Jonathan Swan, IT Director and Partner at Roythornes explains, “When enforced remote working came into place, we needed a way to capture and track the work that our lawyers sent to our support staff in order to streamline and optimise the process. We were already users of BigHand’s digital dictation and could see how the full workflow solution would help us to gain visibility over all types of support tasks including copying, bundling, archiving and document amendment – most of which have traditionally been handed to the support staff whilst in the office.”

The legal-specific workflow tool allows tasks to be sent to a central workflow with all the required instruction upfront. Tasks are then automatically routed to the right skilled resource, at the right cost to the firm. The centralised view of work can be accessed by desktop or mobile devices to allow lawyers to check on the progress of their work at any time. Team managers have a clear view of outstanding work and resource capacity, and can easily move work between teams to maximise service and utilisation.

Jonathan continues, “Our aim is to use the new workflow visibility to ensure that our support resource is fully optimised across the firm. For example, if we have capacity in Nottingham to undertake searches, document amendments or create bundles for fee earners in Birmingham – these tasks can be delegated accordingly, enabling us to more flexibly match up the supply of support resources, and their specific skills, with peaks and troughs in demand.” 

“Having visibility over the legal back-office workflow is vital at this time.” Jonathan concludes, “Remote working is set to stay, and having technology in place to help effectively streamline and improve the way that work is moved around, tracked and progressed is key to optimise service delivery.”

“For us, converting to BigHand’s workflow technology was an easy choice, as rather than introducing a new system, our lawyers are already familiar with the platform, reducing the training requirements. It’s reassuring to work with a technology partner that understands our challenges and builds technology specifically for the legal professional.”