Paper2Digital Blog

21 08, 2023

National Archives and Records Administration Requirements for Digitizing Federal Records

2023-09-08T11:20:33-07:00August 21st, 2023|Paper2Digital Blog|

National Archives and Records Administration Requirements for Digitizing Federal Records Requirements

No later than June 30, 2024, all permanent records in Federal agencies must be managed electronically to the fullest extent possible for eventual transfer and accessioning by the National Archives and Records Administration – NARA.

Starting on July 1, 2024, agencies will be required to digitize permanent records created in analog formats before transfer to NARA. Digitization and transfer must be made in accordance with NARA regulations and transfer guidance, including metadata requirements.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) recently published the final rule for digitizing permanent federal records. This new rule, known as 36 CFR § 1236 Subpart E, became effective June 5, 2023. The federal government is undergoing a digital transformation and this new rule is a significant step towards achieving that goal.

As a part of this initiative, NARA and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued two crucial memorandums, M-19-21 (Jun-28, 2019) and M-23-07 (Dec-23, 2022). These memos highlight the importance of modernizing and transitioning to digital processes and workflows in the federal government to enhance efficiency, transparency, and accountability.

In line with these memorandums, NARA added the new Subpart E to its records management regulations to provide standards for digitizing permanent records. The goal is to enable federal agencies to dispose of source records when appropriate and according to the Federal Records Act amendments of 2014. This is an important step towards achieving the government’s goal of digital transformation.

SOURCES:
https://records-express.blogs.archives.gov/2023/05/15/new-rule-for-digitizing-records-what-you-need-to-know
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-36/chapter-XII/subchapter-B/part-1236

5 05, 2023

CISO in Law Firms Face Hybrid Work Challenges

2023-09-22T11:41:30-07:00May 5th, 2023|Paper2Digital Blog|

Chief Information Security Officers in Law Firms Face Hybrid Security Challenges

Many law firms have shifted towards a hybrid work model, where employees alternate between working from home and working at their law office. While this model has provided greater flexibility, it has also presented significant challenges for Chief Information Security Officers, CISO in these firms.

Law firms have always been a prime target for cybercriminals due to the sensitive and confidential nature of the data they hold. The shift towards hybrid work has only made things more complicated for CISOs, who must now contend with a distributed workforce, varied devices, and continual risks from email phishing. In this article, we will discuss the challenges facing CISOs in law firms due to hybrid work and how they can mitigate these risks.

Remote Workforce
Hybrid Workplace Solution - Return to Office - Work From HomeWith employees working from different locations, it becomes more difficult for CISOs to maintain a secure environment. Home networks are typically less secure than office networks, and employees may be using personal devices that are not adequately secured. This can make it easier for cybercriminals to gain access to the firm’s network and steal sensitive data.

To mitigate this risk, CISOs must implement strict security protocols for remote workers. This includes ensuring that all devices are up to date with the latest security patches, enforcing strong password policies, and providing employees with secure VPN access to the firm’s network.

Increased Cyber Attacks
Cybercriminals have been taking advantage of the pandemic to launch more sophisticated and targeted attacks. With law firms holding sensitive data, they are an attractive target for cybercriminals looking to steal confidential information, commit fraud, or launch ransomware attacks. Email phishing continues to be one of the greatest ongoing cybersecurity threats.

To mitigate this risk, CISOs must implement robust security measures, including multi-factor authentication, intrusion detection, and threat intelligence. They should also conduct regular security assessments and penetration testing to identify vulnerabilities in their systems and networks.

Cloud Security
With the shift towards hybrid work, many law firms have moved their operations to the cloud, making it easier for employees to access data from different locations. While this has provided greater flexibility, it has also created new security challenges, as data stored in the cloud is at risk from cyber attack.

To mitigate this risk, CISOs must implement strict access controls and monitor employee activities closely. They should also encrypt all data stored in the cloud and implement robust backup and disaster recovery procedures.

Mailroom Risk
There is a security problem in the mailroom that deserves a sense of urgency.

In a scanning mailroom, the typical scan-to-email-PDF approach puts the firm’s client information at risk and undermines information governance. Airmail2 solves this problem because it eliminates unnamed PDF attachments and delivers legal mail securely using integrations with a document repository like iManage, iManage Cloud, NetDocuments or OpenText eDOCS. Airmail2 also integrates with Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive.

