Scanning Solutions Integration for a Law Firm

Solutions: Scanning and Archiving, Printing Solutions | Industry:  Legal | Software: DRIVVE | Hardware: Multifunction Device

The Challenge

A well-known UK based Law Firm spends 6 hours each day scanning incoming post, then manually importing those scans into case files on their CMS.
Printing correspondence is also done manually, with the printing of branded and file copy paper needing to be done individually.
Additionally, the firm has 18 small Multifunction Devices positioned at various points around the office, as well as two standalone Brother scanners.

The PLR Legal Solution

PLR Legal installed 4 new state of the art Sharp MFD’s to replace all the existing equipment. These devices were all configured to integrate with the customer’s CMS before they were installed, and were chosen because of their ability to handle a high volume of scanning, as well as being able to print large scale jobs on to several types of paper.

The Benefits

The client can now scan documents directly into a case file in one step. The new devices have a pull-out keyboard which enables the legal experts at the firm to enter in a case number, saving 2 colleagues 3 hours each day. By implementing digitally embedded overlays, the client no longer needs to purchase pre-letterheaded paper, and with one press of a button, correspondence is printed on both premium

By implementing digitally embedded overlays, the client no longer needs to purchase pre-letterheaded paper, and with one press of a button, correspondence is printed on both premium paper with branding and file copy paper. This saves hours each month for each of the staff at the office.

Space in the office has been increased due to the 20+ machines being replaced with 4 multifunction devices, and this has also had an impact on the overall monthly energy spending each month, allowing the client to invest the saved funding into client-facing benefits.

Scanning and Archiving Solution for a Legal Firm

Solution: Scanning and Archiving | Industry: Legal | Software: Optiflow | Hardware: Multifunction Device

The Challenge

Document organisation of scanned files is key to Legal Firms. When reviewing cases it is sometimes necessary to be aware of the order in which the pages are viewed. Far too often, it is necessary for a legal professional to amend these files manually, adding page numbers in by hand, one page at a time.

To reduce the amount of time which our customer needed to alter the files, PLR Legal began working on a way to automatically add page’s numbers to a scanned document. This needed to easy to use for the operators, flexible whilst providing a time-saving solution.

The PLR Legal Solution

Using the most capable software for this task, OptiFlow, we created a process which let us set the length and format of the input string for a case file. This can be done on a character by character basis, an alphabetic character using %, a numeric character using a ‘#’ or any character using a ‘?’ which would decrease errors.

This case number is remembered for next scan, or can be cleared quickly with the CLEAR button. The settings were then set to default duplex and delete/skip blank pages. We then set up bates numbering, set the position of the page number, the number of characters, as well as anything else the customer needed. Additionally, the software was set to automatically tidy up the image, deskew the pages, despeckle, etc.

OptiFlow converts the image to PDF/A (searchable). – PDF/A is a subset of PDF that eliminates certain risks threatening the one-to-one future reproducibility of the content. PDF/A forbids dynamic content to ensure that the user sees the exact same content both today and for years to come. Everything that is required to render the document the exact same way, every time, is contained in the PDF/A file: fonts, colour profiles, images etc. PDF/A is also an ISO standard, guaranteeing that future software generations will know how to open and render PDF/A files.

Integration with Proclaim was also possible, we could implement barcoding, which would then place a small barcode along the very bottom of the documents the customer sent out to clients. When they got them back, they would simply stick a large stack of returned documents into the MFD’s Automated Document Feeder (ADF) and press goes, because the case number is in the barcode, they are just sent straight to the case. Barcodes can also be used to do document separation.

Results and Benefits

The searchable PDF in archive format is then filed away, named the way we want, into the case.