law firm with five offices spread across the midlands and their main issue was inconsistency. As with many organizations, they had grown through acquisition and merger and as such, had adopted numerous referencing systems across their business with no two offices recording files in the same way. This caused great difficulty when trying to access files and often files could not be found.

In addition, the company employed two full time filing clerks and rented a building which had been adapted to house files. This added costs to the practice. This was not their only file store with additional files being stored in attics and loft spaces, basements, and even in a barn.

The inability to trace files and identify exactly what they had was a key issue for them, as was space and they were constantly running out of space as the practice continued to grow. Costs were escalating and the issues were not going away.

The Solution

Historically, each of the branches understood their referencing methodology and Crown’s aim was to bring the disruption to the day-to-day function of the business to a minimum.

The approach that was taken was to target each of the offices in turn, removing every file from every cupboard and roof space, creating a list of everything, and establishing a full database of files collected. This enabled the office to carry on requesting items as they always had done. Their main file store was decanted into our facilities in a similar fashion.

Once this was completed, we were able to supply each office with a complete listing of all files removed and the company then had a complete database of files.

Going forward, the firm had installed an accounting system, which allocates a unique identifier to every customer. We have worked to adopt this number as a single reference point on each file and now all files are registered using this unique ‘customer friendly’ number.

In addition, all files are registered indicating a destruction review date. This allows us to contact the client when files are due for destruction, so that they do not need to retain anything for any longer than is necessary.

The Service

The customer now has a system that allows them to understand exactly how many items they have. They make electronic requests of the service on a weekly basis and we deliver any files that have been requested.

In addition, they are able to send complete electronic listings of items that are ‘new to store’ and this information is transferred into our database. Due to this, we are able to capture five fields of reference with no additional data entry (or associated costs).

The partners are able to identify who spends what at each branch level and who uses the service most, enabling greater accountability and control of budgets.

Real Benefits

The company now has an enhanced knowledge of their filing system and a greater confidence is being generated within the offices. This has meant better response times for customers and has provided a higher level of internal customer satisfaction. All of this for less than the original costs!

Now that is what we would call real benefits.