Legal and financial businesses produce a vast amount of documentation that needs robust systems to ensure it is recorded properly, and many are turning to document management solutions for this, which presents opportunities for resellers.
Legal and financial businesses remain some of the most document-heavy sectors – with the confidential nature of what they do and need for it to be recorded for some time, documents are integral to every aspect. But with so many documents produced – such as case reports, clauses, contracts, leases, patents, deeds, all manner of agreements, strategic deals, investigations, market trends – it is vital that the record keeping is robust, and many businesses in these sectors are now turning to document management systems (DMS) for this.
“The sheer volume of documentation produced in these sectors necessitates a robust system to manage physical and electronic records,” says Michael Field, managing director of Workflo Solutions. “The transition to digital solutions has been accelerated by the need for remote work capabilities, compliance with regulatory requirements and the desire to reduce physical storage costs.
“By adopting advanced DMS, these businesses can enhance their productivity, ensure compliance and maintain organised, easily accessible records.”
Richard Stewart, workspace portfolio marketing manager at Canon UK & Ireland, agrees. “In recent years, more legal firms and financial organisations have embraced document management solutions to take the next step in their digital transformation journey,” he says. “This demand has only grown as hybrid working has become the ‘new normal’, meaning businesses now need to meet compliance requirements across a network of remote and at-home devices.”
Roy Russell, CEO of Ascertus, adds that it isn’t just about traditional documentation. “Add to this the emails, text messages, Teams chats and so forth, which often carry pertinent information,” he says. “With such numerous types and volumes of work products, a structured, centralised and secure repository is a requisite for daily operation and collaboration.”
Best practice
“Historically, firms used shared drives and SharePoint for document management but found them to be fairly elementary in the capabilities they provided,” says Roy. “Also while professionals preferred a structured and managed document management environment, other departments, such as IT, favoured more generic and ‘light touch’ solutions that they could easily switch on and off – hence the prevalence of shared drives and SharePoint for this functionality. Typically, corporates would end up with multiple DMSs to meet the usage requirements of different departments.
“Now, due to the level of data most firms must deal with, a fragmented document management approach is rapidly giving way to best-practice DMS. With cloud a mainstream technology, coupled with the post-pandemic era of flexible and hybrid working, a cloud-based DMS is today an indispensable, business-critical solution.
“Firms want to be able to access and share work and documents from anywhere, at any time, from any device. They need enhanced collaboration capability. In the absence of a central repository of documents and work products, professionals can spend an inordinate amount of time searching for documents – and when not finding them, ‘reinventing the wheel’ to complete tasks and activities. Such situations are an enormous drain on their efficiency and productivity.”
Relieving burden
Phil Jones, senior business development director at Quadient, notes that legal professionals always need quick and clear access to the right document. “Otherwise, they risk making mistakes that could cause reputational damage, severely impact upon the end users experience of their services
and expose them to GDPR compliance issues,” he says.
“Externally, legal businesses are prioritising effective communication and collaboration with clients to enhance customer service and expedite case resolution – enabling them to handle more cases without increasing operational costs. As a result, they are increasingly turning to DMS to alleviate the paperwork burdens and manual toil associated with these processes.”
Benedikt Dischinger, vice president finance and people & culture at DocuWare, says that they find the demand for a DMS comes from legal and finance departments across all industries and not only from legal and financial industries. “In fact, in 2023, 55% of our new customers adopted our DMS for use in their legal and finance departments,” he says. “Our customers come from every industry and whether is manufacturing, wholesale trade or legal and finance businesses, the sheer volume of paperwork they deal with can be overwhelming, and that’s where a DMS can be a game-changer.”
Typical solutions
But the solutions legal and financial businesses require can vary significantly. Roy says that most firms today are adopting
a cloud- and mobile-first IT strategy. “Therefore, a cloud-native DMS is a logical choice,” he says.
“In a hybrid and remote working environment, a cloud-native DMS provides ubiquitous computing and mobility capabilities to accommodate flexible working patterns as well as local and global collaboration needs.
“User requirements can vary, be that on an individual, departmental or corporate-wide basis. These requirements range from a heavily disciplined approach to an almost invisible solution that looks no different from a standard file share. Firms now want DMS that can offer multiple interfaces to handle the different user requirements but with a single, central repository at the back end.
“Additionally, with most legal and financial services firms having adopted Microsoft technology, their users want the same look and feel, and intuitive useability. So DMS that offer seamless integration with Office 365 are preferred.
“Firms are looking to address the challenges posed by fragmented and siloed data. DMS that easily integrate with third-party business systems to help create a seamless firm-wide operational environment is often the goal. These systems typically include digital signatures, matter management, metadata management, knowledge management, unstructured data management, document compare, PDF manager and such – capabilities that are complementary to core document management and enhance the productivity of professionals.”