This is an important cybersecurity consideration for law firms because email is the most frequent source from where cybersecurity incidents originate. Watch the 2-min. explainer video to learn more.

Conclusion
The shift towards hybrid work has presented significant challenges for CISOs in law firms, as they must contend with a distributed workforce, varied devices, and the increased risk of insider threats. To mitigate these risks, CISOs must implement strict security protocols, monitor employee activities closely, and conduct regular security assessments to identify vulnerabilities in their systems and networks. With the right approach, law firms can maintain a secure work environment and protect their sensitive data from cyber attacks.

CISO Digital Mailroom Resources

14 12, 2022

Reinventing Professionals Podcast – Benefits of a Digital Mailroom

2023-09-22T11:05:53-07:00December 14th, 2022|Paper2Digital Blog, Presentations and Webinars|

Benefits of a Digital Mailroom

Reinventing Professionals Podcast by Ari Kaplan

Runtime 16-minutes. Click the play button to listen now.

Host, Ari Kaplan, is an attorney, author, and leading legal industry analyst. He has been sharing interviews with industry leaders shaping the next generation of legal and professional services since 2009.

This episode originally aired on Dec-2, 2022.

Featured Legal Technology Leaders

Steve Irons and Joseph Scott discuss how Airmail2 supports remote and hybrid workplace preferences, why the proper management of scanned material directly impacts a law firm’s security protocols, and the benefits of digital mailrooms. This interview is from the Reinventing Professionals podcast episode released on December 2, 2022 and hosted by Ari Kaplan.

Steve Irons

President

Joseph C. Scott, J.D.

Senior Director of Client Engagement

22 09, 2023

How to Build a Business Case for a Digital Mailroom

2023-09-22T12:14:12-07:00September 22nd, 2023|Featured, Paper2Digital Blog|

How to Build a Business Case for a Digital Mailroom

As hybrid office planning continues to evolve in the majority of law firms across the country, firms can no longer rely on the typical scan-to-email-pdf approach. This cobbled together method of daily mail delivery is inefficient and it creates cybersecurity liability for the firm. This is where the Airmail2 Digital Mailroom comes in.

DocSolid’s Airmail2 Digital Mailroom completely transforms a law firm’s paper centric mail into a secure, efficient digital operation. Airmail2 is setting the standard as a best practice for law firm digital mailrooms because of how well it facilitates hybrid work. Legal mail items contain client information that is confidential and time sensitive. Therefore, the methods for processing the daily mail digitally must incorporate the same standards applied for all client data at the firm.

The Airmail2 Digital Mailroom was engineered from the ground up to solve the security and compliance requirements of law firms with direct digital delivery of daily mail fully integrated into the firm’s document management system (DMS). Sensitive information is protected and governed by DMS best practices consistent with the firm’s information governance policy.

To upgrade a law firm mailroom with a best practice digital mailroom solution such as Airmail2, the firm’s stakeholders must gain an appreciation for the distinct differences and advantages of implementing a new digital mailroom operation. Contact us to get the Airmail2 Advantages Checklist PDF. This information helps stakeholders and leaders at the firm understand the business case as it relates to their law firm. From that point, DocSolid will help you define the scope of a project including business requirements, objectives and budgeting.

In order to achieve a digital transformation of your mailroom into a best practice digital mailroom, it is important to understand a few of the fundamental differences and advantages:

Security and Information Governance

Law firms are driven by security and information governance concerns. Legal mail items are time sensitive and they contain confidential information. The rudimentary scan-to-email-PDF approach most law firms have in place are faulty because the scanned mail items are unnamed and uncontrolled. Using this method proliferates security risks that put the firm and their client’s sensitive information at risk. Airmail2 solves this problem because a best practice digital mailroom operation delivers daily mail directly into the law firm’s DMS where confidential client information is properly secured and governed.

“Cybersecurity was a large selling point. Having the ability to securely notify the legal teams and having that password protected was huge. Our managing partner is very involved in our cybersecurity practice area and he really liked that.”

-Database Analyst, Regional Firm US
Airmail2 + NetDocuments

Cost Reduction and Efficiency
Recognize the amount of labor, quantified in people and dollars terms, that is consumed by continuing to support makeshift scan-to-email-PDF methods. A best-practice digital mailroom is labor efficient because it enables batch work that requires fewer mailroom clerical staff, reducing the cost to operate it. It also stops the wasteful mail handling time currently in the hands of attorneys and legal assistants who should not be distracted by the redundant delivery of paper mail.

