8. Old v New – the cost comparison Calculate in house secretary hourly rate Include NI, pension, bonus, insurances, office floor space and other overhead How much dictation is produced each day? Run a report from the dictation system used Compare the cost to outsource Document Direct charges per minute of dictation at £[please enquire] and include out of hours services, 7 days per week
9. The market place Working practices will vary depending upon the size of the business Larger firms will be working on a ratio of 4:1 (fee earners to secretary)
10. Adapt to survive It is not the strongest of species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change Charles Darwin Origin of the Species
13. Our vision: To be the outsource typing service of choice for the legal sector By having 10% of the top 250 UK law firms as our clients . How? Being always responsive to our clients, providing the most flexible and helpful service and highlighting our expertise so that our clients come to rely on us. Why? To give ourselves and others the opportunity to have healthy, happy and balanced lives – profitably.
14. Any questions for your speaker…? Jayne Smith (I wish) Operations Director Document Direct Direct Dial: 07976 852 359 Email: jayne.smith@documentdirect.co.uk
15. Any questions for your speaker…? Jayne Smith Operations Director Document Direct Direct Dial: 07976 852 359 Email: jayne.smith@documentdirect.co.uk
Notas do Editor
Document Direct provides specialist outsourced document production services for the legal profession. We help our clients by cutting costs in relation to secretarial overhead. We actually discover, much later on, that we’ve changed people’s lives in greater ways imaginable.
It’s all to easy to think just about salary and National Insurance contributions when we talk about overheads. In reality, every member of staff that we employ requires a desk, chair, computer (which needs software licences and IT support), telephone – don’t forget the telephone bill. Our staff should have a safe and comfortable environment to work in so we provide tea, coffee and kitchen facilities. If we’re lucky they don’t stand around the water cooler chatting all day, or, as one of my clients once said, “have three cups of tea and two cigarettes before starting work”. By far the greatest cost is the amount of commercial office space that is required for employing staff. When factoring in costs, take time to calculate the amount per square foot of the office space. And then there’s the unseen cost. Time. How much time is taken in managing people? And the more people that are employed then more managers are required.
This is a simple pictogram of tasks that a legal secretary would perform throughout a typical day. The tasks are colour coded so you can see how much time is taken in document production, whether that is creating or amending documents. I’ve colour coded collating enclosures and post/filing as these tasks can usually be undertaken by someone in a junior and less costly role.
Remove the typing part of the job and a secretary has time on her hands to deal with other tasks, perhaps working for more fee earners.
Or it could be a case of not requiring full time staff, or as many of them, to get the job done.
Outsourcing document production and digital dictation is a very simple process and we aim to make the transition to outsourcing as simple as possible.
Document Direct is compatible with all digital dictation systems and will work with you to find the best solution for you and your business. The largest suppliers of dictation systems are Winscribe and BigHand. Philips and Olympus provide hardware. The latest game player is mobile dictation. There are apps for Blackberry, iPhone and Android.
You can be certain that outsourcing your document production will save you money. If you don’t have a digital dictation system that can run reports then speak to us to discuss alternative reporting solutions.
Document Direct provides services to a range of businesses. Each firm has its unique way of working and each department will usually have its own idiosyncrasies. At the end of the day, all of our clients are treated as individuals.
There has never been a more interesting time to work in the legal profession. Massive changes are under way, whether this is because of the forthcoming changes in legislation or the fear of the change that will bring. And changes are already occurring as firms make use of technology to help them work smarter and more efficiently, upgrading case/practice management, cloud computing and virtual offices, developing niche practices and markets. Many will argue that the end is nigh for the high street solicitors office.
Please don’t like change. But change they do. There are always objections to implementing any project. We don’t have a digital dictation system.We can’t identify job types which can be outsourced.Our fee earners don’t dictate properly that’s suitable for outsourcing.We have a case management system and can’t give you access. THEY WILL NEVER CHANGE! Almost all objections are related to the culture of a firm.
We hold your hand and we hold their hand. Okay, not as literally as we would like, but we do take the time and effort to visit the fee earners and secretaries involved in the project and ask them what it is they don’t/do like about our service integrating with their department. We talk about the smallest detail and find ways to improve and make things better.
At slide one I mentioned changing people’s lives. Document Direct is a 100% remote worker business. Our ethos is to provide flexible work times to our workers so that they can have healthy, happy and balanced lives. They choose when they want to work. In turn, by working as a team to provide 24 hour services, we hope that our clients too can enjoy the same opportunity of flexible work times (and places).We have testimonials from our document production team and our clients that we have helped changed their lives for the better.
