Document Automation by the Numbers
The world of work is changing. In today’s digital revolution, artificial intelligence, automation and robotics are causing a shift in the workplace as significant as that of the first industrial revolution.
According to Altman Weil’s most recent Law Firms in Transition survey, the vast majority of law firm leaders now believe that the commoditization of legal work and smart technologies are a permanent part of the legal landscape. Law firms are under pressure from increasing client expectations for more responsive service and greater efficiency, delivered at a lower cost.
Embarking on a digital transformation effort for your firm? The low-hanging fruit may be in document automation.
Find Other Low-Hanging Fruit in Our Modern Law Firm Checklist
Think about the number of hours staff at your firm spend creating new contracts or documents from scratch or starting with a similar existing document and using copy/paste and editing to create a new document. How many hours of manual editing are spent generating the new agreement, form or contract? How often are errors found in forms, contracts, filings or other documents, inflicting embarrassment or, worse, costly correction? Numbers don’t lie, as they say. Following are a handful of facts on document automation.
2 pounds of paper per day
The EPA reports that the average office worker generates approximately two pounds of paper and paperboard products every day. From mistakes printed on the laser printer, bad photocopies or old memos and reports to old periodicals, 90% of all office waste is paper. While legal document automation won’t eliminate all paper waste, it can greatly increase accuracy and reduce the errors that lead to wasted paper.
Manual vs. Automated Document Management: 3 hours, 6 errors or 15 minutes, error-free
In a recent podcast discussion on Legaltech News entitled “How Document Automation Tools Can Help You Maintain Productivity in a Virtual Environment,” Korey Lawrence of AbacusNext and David Brickman of Rocket Docket Legal Software describe a law firm benchmarking exercise. Using the traditional copy/paste/edit method to create a new document took on average three hours and incurred six errors in punctuation, spellings, omissions or printing. By comparison, the same document created using HotDocs was complete in fifteen minutes and 100% accurate.
90% reduction in time spent creating documents
Lawrence and Brickman found that HotDocs, when implemented properly, reduced the time to create documents to near-zero. The savings result from a dramatic decrease in the need to create legal forms and correspondence by using templates that eliminate the errors that come from cutting and pasting. Each field, signature block or caption can be populated instantly and accurately from a database of information specific to the client and case, generating ready-to-print documents with simple filling in the blanks and mouse clicks. Get an even faster start in the HotDocs Market, with thousands of templates from legal publishers and state bar associations.
45.9% of firms see significant results from efficiency efforts
The Altman Weil 2020 study of Law Firms in Transition found that 45.9% of law firms actively pursuing systematic reengineering of work processes report that doing so has “significantly contributed to firm performance.”
69.4 workdays per year = more time for clients
When using HotDocs for document creation, automating 100 tasks over the course of a year will save 69.4 days of work! For many firms, the task count is even higher than 100 documents, suggesting even greater time savings. Lawrence and Brickman explain the math in the webinar “How Document Automation Tools Can Help You Maintain Productivity in a Virtual Environment” presented with Law.com. Listen in on demand.
16.7% CAGR: rapid growth in digital transformation solutions
IDC expects worldwide spending on the technologies and services to enable the digital transformation of business practices, products and organizations to reach $1.97 trillion in 2022 – a compound annual growth rate of 16.7%. It may not be an understatement to say that “the world is moving to document automation.” In addition to law firms, HotDocs is accelerating business and improving efficiency in banking, insurance, real estate, government and other document-intensive organizations.
Take 5 and learn more about HotDocs
- Listen to the podcast discussion “How Document Automation Tools Can Help You Maintain Productivity in a Virtual Environment”
- Watch the on-demand webinar “How Document Automation Tools Can Help You Maintain Productivity in a Virtual Environment”
Need help finding the right document automation for your firm?
Talk to a HotDocs expert by emailing sales@abacusnext.com, or calling 800-726-3339. You can also See HotDocs in Action to start saving time today.