Overall Business Process Improvement
Mailrooms are scanning daily mail because some of that mail belongs in the DMS. But how do you know that ever even happened? A best-practice digital mailroom closes the loop on business process because it is a comprehensive end-to-end solution for getting mail into the DMS. It accomplishes this seamlessly with built-in quality controls, automatic email notifications and operator alerts. And one more thing… The entire mail delivery cycle time is faster too.

Woman Work From Home Laptop

Attorney / Employee Experience

A best practice digital mailroom achieves an attorney-focused experience that does not require employees to change the ways they work. For mail recipients, it is a reliable daily routine, no matter where they choose to physically work on any given day. Everyone appreciates the consistent experience you get with Airmail2 automated notifications and the option of communicating back to the mailroom with the Airmail2 Hub. For a hybrid workforce, it is ideal for fee earners and staff to have a few things that they can rely on operating the same way every day. The importance of this is greater than ever as hybrid work must be scrutinized for security from every angle by the CISO – Chief Information Security Officer, Records Managers and Information Governance leaders. The daily mail is a fundamental physical office function that is mission critical for law firms. That is why secure digital delivery with Airmail2 is essential.

Productivity

Labor is a one of the biggest considerations when deciding to budget for a new Digital Mailroom system. Using reasonable calculations, DocSolid has a spreadsheet tool that demonstrates how existing labor costs exceed the purchase price of the software. Use our Productivity Tool to reveal your existing mailroom costs and what you’ll find is that budgeting for a digital mailroom is a very smart choice.

With scan-to-email-PDF, or the old convention of physical mail distribution, operational labor costs add up quickly. This tends to be overlooked, but it becomes easy to see how these costs add up when the operational labor is taken into consideration for everyone that plays a part in supporting the mailroom operation. Contributing cost factors include:

  • Mailroom labor
  • Mail recipients labor
  • Quality control work
  • Physical paper mail delivery & disposition
  • Help desk, administration, IT involvement, supervision

The redundancy caused by a scan-to-email approach leads to additional labor costs that are avoided with a digital mailroom solution like Airmail2. Scanned mail has to be scanned and emailed to recipients, but in most instances, the mail is also physically delivered as well. This becomes double the amount of work for the mailroom staff, but it also adds work for recipients as they have to reconcile both the digital and physical documents while also creating the work of disposing of the physical mail once they are done with it.

Conclusion

The overhead costs of maintaining an inefficient mailroom operation alone makes a best practice digital mailroom operation a fiscally responsible decision for a law firm. The typical scan-to-email-PDF method is a waste of money each day it is kept in place, while the cybersecurity risks are akin to playing Russian Roulette with confidential client information. It’s impossible to align daily mail delivery with the hybrid work variability of each employee in every office location… Unless you adopt a best practice solution.

Next Steps

  • Contact us to request a copy of the complete Airmail2 Advantages Checklist.
  • Book a demonstration to learn how you can design a best practice Digital Mailroom for your firm with Airmail2.
11 10, 2022

Keeping (All) Your Documents Including Digital Mail Behind The Ethical Wall

2022-10-11T07:55:40-07:00October 11th, 2022|Paper2Digital Blog|

Keeping (All) Your Documents Including Digital Mail Behind The Ethical Wall

Remember when document management systems were implemented as a way to maintain versions of a document?  With the advent of PCs, WordPerfect, and a server to store documents on – version control was something that law firms could quickly lose control of.   Document management systems became the way to manage the authoring process – and a big upside was the ease of sharing documents.

Of course, along with the sharing of documents came the issue of over-sharing, or managing ethical walls between clients and attorneys.  This fostered the invention of ethical wall solutions which helped automate managing document sharing and access.

Today, document management systems are responsible for much more than ethical wall security.  Evolving legal requirements surrounding client confidentiality and data privacy concerns are among the risks forcing law firms to re-evaluate their technology infrastructure and policies for securing client matter information subject to an ethical wall.[1]

This is why the document management system is the technology of choice for 98% of all law firms to protect and govern sensitive client information.

When scanned mail items are trafficked outside of the DMS, a firm cannot secure or govern information nor place it behind proper ethical walls to avoid conflicts. So how could we go wrong?

