Whether you are a small or large law firm, your business will mostly be based on documents. Legal documents, correspondence, and also a lot of administrative stuff (think invoices and such). Being a lawyer has always meant that you find yourself surrounded by a lot of paper.

Paper is everywhere

Even though modern IT solutions might have allowed you to use less paper for years now, through for example your document management system or high-tech scanning solution, there is a large chance that the amount of paper around you, is still the same. This might be due to several reasons:

• the amount of documents and e-mail correspondence has grown significantly so that even though a lot less is printed on paper, in the end the piles of paper have not diminished;
• you or your fellow lawyers have a hard time completely trusting the 'digital' copy of your files and feel more secure (consciously or subconsciously) knowing that there is a paper version of the entire case in your cabinet (or the company archives);
• there is this belief within your firm that having a physical copy of a document (or e-mail) gives it more legal validity (i.e. it could more easily be used as 'legal proof'). This belief is based on false assumptions but can be hard to get rid of;
• you like to read everything from paper and have a hard time throwing anything away;
• you refuse to use the computer and have your secretary print every single e-mail or have the intern print everything they can find through Legal Intelligence (or any other know-how database) on a certain subject for a current matter;
• you love the smell of paper and having a room full of bulging matter files makes you feel alive. Plus you love having your clients visit you and impress them with the amount of information you gather on their case.

Some very good reasons to get rid of paper

From the perspective of the modern firm manager, paper is a costly thorn in the eye. From my perspective, as a minimalist and environmentally conscious person, paper is quite evil. Paper is simply a big waste of resources:

• costly to purchase (and costly to print on). The cost of the printers, including all the resources they use (power, IT support, maintenance, etc.), also has to be taken into account;
• costly to store. Think of all the warehouses full of paper archives that we accumulated over the past decades. First, your paper files will probably live inside your office for a while. I have seen plenty of lawyers who can not find certain matter files on a daily basis with it either being lost in the piles somewhere, misplaced by a secretary, given (and forgotten that it was) to a junior lawyer for further study, etc. After a while, the file may be stored in a cabinet and eventually be send of to an external archive just in case it will be needed again in the future;
• costly to handle. Searching for that one document in a huge binder or tracking down that certain invoice in a pile of similar looking invoices. Having to arrange different storage for the files as they get older and older or arranging for them to be destroyed. These are just a few example of the 'handling' cost of paper;
• a huge waste of our earthly resources.

So not only does paper involve a large share of material resources, there is also a lot of time involved with the handling of paper (printing, finding, sorting, archiving). The elimination of paper is probably one of the largest reasons a modern lawyer can do without secretarial support much easier.

Start eliminating paper, now!

Is it hard to eliminate paper? No, not at all. You do not even have to eliminate all paper. If you enjoy reading certain things from paper - like that final due diligence report that you are going over one more time - than you can still print it, of course. The time that we all have access to excellent e-readers that can truly replace paper, is still somewhere in the future.
What I am advocating is that you do not try and keep the paper in your office anymore. So after reading that final version of the document, you can throw it away (recycle bin).

Scanners that turn paper into digital files are usually ubiquitous in offices nowadays. Software for archiving your files are available in many forms. You can choose to have your digital files made "searchable" by making the text readable by your computer systems. This technology is often referred to as OCR (Optical Character Recognition) as a computer needs to recognize the letters of a text as separate characters.
Also keep in mind that it is important to store your files in an accepted "archiving" format. File formats (like Microsoft Word format or Adobe PDF) tend to change every few years and are not supported indefinitely. To avoid any problems, go with PDF/A.

Keep it simple (with going paperless)

My approach to the paperless office is to start of simple. One of the parts of your office that lends itself for going paperless first, is your incoming invoices. Invoices are usually entered into an accounting system and then stored away in binders. Legally you can just as well throw the paper version of the invoice away, and only keep a digital copy. Simply scan all incoming invoices and then throw them away. Store the invoices with the help from your accounting software or archiving software. Alternatively you can create your own system of storing the files (somewhere on your company file system). You could use Dropbox as a secure backup solution (and at the same time having access to these files from anywhere).

