5 signs that your office needs to scan

It is not always obvious when manual operation is over the point — the routine is settling around the pain. Some signs, however, are hard to ignore.

The five signs

• You update processes by copying and pasting court systems;
• Deadlines live on spreadsheets — or worse, in someone's memory;
• Customers call frequently just to know the progress;
• The collection of fees depends on someone remembering to send;
• Every lawyer keeps information his own way, in different places.

♪ 'Cause it matters now ♪

Each of these signs has a double cost: team time and risk. A deadline lost due to failure of control can become civil liability; a dispersed information is a leak waiting to happen.

If you identified yourself with three or more, scanning ceases to be an improvement and becomes a necessity. The good news is that the gain comes fast — usually in the first few weeks, when the team stops hunting for information and goes back to advocate.