 Don’t Forget the Daily Mail

The notion of scanning paper and securing the scan within the DMS seems to have been forgotten regarding daily mail, but the concerns of conflicts and need for ethical walls reside here as well.  Legal mail items contain sensitive client information. At the onset of the pandemic, most law firms cobbled together a quick fix in scan-to-email, but this method involves a variety of security risks that put law firms – and their client’s sensitive information — at risk.

Scan-to-email solutions mean vital documents are left drifting through cyber-space, often left in email inboxes or perhaps an email folder – without the security of the DMS. The solution: a best practice Digital Mailroom operation.

A best practice digital mailroom operation is the answer because it delivers documents not as email attachments but directly into the firm’s DMS where sensitive client information can be properly secured and governed — completely negating the risks created through scan-to-email. A digital mailroom utilizes intelligent, asynchronous processes to enable clerical operators to work efficiently and securely.

Not only can a best practice Digital Mailroom be created, but they already have been. DocSolid’s Airmail2 Digital Mailroom completely transforms the law firm’s paper centric mail into a secure and efficient digital operation that enables the hybrid work environment.

With Airmail2, skilled mailroom staff (those that can accurately determine appropriate client-matter-folder) can profile scanned mail items directly to the DMS.  This is accomplished without the need to provide direct access to the DMS (which should be reserved only for qualified legal staff and attorneys).  The benefit of this approach is the shift of the profiling step from legal staff or attorneys to the mailroom team.  Airmail2 also supports profiling scanned mail items by recipient (easily determined by addressing information on the mail item)  – a method that is deployed to mailroom staff who are less skilled.

The scan-to-email solutions firms conjured as a response to the pandemic were only designed as a stop gap and never intended for long-term use. The hybrid legal workplace is here to say. Airmail2 Digital Mailroom enables productive, secure delivery of daily mail directly into the DMS. Learn more about the Airmail2 and how to transform your law firm’s mailroom and institute best practice principles for security and governance in our latest white paper here.

[1] https://inoutsource.com/ethical-walls-and-confidentiality-screens-not-just-for-conflicts/ )

22 09, 2022

How Digital Mail Operations Expose Firms to Risk

2023-09-22T11:41:42-07:00September 22nd, 2022|Paper2Digital Blog|

How Digital Mail Operations Expose Firms to Risk

The article originally appeared in Legaltech News: Here

Security is a funny thing.  For it to work, you have to do it all of the time.  Wearing a seatbelt half the time isn’t a good strategy.  Wearing the seatbelt every time is.

Sending scanned images of inbound, daily mail via email attachments is a ‘scan-to-email’ method that was never intended to be a secure, permanent operation. This was only a temporary solution conjured in response to the pandemic crisis. So why are law firms still doing it this way? The only answer is that nothing bad has happened- yet.

But something bad will happen because it’s not secure.  We don’t have our seatbelts on. Sending scanned images of paper mail as email attachments creates these risks:

  • Lack of governance. When documents are sent as email attachments, the exchange occurs outside of the document management system (DMS), the technology intended to secure and govern them, multiplying risk exposure across the firm.
  • Cybersecurity risk. Along with the rise of remote work, cybersecurity threats have increased by 3x. Email attachments expose the firm to these risks.
  • Conflicts, PII and more. When an email message goes to the wrong recipient or an attachment contains personally identifiable information (PII), firms are exposed to conflicts or significant regulatory fines resulting from lack of compliance with GDPR, CCPA and other regulations.

Security and governance of their information is the number one issue keeping clients awake at night. Firms must take the right steps to secure client information from the moment it arrives. Firms that do not secure client information from the moment of arrival are at risk of an event no one wants. In short, we need to wear our seatbelts all the time.

Lack of Governance

At the most basic level, when a law firm mailroom delivers a confidential file via email attachment, the firm has no control over the document and cannot govern or secure it. Scanned mail delivered as a PDF email attachment often goes to more than one person, so the exposure is multiplied, then subject to the behavior of all receiving parties. Recipients can open attachments on their desktop, circumventing conflicts, or confidentiality, share the file with other attorneys, staff, or external entities outside the confines of the firm’s information governance policies.

And during this process, sending a document by email attachment means the file exists on the Exchange Server, not the DMS. It may then be stored in multiple locations on multiple devices including local computers, network folders, other recipients’ mobile or desktop inboxes, other mail servers and more.

 Cybersecurity Risk

Email is the #1 attack vector for cyber criminals. Users are attacked at the inbox, and the organization is attacked at the email server. Building a permanent daily mail scanning operation on top of this exposure zone is unwise, and unnecessary.