Two other solutions for easy-and-quick scanning and archiving that are especially useful for smaller firms (but could also be leveraged by larger firms):

• use an iPhone or other smartphone (e.g. Android phones) to 'scan' the invoices and receipts by taking a picture of it. There are special scanning 'apps' to assist you with this, e.g. Scanner Pro for iPhone.
• use an archiving/notes utility. There are specialized apps and services for invoices (Shoeboxed, JustTheBill) and there are more general apps for archiving everything (Evernote). I prefer the latter and use Evernote myself. Every invoice or receipt will be scanned (with a scanner or with my iPhone (through Evernote)) and synced with Evernote. That means that I can always access my archived invoices through my computer, iPhone, iPad or the Internet.

Now that more and more companies are sending digital invoices it also helps that these can be easily combined with your scanned archive.

There we have it, our first steps into going paperless. If you have any questions in finding the right solutions to help your firm become 'paperless', please do not hesitate to contact me or my company (Legalsense).

Legal IT Professionals published an interesting ten-minute interview with Jack Newton, President of Clio. Clio is web-based practice management system mostly targeted at small law firms. Jack has some interesting things to say about 'Software as a Service' (SaaS), the future of mobile devices and his own company/product. Worth listening to at Ten minutes with Jack Newton (Clio).

De iPhone was al een krachtige zakelijke telefoon/PDA/mini-computer. Neem bijvoorbeeld de Mail applicatie met Exchange ondersteuning of de duizenden zakelijke apps in de App Store. Zakelijk gezien - vooral vanuit het perspectief van de IT ondersteuning - miste de iPhone echter nog een paar functies ten opzicht van het - in de Legal IT gebruikelijke - Blackberry platform. Het gisteren officieel aangekondigde iPhone OS 4 (ook voor iPad en iPod Touch) voegt een aantal nieuwe zakelijke functies toe die de iPhone nog een betere Blackberry-killer maken.

De grootste nieuwe "feature" in iPhone OS 4 is natuurlijk de introductie van "multitasking" (juist nu Microsoft multitasking uit Windows Phone 7 grotendeels heeft verwijderd). Dat haalt meteen één van de grootste bezwaren tegen de iPad onderuit. Daarnaast zal de "unified" inbox (één mailbox waar alle mail van je mailaccounts in worden weergegeven) ook een welkome aanvulling zijn voor zakelijke gebruikers. Tevens kunnen attachments in e-mails nu ook direct worden geopend in de bijhorende App.

Verbeteringen die volgens Apple puur op de zakelijke gebruikers zijn gericht zijn:

• Data Protectie - e-mail en attachment encryptie wordt nu standaard ondersteund en Apps kunnen gebruikmaken van nieuwe API (Application Programmer Interfaces) om informatie te versleutelen.
• Draadloze App distributie - bedrijven kunnen nu Apps installeren op hun iPhones via Wi-Fi en 3G (zonder de iPhone met een computer te hoeven te verbinden).
• Verbeterde Mail - meerdere Exchange accounts op één iPhone én de hierboven al genoemde "unified" inbox en 'attachment openen in App' ondersteuning.
• Centraal beheer - alle iPhones binnen bedrijf kunnen nu centraal beheerd worden (instellingen aanpassen, Apps installeren en updaten, remote wipe (wissen van iPhone (bij bijvoorbeeld diefstal of verlies) of remote lock (vergrendelen). Het is even afwachten wat voor een applicaties hier voor beschikbaar komen maar het zal ongetwijfeld het beheer eenvoudiger maken dan met Blackberry Enterprise Server.
• SSL VPN support - standaard support voor beveiligde verbindingen met het kantoornetwerk met toekomstige Apps van Cisco en Juniper. Hierdoor wordt het mogelijk om de iPhone automatisch verbinding te laten maken (of houden) met het kantoornetwerk waardoor interne web-applicaties bijvoorbeeld toegankelijk kunnen zijn via de iPhone browser of via custom-build Apps.

Vooral de encryptie van mail verkeer maakt de iPhone een nog betere Blackberry-killer. Inclusief de verbeterde beheersmogelijkheden maakt dat het investeren in een Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) (inclusief de benodigde serverhardware, onderhoud en updates) in mijn ogen redelijk overbodig.

Enige struikelblokken in de iPhone vs. Blackberry discussie zijn nu nog:

• touchscreen toetsenbord vs. echt toetsenbord (voor de meeste Blackberries)
• voor Nederland - de iPhone wordt officieel alleen via T-Mobile geleverd

iPhone OS komt deze zomer uit voor iPhone (3G en 3GS + waarschijnlijk het nieuwe iPhone model dat tegen die tijd uitkomt). De iPhone 3G zal niet alle functies ondersteunen (geen multitasking bijvoorbeeld).

