Practice Manager Forum
Posted by Jayne Smith on February 5, 2010 · Go on - leave a comment
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A new platform is launched to be a resource for those running law firms. The Practice Manager Forum will hold events regularly, contain online resources and provide access to consultants whose expertise lies in advising legal businesses. The online discussion forum is a reference point for managers and owners to ask their peers for their best practice. Why reinvent the wheel if others have had similar experiences before?
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After you’ve read the application form, you really do need to check the skills
Posted by Jayne Smith on January 22, 2010 · Go on - leave a comment Email this to a friend or colleague
I feel I must share with you some of the results of the tests we receive back from “transcriptionists” looking to work with us.
I have already posted on our website details of the lengths we go to to make sure that we recruit only the best people who have the characteristics we feel are best suited to working autonomously for our clients. If you haven’t yet read the case study, a link is here.
Our online application form acts as a filtering system for the “wrong” type of person applying to work with us. Before we take any application further we also make sure that they can read, write and spell business English. Occasionally I am appalled and shocked at the standard of some of the documents returned back to me. Firstly, because it is obvious they don’t understand what an apostrophe is and, secondly, they don’t have the commonsense to figure out a way of cheating on my document.
Here’s a completed test which was received by me today. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD WORD DOCUMENT. If you’re involved in recruitment you might find this test document useful too.
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It’s snow joke
Posted by Jayne Smith on January 5, 2010 · Go on - leave a comment Email this to a friend or colleague
This picture was taken whilst trying to drive into work this week. As you can see the weather conditions have made driving quite treacherous.
This reminds me of what happened to one of our clients last year, in February 2009, when London came to a standstill because of the snow.
Our law firm client thought they had everything sorted and business was as usual because their solicitors could dictate from their blackberrys from home and had no need to travel. The upset came when they realised that their secretaries couldn’t get into the office and it caused them a huge backlog of work and tremendous pressure to meet deadlines.
We had an outsource module added to the client’s digital dictation system so that the dictation from the solicitors could be sent to our service with a click of a button, by-passing employed secretaries and resulting in documents being produced more cost effectively and timely.
So far in 2010 we’ve already broken a record of having one of the longest cold snaps for decades. The local authories have ran out of grit to keep our roads safe. It looks like things will be getting worse.
What contingency plans do you have in place for your staff not being able to make it into work?
Now is the time to take full advantage of technology available. Using remote secretaries who are home-based means you don’t have to worry about getting into the office to have your work done. Access online is straight forward and our remote services can fully integrate into your in-house digital dictation system.
If you don’t have any digital dictation yet, then what are you waiting for? Use our free software and work from home instead. Call us now on 0151 227 9150 to set up your free account and don’t let the severe weather conditions interrupt your business.
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Christmas holiday season 2009 opening hours
Posted by Jayne Smith on December 23, 2009 · Go on - leave a comment Email this to a friend or colleague
Whilst our services remain open for business during the Christmas season we are not able to guarantee our usual fast 1 hour turnround service. Clients who send us dictation and documents for copy typing can expect a turnaround of no longer than 24 hours.
However, if urgent work is required, please call our customer hotline 0845 053 1626, and our team will act on your requests as soon as possible.
We would like to wish all of our clients, collegues and friends a very merry Christmas and healthy and happy New Year.
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Expanding law firm uses outsourcing to control costs
Posted by Jayne Smith on December 7, 2009 · Go on - leave a comment Email this to a friend or colleague
Document Direct is delighted to support new law firm, Hughes Carlisle as it expands its business by the appointment of former Gorvins partner, Paul Humphreys. The specialist personal injury firm uses case management systems to produce and manage its document workflow but the expansion into commercial litigation means more bespoke and detailed documents are required.Managing partner, Gillian Carlisle, says:
Paul is used to having his own secretary provide support and I was quite concerned at how he would adapt to using remote secretaries and outsourcing. But I needn’t have worried. The ease of use, speed of response and quality of documents produced has exceeded our expectations and Paul has settled in straight away.
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Here’s a quick and easy way for you to save a grand
Posted by Jayne Smith on November 26, 2009 · Go on - leave a comment Email this to a friend or colleague
The easiest way to save money is to look at how you cover secretarial work for the holiday periods and extended absences such as maternity leave. The average holiday entitlement is 25 days, or five working weeks, per year, plus bank holidays.
Now granted, you probably don’t need to worry about having enough secretarial cover during peak holiday weeks in the summer or at Easter if you have solicitors and fee earners absent too. So let’s be generous and halve the figure say you need a temporary secretary for three weeks a year.
A temping agency will cost you about £500 a week. And the quality of the output from the temp depends on how lucky you are with the person assigned to you. How many terrible experiences with temps have you or your colleagues had?
To outsource typing from a very busy fee earner can cost anything up to £200 a week and there are plenty of case studies which you can rely upon to support this.
So outsourcing dictation for those peak busy times will keep you on top of your work, you won’t have any backlog, you don’t ever have to deal with “terrible temps” and it will save you about £1,000 per year per secretary.
If you want to know how it works, it’s very easy. Simply call us and ask for our free software and we’ll also arrange for free set up and installation.
If you want bigger savings, the you should look closely at your workflow - what type of work are your secretaries doing and can your processes be refined using your case management systems. In most cases secretaries are spending at least 50% of their time typing. And if you outsource that element of a secretary’s job you can slash your secretarial overhead. If you would like to discuss in a free consultation please call us.
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