Know the Value of Your Technologies and Reduce Costs, Improve Efficiencies

November 18, 2009

Due to cost-conscious measures and the economic downturn, many law firms are taking a closer look at the value of existing technologies in the effort to further reduce costs and increase efficiencies.

Improvements in business performance are a key measurement of successful technology investments at Kilpatrick Stockton. On an annual basis, hardware, software and service investments are analyzed to ensure improvements and optimized efficiencies are continually being realized. In the current economic climate, evaluating the value proposition of each solution has become even more important.

Kilpatrick Stockton’s IT department is typically responsible for analyzing and evaluating existing technologies to determine if they continue to add value to the firm and its clients. The value-analysis of existing technologies helps the firm maximize the value of its use and assists departments and practice areas in identifying opportunities to reduce costs, increase efficiencies and improve client service.

In the same vein, departments and practice areas wanting to purchase new technology or upgrades (over $15,000) are required to present a cost-benefit analysis to the firm’s Program Review Committee (PRC), which in turn provides recommendations leading to the new technology/upgrade’s approval for purchase.

In early 2009, Kilpatrick Stockton’s Word Processing Resource Center Manager, Sharon Munajj, was asked to analzye the value of DocXtools – a strategic software application the Resource Center uses for Word document assessment, quality control, clean-up, restyling, numbering and overall document problem-solving. Specifically, the firm’s Chief Information Officer requested that the Resource Center track its use of DocXtools for two weeks to analyze the value and cost savings it provides.

The firm initially licensed DocXtools in 2001. Like most firms, Kilpatrick Stockton experiences document production challenges. As the firms lawyers collaborate with clients, they experience more document issues that have the potential to negatively impact client service. Last minute document issues, such as comparison or corruption problems, are often first experienced by lawyers who are continually under deadline pressure to produce high-quality documents. DocXtools helps the Resource Center save the firm valuable time and costs and ensures that the lawyers meet client and filing deadlines. 

“Our Litigation attorneys and support staff proactively send the Resource Center documents for style application that facilitates the generation of Tables of Contents and Tables of Authorities for briefs filed with the Courts,” said Sharon Munajj, Manager of the Resource Center at Kilpatrick Stockton.  “Additionally, discovery requests from opposing counsel are sent to the Resource Center as PDF files, which are then converted into Microsoft Word, repurposed and stylized for responses using DocXtools.”

Sharon led the value-analysis research project. For two weeks, the firm’s Resource Center operators documented the length of time it took to resolve document issues with Microsoft Word alone versus the time it took to resolve with DocXtools.

The Resource Center documented 63 jobs in a period of 10 business days. The types of document quality control projects included document scan and clean-up; conversion of documents to Microsoft Word and PDF; identification and correction of document corruption; table/chart conversion; and the identification and removal of nested tables.

The value-analysis research results concluded that the firm saves over 4,500 hours a year, or 2 ½ hours per job, with DocXtools.

Reducing Costs & Increasing Efficiency

Per the number of hours the Resource Center saves with DocXtools, the firm saves over $142,000/year, however, that is not the only time and monetary savings that DocXtools provides. Shortly after the value-analysis took place, Kilpatrick Stockton decided to reduce its Resource Center’s support coverage from 24 hours a day to 18.5, saving the firm another $50,000+ per year, bringing the total savings to over $193,000 for one year alone.

“DocXtools is a business-critical application for us,” said Munajj. “We certainly would not have been able to reduce our support hours without it. The workload of our operators almost doubled, but with DocXtools, they are better-able to handle the increase.” 

Improving Client Service

“The fact that some of our clients send the Resource Center documents before providing them to the lawyer they are working with is a huge testament to the level of client service we provide,” said Munajj. “DocXtools enables us to provide this elevated level of client service without significant costs to the firm.”

In addition to the money saved on reducing man hours, Kilpatrick Stockton lawyers are able to turn around documents faster since problem documents can be fixed, on average, 2½ hours more quickly using DocXtools. This supports Kilpatrick’s lawyers in providing more responsive client service.

Conclusion

High-performance document production is a core competency of many firms, including Kilpatrick Stockton. Like most firms, Kilpatrick Stockton retains key clients through excellent client service and can do so by knowing the value of the technologies that help ensure the firm’s legal documents meet client needs in a timely manner, without the delays often caused by production issues. Through technology value-analysis, Kilpatrick Stockton is able to maximize value, reduce costs and continuously increase efficiencies, helping the firm’s lawyers provide a higher level of client service.

Learn …

about the document quality and efficiency tools you already own (PDF) that can empower your lawyers, paralegals and secretaries to streamline the document clean-up and collaboration process or if you are not yet a DocXtools client, contact us for a personalized presentation.