Bundledocs case study: Paris Smith
Tech training manager Emma Cummins says Paris Smith is loyal to its core values – or, as the firm refers to them, SPIRIT values: “We always strive to offer an excellence Service in a Professional manner, with Integrity and Respect for our clients and colleagues and by being Innovative in our delivery – as well as building and maintaining Trusted relationships. That Trust underpins everything we do – our vision and strategy would not veer from that.”
As such, Paris Smith needs technology and partners in place that echo or support the firm’s SPIRIT values. An excellent service is what the firm’s clients expect, and what Paris Smith expects of its technology.
“Our family and dispute resolution departments were using various tools to create bundles – spending hours at photocopiers, putting paper versions together, trying to paginate everything and so on. That time and inevitable cost was being passed on to the clients and it negatively impacted efficiencies.
“When we were introduced to Bundledocs, we immediately saw that it offered an opportunity to reduce that time and cost to the client. That was our key driver. We soon could see lots of other benefits as well.”
Firm benefit
Cummins says what Paris Smith gets from Bundledocs is an excellent service that enables the firm to open that out to other areas of the business.
It’s now being used in the property teams for large contract packs. So, she says, it’s not only the litigious departments that see the benefit: “We find that for anyone who needs to put together big or complex document packs, it really comes into its own.
“We are innovating with it to a degree. It could be used in our corporate areas as well. They sometimes have quite complex documents within documents. Bundledocs is such a time saver – we’re looking at how to apply it across the firm.”
The historic challenges in the bundle creation process don’t just stop at the photocopier – lawyers and their use of Word are unequivocally linked together. Maintaining a house style and getting Word documents organised are also things that take time and effort, and which fee earners don’t want to waste time on – especially those who bill at high hourly rates – they can’t get that time back, she points out. “So, anything that helps them put their documents together seamlessly is a win.
“One of our family lawyers recounted that it used to take two to three hours to create a bundle – with Bundledocs it can be done in under an hour. More than halving the amount of time taken to do that is a big plus.”
And, she says, Bundledocs set up a really nice API, which allows staff to upload documents from the firm’s practice management system (PMS) straight into Bundledocs. “We can create bundles and sections from our PMS rather than log into a separate portal.”
That being said, she adds that having the portal is a great feature as well. “Through the Bundledocs portal, we can send a link to a recipient to enable them access to a bundle with an expiry date and set download limits and levels of access. It has so much more capability than we had when we were sending out PDFs or various paper copies.
“It goes to show the huge benefit in the collaborative nature of Bundledocs. In the past, when you had a bundle of documents that had been put together in hard copy, often you’d need to produce copies for outside counsel or other experts working on the matter. It was time and paper heavy.”
Paris Smith has received great feedback, not just internally, about the collaboration tool. So much so that the firm ran its own spotlight on the entire Bundledocs product internally – Cummins could see that there was a lot of use for it during lockdown.
“We wanted people in the firm to know it was available and tell a story around the success other departments were having with it – and if they were interested in using it then we could get them up and running extremely quickly to use it during lockdown.”
Flexible service
She says, on a personal level, Bundledocs is amazing to work with. “We were completely delighted with the service they provided during the initial setup and training. Our contact remained very open about communicating with us throughout.
“And any time someone wanted training at short notice, he was always very flexible. He understood that lawyers don’t always want to do training during their chargeable hours.”
The training itself was also super, she adds – Bundledocs made it easy to understand and provided the firm with all the supporting materials should it need them. Simple things such as offering training via its YouTube channel and providing an interactive user manual are great for the different needs of staff as well as for building engagement, Cummins says.
“I’m always impressed by how brilliant Bundledocs is in terms of being flexible. This has been particularly important as we adapted to life in lockdown – Bundledocs supported us with a great business relationship and flexible approach to licensing with them. I can’t fault their service.”
And the firm has multiple avenues for getting in touch with someone at Bundledocs, whether that’s via email, phone or through the chatbot on the online portal.
She says, for firms that are looking to offer – and continue to offer – an excellent service to their clients and that want to have solid relationships with their third-party providers, having systems and applications in place like Bundledocs will enable them to succeed.
“All of our technology has enabled the firm to continue through the pandemic but also have maintained quality service to our clients even before these hardships. We’ve had to become more efficient and streamlined, so having Bundledocs has been absolutely crucial
to that.”
This article was taken from LPM July/August 2020.