Another risk factor is wrong recipient error. Organizations with over 1,000 employees send approximately 800 misdirected emails every year. That is a rate of more than two emails per day, making it the most common type of error to cause a breach.

The System of Record is the DMS

Wrong recipient occurs most often as a result of an erroneous auto-fill in the send field – but wrong recipient is not the only risk caused by an unintended auto-fill in the send field.

The other negative consequence is unintended conflicts risk.  Email is not a technology that can check for conflicts nor build ethical walls to ensure that only the intended parties of a communication have access to that communication.

The technology for this is the document management system (DMS).

Client information arriving by postal mail needs to be scanned directly to the firm’s document management system (DMS) and be available to users only by a link to the DMS. Simply put, the DMS is the technology of choice for 98% of all law firms to protect and govern sensitive client information and why it is regarded the firm’s “system of record.”

For instance, a wrong recipient “may” occur when receiving an email with a link to the DMS, but the recipient wouldn’t be able to open the link if they were not assigned access.  That’s security.

Not only does DMS secure and govern client information but it is also the technology that helps firms comply with regulations such as The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) at scale. These regulations mandate, among other requirements, that firms be able to classify, track and, if requested, delete personal data held anywhere by the firm. This is effectively impossible with scan-to-email.

This is what it means to build a best practice solution and not an expedient solution.

 Ethical Obligations

Direct-to-DMS delivery of digital mail is not just a good idea, but potentially an ethical duty of a law firm. Several of the ABA Model Rules are particularly related to safeguarding client data, including competence (Model Rule 1.1), communication (Model Rule 1.4), confidentiality of information (Model Rule 1.6), and supervision (Model Rules 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3).

What do these duties require? When using technology, they require that we employ reasonable measures to safeguard the confidentiality of client information, that we communicate with clients about our use of technology and get informed consent from clients where appropriate, and that we supervise subordinate attorneys, law firm personnel, and service providers to ensure compliance with these duties. In comparison to the capabilities of how a DMS protects client information, email is not a reasonable measure.

Conclusion

Security of client information isn’t a part time job.  We’ve got to wear the seatbelt at all times and, unfortunately, the way many digital mailrooms now operate expose the firm to a multitude of risks.  We don’t need to wait for the unfortunate event to happen – firms can act on this today and install the right technology that integrates digital mail with the DMS.

15 06, 2022

Understanding Clients’ IG and RIM Best Practices with Cadis Stuart-Hodges

2022-06-15T13:03:30-07:00June 15th, 2022|Paper2Digital Blog|

Understanding Clients’ IG and RIM Best Practices with Cadis Stuart-Hodges

Cadis Stuart-Hodges, IGP, CRM

We spoke with Cadis Stuart Hodges, IGP, CRM, who joined DocSolid earlier this year as Senior Director of Services.  Prior to joining DocSolid, Cadis spent over 15 years inside of law firm’s IG and Records departments and was the Director of Records for Drew, Eckl & Farnham.

Since she joined, Cadis has been overseeing DocSolid’s Consulting and Professional Services divisions, adding value to clients’ IG and RIM best practices for Airmail2 Digital Mailroom and Digital Records Room implementations. We caught up with her to see how her new role is going.

DocSolid:  How do you see your role as Senior Director of Services at DocSolid?

Cadis: I am in the constellation DocSolid management helping to make sure that our implementation staff and our consultants have everything they need to serve our customers. Helping the services staff and even our sales people have a good view of the important parts of the information governance journey for law firms is also part of my day to day. My role is to make sure that our customers have the best experience while also ensuring their Airmail2 and records room solution is an industry best practice for all the firm’s important processes:  IG, records, and security.

DocSolid:  Why is IG, security and records and information management important for a digital mail room?

Cadis: The most important reason is risk  management which is a huge part of the  legal landscape. The thing that you are always trying to do is to keep your risk as low as possible as a law firm. It’s how you build procedures. It’s why you have client guidelines.

Your biggest areas for risk is your client information.  That’s the client’s trust in you, that’s your bread and butter, how you’re working every day. The last thing that you want to do is put a process in place that keeps your client information less secure or exposes you and your client to an external threat that could have been prevented.

The way that IG helps you manage that is by creating and implementing the processes around that information that keep it secure.  You need to know at all times where your data lives, what format it’s in and how you are transmitting that information around your firm.

