ILTA 2014 - The Electronic Record: From Wishful Thinking to Reality

ILTA 2014 is a 4 day conference event for law firms to get the latest on technologies, best practices in information and organisational management. This year, the event was held in Nashville, USA in late August. Damian Jeal reports on one of the many compelling sessions and compares the different views on electronic document around the world.

Nashville, USA, a great city, the home of music, full of local bands trying to make the big time by singing on stage in bars (just for tips) then running down the road, instruments in hand, to the next venue to play their next set.

I’m not a great singer (although I try occasionally) and I was there to attend the annual ILTA conference, arguably known as the best legal IT event around. This year’s ILTA had quite a different feel to last years which was in Las Vegas. I love Vegas (even though I am not an avid gambler) but the authenticity of Nashville and the friendly locals made it a great place to visit. After all it’s not all work, work, work.

This year I was on an exhibition booth a lot of the time however I made it my mission to get to a few sessions. As I scrolled down the agenda on the smart ILTA iPhone app, one session stood out in particular - not just because our solutions align to this area, but because I wanted to hear if firms in the US are having the same issues/discussions as they are my side of the pond and east. So on Tuesday morning I escaped the bustle of the exhibition hall and sat in on the session titled "The Electronic Record: From Wishful Thinking to Reality".

Four law firms, all using a different document management system (DMS), discussed where they were in terms of the electronic file being the file of record. They explained their successes, their pains, the cost savings and what they still needed to do - as we all know it’s an ever improving project really.


Benefits of electronic files

They explained the benefits of the electronic file such as lawyers now being able to work faster resulting in enhanced client satisfaction, the creation of more effective workflows, better collaboration and finally many mentioned archiving and the significant savings both in terms of time and costs.


Stage of advancement

Whilst some fee earners may be hanging onto their paper as tightly as possible, most law firms are moving to the electronic file and are just at different stages on that path. 

Backed up in the session were a few polls and one result rings true from my discussions with many law firms around the world. Approximately 69% of firms polled said that they are actively implementing an electronic file initiative. 26% were thinking about it and only a few had not done anything yet. There were even a few that thought they were fully electronic, but I have my doubts.


Security

Security issues were raised as anyone would expect. It was highlighted as an essential area to focus on and invest. However, paper documents are not free from security risks either. The fact that more documents exist in electronic format these days has just made firms raise the bar on security, that’s granted. 

Still, whether files are electronic or paper-based they could just as easily be lost through losing your mobile device with this confidential data contained within it or by forgetting a folder or a box of paper at the back of a taxi.





Document handling and management 

In conferences, events and at global meetings that I attend, the statement that I constantly hear is that accessing and viewing of digital documents, in or out of the office, is still not as easy as it was when you had paper in your hands. 

Nearly all the firms in the poll agreed that a DMS is the place to house electronic documents. However I recently heard of one very large law firm that has less than 10% of their electronic documents in their DMS. Given the comments above, it appears DMS are doing only part of the job. 
Where is the flaw? Is it the lack of flexibility? The inability to fully support major needs such as mobility and convenience of access? 

It all comes down to the fact that if you want your users to really embrace the electronic file they need to feel it is easier for them to access and use these documents in digital format than it was in paper format.

One other great comment I also heard was "Just because its electronic doesn’t mean you have to keep it forever". Sometimes because it isn’t stacked up in the office or taking up valuable real estate we seem to forget it’s there, disk space is relatively cheap these days but it will mount up and managing this seems to be forgotten at times. 


From this trip, it appears we are the same the world over with regards to electronic documents, but all at varying stages. Paper will never completely go away and having less of it is a start, not just for environmental reasons. In fact, it’s more ‘lesspaper’ than ‘paperless’ that law firms should be aiming for. In any case, users remain the key to your success. 


Damian Jeal [    ]

Nikec Solutions [ www.nikecsolutions.com ]