The legal industry — long known as a paper- and people-intensive sector — is in the midst of a disruptive crisis. Law firms are facing mounting challenges to their traditional business models, both internal and external.
Internally, there is a growing need to seamlessly incorporate cloud-based computing and technology in day-to-day practice to keep pace with client needs and increase efficiency. But with this comes the challenge of navigating all the different software offerings, calculating ongoing operational and licensing costs and analysing the cost-benefit of any investment. All of this takes up time that would be better spent on billable work.
Externally, there is growing competition from global firms entering domestic markets, the rise of agile NewLaw and boutique law firms, the shift of legal work in-house and the explosion of new legal pricing structures in response to client demand.
The need to manage costs and streamline processes for all legal businesses and in-house legal teams has never been more critical. That’s why, in an era of declining margins and increased competition and cost-cutting, Managed Print Services (MPS) — where an organisation assesses your complex print needs and tailors a solution to fit your specific requirements — may significantly assist your firm or department to:
- Reduce unnecessary costs
- Increase in efficiency
- Support your staff and clients in an increasingly BYOD (bring your own device) environment
- Secure confidential information or data
- Increase office sustainability
- Reduce your carbon footprint
Managed Print Services (MPS) can help control unnecessary costs
In Australia, it’s estimated that each person uses, on average, 230 kilograms of paper per year. Translate that staggering statistic into a legal environment which, for reasons including file management and rules of evidence, is constrained from going paperless, and the hidden costs for any legal team often go unnoticed.
Here’s how MPS can help you:
- Audit and streamline your current printer fleet and related infrastructure across multiple departments to increase your fleet usability and reduce the number of obsolete or unnecessary machines – for example, through the introduction of state-of-the-art multi-function printers
- Reduce paper, ink and toner wastage by assisting you with implementing new policies – such as ‘follow me’ printing, where a document only prints once the user logs into the printer – or double-sided printing as a default setting
- Implement print control software to enable you to work out patterns of print usage across your firm or department, or to recover specific project costs from clients
Increase efficiency and support for your staff and clients
With the rise in mobile working and increased reliance on legal technology and software, law firms can benefit from document management solutions that MPS can provide such as:
- Scalable data-capture solutions to assist you in digitising, archiving and extracting information from scanned documents for use across internal business (including customer relationship management or matter management) systems
- Managing connectivity issues for increasingly mobile staff and clients who may require access to your printer fleet from a range of locations using a variety of devices
MPS can keep confidential information and data better secured
A great deal of confidential information passes through your printer infrastructure on an inbound (print, copy and scan) and outbound(email and fax) basis. MPS can assist you to strengthen the security of business and client confidential information and data by building features into your print environment such as:
- User-authenticated print technology
- Protected or encrypted scan or capture technology
- Management of users accounts via web-based admin portals
- Offering the ability for users to print from multiple devices
Improve office sustainability
Having an MPS assess and streamline your current printer fleet can enable you to increase office sustainability in a number of ways:
- By eliminating older, less energy-efficient machines from your print environment
- By assisting you to optimise your printer fleet for more sustainable print practices such as setting double-sided, draft or black and white printing as the default
- By setting you up to share scanned documentation with users electronically
You operate a sophisticated legal team that aims to meet the complex demands of clients in a fast-moving, paper-intensive, increasingly disrupted industry. To ensure that you – and your clients’ – printing, scanning and document management needs are being met in more secure, reliable, cost-efficient and sustainable ways, think about having your printing environment overhauled by an MPS.
For more information on how Brother and our partners can assist you with greater connectivity, reliability, usability and management of printers in your firm, visit our corporate solutions website or click on the button below to request a free print audit from our corporate solutions consultants, so you can uncover the hidden costs of printing in your firm.
