Not a week goes by when we are asked to discuss how a one of our law firm clients can become a “paperless office”. We tell them we have a solution to becoming a “less paper office” but never a “paperless” office. We thought we should share this with our other clients as well.

There are a few critical ingredients to a successful “less paper” operation. They are a high speed scanner and a document management system. We have found these two components to be the keys to implementing a less paper office.

1. Selecting the Right Scanner

First we will discuss the scanning component. There are now many choices of scanners for scanning documents but there is one factor that is most critical and that is the speed of the scanner. We recommend a scanner that can scan 40-60 pages per minute (single or double sided), has a automatic sheet feeder of 50 to 100 pages, and
an optional flat bed for scanning books and irregular size pages. Most scanners in this performance range have a defaulted resolution (300 DPI) or allow the user to select the scanner resolution.

2. Scanner Software

Besides, the scanner hardware, you need software to capture the scanned image. Software products that we have used and recommend are Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Messenger, PaperPort and OmniPage. All of these products have the capability of making a PDF file (Portable Document File) and making a OCR (Optical Character Recognition) copy of the file. OCR is the process of converting the words in the image file of the scanned document into a text file. This text file is imbedded within the PDF file and allows for the PDF to be text searchable.

3. A Document Management System (DMS)

The next critical component of a “less paper office” is a document management system. The DMS provides the ability to manage the scanned files so that they can be saved in the proper folder on the network, retrieved quickly by either the name of the file or the any contents in the file. A true DMS can manage any type of electronic file whether it was created by a word processor, a spreadsheet program, emails, and scanned documents. One document management system we have found to very powerful, flexible and affordable is Worldox, from World Software Corporation.

Worldox allows the user who just scanned the document to profile the document by identifying the Client/Matter name or number, the document type, and the attorney who created the document. Other metadata about the document can also be saved as comments. After the documents is “Profiled”, Worldox will full text index the contents of the document, thereby making it text searchable. It also saves the document in the client/matter folder on the network along with other electronic documents. Now you have one folder that contains all the documents related to the case….an electronic filing cabinet.

As documents are scanned, and profiled, they are ready to be used by others in the firm. They can be easily found by looking in the Client/Matter electronic folder, or text searched by content, or with one click an attorney can look at all the files scanned that day for that attorney. If the attorney is traveling, he/she can access Worldox through the Internet and review the documents by case, or documents that came in the mail that day. Or, if multiple attorneys or paralegals need to work on the same case at the same time, each can access the electronic copies of the documents without the delay of making paper copies and establishing multiple file folders. There are so many productivity savings to a firm when the documents are electronic rather than paper.

Getting Started with Your “Less Paper” Office

Baker+Cadence Solutions has extensive experience installing scanners and creating the “less paper” process in law firms. If you would like to schedule a meeting to discuss your firm’s plans to reduce the paper and to become more “electronic” in the way you operate, call us to setup an appointment. We can meet with you to discuss your requirements, and prepare a cost estimate for implementation.

You can give us a call at 916-677-4277 or email bbaker@bakercadence.com or mcrouch@bakercadence.com.