Law firms must become paperless and adopt automatic processes to deliver a better service for clients.
That is the view of John Jones, compliance director and head of legal practice at Total Conveyancing Services.
“TCS does volume conveyancing. It’s all residential work. We are using tech to demystify the conveyancing process,” he told a BusinessCloud roundtable.
“We are probably doing between 800-1,000 completions a month. We’ve got about 100 staff and obviously we’ve got a case management system. A lot of our work is introduced to us electronically.
“Clients today want their transactions turned around very quickly. They don’t want to be sitting there waiting for something to happen.
“When I first started the average conveyancing purchase took six months. Now they’re looking for between three and four weeks.
“Technology isn’t just about speed. It’s about getting the detail right. You still have to provide for those clients who will not use technology themselves.
“My mum, who is in her 80s, will use Facebook but she doesn’t know how to use her mobile phone. You have to provide for every type of client.
“Probably about 80 per cent of our client base will accept documents by email or through a secure portal and it’s growing every year. It’s what our clients want.”
Alex Hutchinson is a director of TBA Group, who are experts in analysing document workflows and identifying process automation.
He said: “We try and work with firms to help them with their transition towards digital and technology is a major part of it. We work mainly with the private sector.
“More and more law firms seem to be more proactive in wanting to make that transition quicker.
“Sometimes you can be confused by all these different options that are available. Our job is to keep the focus on what you’re trying to achieve and keep the focus.”
The legal landscape is changing and technology is at the centre of what’s happening.
Firms are looking at ways to improve profitability, increase agility and deliver excellent service to their clients.
BusinessCloud joined forces with Converge Technology Specialists , the UK’s only cloud computing provider dedicated to UK law firms, and several leading figures from the sector to find out how they were using tech.
We will feature the content from the legal roundtable all week.