Michael adds that legal and financial businesses typically look for DMS that offer high levels of security, compliance and efficiency. “Features such as secure access controls, audit trails, version control and seamless integration with existing software are paramount,” he says. “Solutions that provide automated workflows, advanced search capabilities and secure cloud storage are also in high demand.
“Additionally, these businesses value solutions that can handle a wide variety of document formats and facilitate easy collaboration among team members while ensuring data integrity and confidentiality.”
Phil says legal professionals receive inbound content on a wide variety of channels that without automated document solutions can be difficult to organise, manage and share with clients. “Legal businesses need solutions that can intelligently process documents, enabling communication with clients across whatever channel they prefer,” he says.
“These solutions also need to be able to automatically classify inbound documents by capturing specific data from incoming physical mail and emails, index the information and attach relevant case files. This saves time for employees, who no longer have to manually sort documents themselves – preventing a mundane and repetitive day-to-day schedule and avoiding potentially costly errors.”
Richard agrees that customers want easy-to-use solutions to help streamline admin-heavy tasks such as organising incoming emails and digitalising legal documents. “For businesses that charge a client fee for their employee’s time, these tools help free up capacity for value-adding activity,” he says. “Canon’s document management software, uniFLOW Online, takes this a step further with the ability to allocate printing charges directly to different projects or cases, through the platform’s user-friendly cost centre.”
Security
Another critical aspect for legal and financial businesses is to maintain the security of documents – and this can be an advantage of DMS.
Richard says that research by PwC reveals that 85% of the Top 100 law firms state that they’re ‘extremely concerned’ or ‘somewhat concerned’ about cyberthreats. “This further highlights the need for secure and user-friendly document management solutions that are designed with security at their core, helping businesses to unlock capacity, without compromising on compliance,” he says.
Michael adds that security is critically important for all businesses, regardless of sector. “However, the sensitive nature of the documents handled by legal and financial sectors – such as client records, financial statements and legal contracts – means that any breach could have serious consequences,” he says. “While concerns about security can be a barrier to adoption, modern DMS address these issues with advanced security features.
“These include encryption, multi-factor authentication, secure user permissions and regular security updates. By ensuring that their DMS comply with industry standards and regulations, businesses can overcome security concerns and confidently transition to digital solutions.”
Roy agrees: “With a DMS, legal and financial services firms can truly work intelligently, unlock expertise, ensure compliance and governance and minimise risk as part of day-to-day operations,” he says.
“For instance, DMS use machine learning, forensics and adaptive behaviour modelling techniques to see how the firm’s data is being accessed and interrogated. This enables IT teams to detect unusual usage patterns or use IP analytics to pinpoint attacks to steal credentials, in the unfortunate event should bad actors make such an attempt.
“Firms can deploy ‘need-to-know’ security barriers at scale across departments, folders and projects so only authorised individuals can ever access the data. The department can also segment data based on confidentiality so that in the event of an ill-fated data breach, the risk of data exposure is significantly minimised. With financial services corporations and law firms subject to strict regulatory obligations, with such capability, demonstrating compliance and responding to audits becomes relatively quick and straightforward.
“With the GDPR and other country-specific data protection legislations, proper governance of electronic and physical records is vital. DMSs offer administrators the ability to apply flexible retention and defensible deletion policies to content. Furthermore, how professionals want to work must be aligned to the firm’s GDPR compliance policies, without causing friction or disruption in their workflow or the collaborative workspace. A DMS supports daily operations by helping to enforce the policies, ensure document security as well as assist with records and contract management quite seamlessly.”
Benedickt agrees that compliance is critical. “They need a system that helps them navigate regulations like HIPAA and GDPR,” he says. “Finally, user-friendliness is essential for employee adoption. A system that’s clunky and difficult to learn will never be used, so an intuitive and user-friendly interface is key.”
Reseller conversations
But when talking to legal and financial businesses, security is one of just several aspects of document management solutions that resellers should be emphasising.
“Resellers must explain the benefits and future-proof nature of a cloud-native DMS,” says Roy. “There are many reasons: the business will save on costs as there is no need to invest in on-premises infrastructure or the maintenance of the application as that will be taken care of by the DMS provider. Alongside this, the firm will always be on the latest version of the application. That is the beauty of cloud applications – no upgrade cycles are needed.
“Also highlighting the cloud infrastructure that is used by the DMS provider is key. For instance, is it Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure, for example? In the legal and financial services sectors, with most firms already operating on Microsoft technologies, Microsoft Azure delivers significant advantages – scalability, especially if the adoption of generative AI is a goal, and strong disaster recovery. Additionally, some DMS like iManage collaborate closely with Microsoft to develop newer capabilities and integrations that can be beneficial for the longer-term, for example the integration of Copilot.