Big News: BigHand just announced that they acquired nFlow Software Ltd! This comes as quite a surprise as nFlow gaining ground in their competition with BigHand. With this move, BigHand strategically eliminates the competition from nFlow and establishes itself as the de facto digital dictation software (for Legal, +10-20 users).

It will be very interesting to see how this is going to play out in the Netherlands. nFlow is being represented on the Dutch market by dFlow while BigHand has been sold and supported by I.R.I.S. (formerly Morningstar Systems). The two companies where directly competing as such.

Jon Ardron (Chief Executive Officer, BigHand) wrote:

Last week I wrote to your firm to invite you to share your product suggestions and ideas about BigHand going forward. Many responses and ideas have since been flooding in, so thank you for taking the time to feed back your thoughts.

I mentioned in that letter that this is an exciting time for BigHand and that we would be looking to invest in order to enable improvements for our clients. I am delighted to announce that this week we have acquired nFlow Software Ltd, a leading innovator in the provision of digital dictation technology. The acquisition of nFlow takes our international client base to some 1,250 organisations and 117,000 users worldwide.

For some time the similarities in the approach of BigHand and nFlow have been clear, and when we identified a chance to accelerate our global strategy through acquisition we did not hesitate. nFlow quite rightly has a reputation for client responsiveness and product innovation that has led to it to become a leading supplier in the UK legal & professional services digital dictation sector. We knew both companies share a strong commitment to customer delivery, but as I have come to know Rob Lancashire – nFlow Managing Director - we have discovered a joint vision of open, flexible, and highly accessible voice productivity technology. We are all excited by the positive impact this will have on our customers. In fact, we already have some key technology announcements due within weeks that will benefit both nFlow and BigHand users regardless of what product they may be using.

Rob Lancashire will become Managing Director of a newly formed BigHand UK Legal & Professional Services Division. The new division is specifically designed to allow us to maintain the highest levels of customer responsiveness and innovation as we continue to expand internationally. As part of the new structure I have also created a new UK Healthcare Division, and following his success as BigHand’s UK Sales Director, James Kippenberger has been promoted to Managing Director UK Healthcare. 

Jonathan Carter has decided to leave the group following these structural changes and a refocusing of corporate strategy. However he will remain involved in a consultancy capacity in the coming months. Many of you will know Jonathan and I would like to thank him for his significant contribution over many years and wish him well for the future.

We have not discounted further acquisitions designed to benefit our clients. In the meantime if you have any questions about the deal, please feel free to call me on +44 (0)20 7940 5943 or email at Jon.Ardron@BigHand.Com. As a client, I would like to thank you for helping us to make this investment possible.

Regards

Jon

It seems that I am one of the first to blog about this news. BigHand has not even mentioned anything on their own website yet - they could use a new web-marketing strategy...

LinkedIn heeft onlangs een nieuwe app voor de Blackberry uitgebracht. De LinkedIn Blackberry app is gratis te downloaden voor Blackberries vanaf OS 4.3.0 (officieel geven ze aan alleen de Tour, Bold en Curve te ondersteunen). De app integreert volledig met de mail, contact en agenda applicaties van de Blackberry en biedt hierdoor een aantal interessante mogelijkheden. 

Een aantal functies van de LinkedIn app zijn:

• Zoeken: kom voorbereid op elke afspraak door snel LinkedIn profielen bekijken
• Berichten: beheer je LinkedIn inbox overal
• Netwerk updates: blijf op de hoogte van het gesprek van de dag
• Connecties: maak nieuwe contacten zonder computer
• Uitnodigingen: stuur uitnodigingen om je professionele netwerk verder op te bouwen
• Aanbevelingen: ontvang suggesties voor mensen die je wellicht wil toevoegen aan je professionele netwerk

Als iPhone gebruiker (waar al langere tijd een geweldige LinkedIn applicatie voor bestaat) zeg ik maar: "beter laat dan nooit". Het verbaasde mij eigenlijk dat er niet eerder een fatsoenlijke LinkedIn app voor de Blackberry beschikbaar was.

In het algemeen vinden de meeste gebruikers de LinkedIn (en ook bijvoorbeeld de Facebook) app van de iPhone eenvoudiger en fijner in gebruik dan de gewone website versie. Dat is een interessante trend die met de komst van iPad (en bijhorende apps) zich hoogstwaarschijnlijk verder door zal zetten. Het zal interessant zijn om te zien of de Blackberry hier ook mee in kan gaan.