“Ensuring that the firm’s data sovereignty needs are understood and met is important in an ever-expanding regulatory landscape. Due to the legal and financial sectors being highly regulated, firms can have varying requirements for where their data is stored and processed based on client mandates, the firm’s data protection policies, and jurisdictional demands. Not all DMS can meet data sovereignty requirements at a granular level. In fact, this is a question that every firm adopting a DMS must explicitly ask of their technology provider!
“A good reseller will have a best practice customer success programme that handholds the client from design to implementation and adoption. It is a critical element of any technology deployment, especially a DMS due to its business-critical nature. No matter how good the DMS is, if the implementation process – from start to finish – isn’t thought through, it can lead to disruption, project delays, and ultimately lack of user adoption, and in turn poor return on the investment.”
Michael agrees, saying that resellers should highlight features such as enhanced security, and improved efficiency. “Compliance with regulatory requirements can also be particularly persuasive,” he adds. “Additionally, showcasing the potential for cost savings through reduced physical storage needs and the ability to access documents remotely can appeal to businesses looking to modernise their operations.
“Resellers should also stress the importance of integration with existing systems and the flexibility to scale as the business grows. Demonstrating how these solutions can streamline workflows, improve client service, and reduce risk will resonate with decision-makers in these sectors.”
Richard says resellers can also help identify key ‘pain points’ where workflows can be streamlined. “For example, legal firms can digitalise case files with uniFLOW Online, introducing automation for easy retrieval, while protecting client confidentiality with zero-trust infrastructure,” he says.
Benedickt says resellers should present real use cases. “Once potential customers see how successfully a DMS is used across departments handling accounts payable, sales and order processing or legal & compliance management, it is easier for them to envision a more efficient and productive workflow in their own business,” he says.
Trends
As mentioned, cloud-based systems are becoming important and will continue to be as more businesses digitalise their operations and data and knowledge become more important in driving business decisions.
“A cloud-native DMS is the first step towards the ability to effectively harness the knowledge that exists within firms’ outputs, content, and related communications, such as emails, Team chats and so on,” says Roy.
“With hybrid working, a formalised, seamless approach to knowledge management (KM) is becoming essential. Firms will look at layering KM capability onto their DMS. This will ensure that the firm’s best pieces of ‘knowledge’ reside in a structured KM system for ease of re-use, improved client service and competitive advantage. It will enable professionals to quickly find work products such as templates, best practice documents, checklists, updates, examples of work, clauses, contracts and more.
“KM also logically lends itself to the adoption of generative AI capability, the adoption of a technology that no firm can ignore. Already, ready-to-deploy, best practice-led KM solutions are available that can be easily implemented over a DMS.”
Michael agrees there will be increased adoption of cloud-based systems, adding that AI will also become more important. “Cloud-based solutions offer scalability, remote access, and improved disaster recovery capabilities,” he says. “AI-driven technologies can automate routine tasks such as data entry, document sorting, and compliance checks, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing errors. Mobile access enables professionals to securely manage and review documents on the go, further enhancing productivity.
“Over the next 12-18 months, we anticipate that these trends will continue to evolve, with greater emphasis on advanced analytics, tighter integration with other business systems and increased focus on user-friendly interfaces to drive wider adoption.”
AI impact
Phil adds that AI is revolutionising document management in legal firms, arming case handlers with advanced tools to boost productivity and accuracy. “One of the main benefits of AI is its ability to find trends and patterns in data that might be missed by a human,” he says. “These AI-driven analytics and insights can be presented in dashboards to illustrate the peaks and troughs throughout the lifetime of any given case. This helps offer new insight and enhances decision-making.
“AI can also be used to build online client portals, where all information and documents can be kept in one easy to access space. Tasks can then be created in the system, sending automatic updates in real-time to clients. This allows clients to self-serve on a 24/7 basis and reduces manual labour for case handlers, who would otherwise spend time on phone calls updating clients about new documents. What’s more, these solutions mean case handlers can read documents at any time in any place. This is especially important given the current rise of hybrid and remote working.”
Richard notes that secure automation will only become more important with the advancement of AI. “Emerging technologies such as Canon’s IRISXtract utilises AI and optical character recognition technology to organise documents, extracting essential data for automatic classification,” he says.
“AI solutions that complement secure document management will become key differentiators in the market, as discussions with our partners and customers show that many legal professionals who plan to utilise AI, are making plans to do so in the next year.”
Benedickt says the future of document management solutions is exciting. “Cloud-based systems are the way forward in most industries because they’re easier to deploy and maintain,” he says. “Mobile access is another growing trend, allowing remote and hybrid workers to do their jobs. AI, with its ability to automate tasks like document indexing and capture, is getting better every day. We can expect these trends to evolve into continued and greater integration with accounting and CRM systems.”