Airmail2 closes a huge gap in that risk because Airmail2 does not put client information out into your whole system. With Airmail2, you’re putting your information directly where it needs to go–the DMS–because your DMS is where you govern all of your data, all of your document information, all of your client information, your mail ingestion, your emails back and forth, your documents that you produce for work, your client produced documents–all of that is governed in the DMS.

With Airmail2, you’ve got an end to end, auditable process. It gives you the pathway to ingest information and put it directly where it needs to be governed—in the DMS—which reduces a firm’s risk immeasurably.

When you’re doing things in a more hodgepodge way, you’re attaching stuff to email or you’re having people open PDFs on their phones, or they’re forwarding PDFs, or they’re sending a copy to themselves and the entire team. There’s no definitive version of that information. You don’t know who’s going to put it into the DMS or if it will make it there at all.

You avoid all of that by having a definitive copy that is immediately put into the DMS from the Airmail2 system.

 DocSolid: Give us an example of a specific IG challenge that our clients have been facing.

Cadis: A common resistance we face is that people still want a copy of that PDF in their email—when what they really need is what we provide:  a direct link to the DMS that opens the document directly. I think a challenge that we’re currently facing is that people want to have that information on the go and what we help them to understand is that they need their document management systems to be what is available on the go, not PDFs in your email.  Best practice is never to have that PDF in your email at all, this is something that we help firms understand.

DocSolid: Have you had some recent successes in helping some clients improve their IG policy around their digital mail room?

There are several recent success stories at a wide range of firms – from a 100+ attorney firm to one of the world’s largest firms–where DocSolid came in and looked at their process and revamped them all together. These firms were all-in immediately and completely prioritized IG and security of their client information. A key factor, especially in the larger firm, was the top down leadership endorsement of the project which essentially did not allow for deviation from our IG-driven processes for digital mail.

Overall, I am seeing more and more firms understand the importance of the governance piece and that is a victory—for the firms. Security of information is driving it – and the dovetailing of security with governance is a trend we will see more of and a positive one if it pushes firms to implement best practice processes over their sensitive client information.

8 06, 2022

The Great Hubbub: Top 3 Reasons Users Love Airmail2 Hub

2022-06-08T13:20:26-07:00June 8th, 2022|Paper2Digital Blog|

The Great Hubbub:  Top 3 Reasons Users Love Airmail2 Hub

Every day, new paper arrives in law firms in the form of documents delivered by UPS, USPS, or FedEx. Before the pandemic, it was custom to sort and deliver this new paper to the desks of folks responsible for its disposition. That all changed when the pandemic sent us home.  Suddenly, the daily mail was in the office, and we were at home.

Mail There and I’m Here

Firms innovated various workflows to bridge the gap. Email was a popular solution, although fraught with risks and efficiencies. Another solution was to continue delivering paper mail items to vacant desks.  Folks would then commute to the office on occasion to review the mail and send it to the appropriate “storage location” for safe keeping or disposal (the shred bin, the working file at home, or perhaps the file room).  Each “location” represented a separate workflow. Of course, another popular solution was to simply scan the inbound mail and send as an attachment to its recipients.

DocSolid took this as an opportunity to innovate.  We developed a Digital Mailroom solution which delivers daily mail directly to the DMS with email simply used to notify recipients of new mail. These notifications were sort of like hearing the rattle of the mail slot at the front door.

But the problem of the mail and the recipient being in different places still needed to be solved along with the concurrent problem of routing the paper version of the mail items to their appropriate “storage locations.”

The Hub Bub

The team at DocSolid went to work on how to “bridge the gap” between the location of the mail – which still arrives at the office – and the recipient who is working at home who needs to get the mail to the appropriate storage location, whether that is the file room or the document management system.

Bridging the gap meant giving the recipient a way to control the workflow of the paper mail even after it was digitized. The answer: the Hub.

The email “notification” sent by the DocSolid Daily Mail system includes access to a “Hub” which allows the mail recipient to communicate with the mailroom team back in the office where the physical mail resides.

The recipient can send messages to the office team that offer instructions on how to handle the paper mail items. Choices like “discard” or “hold for filing” guide the mailroom team on handling the paper mail. It’s simple and intuitive and helps resolve these 3 common user questions quickly and seamlessly:

#1 – When do I know I have mail to look at?  The Airmail2 system uses email but only when it’s efficient to do so.  It is very efficient to send an email (a notification) to a mail recipient letting them know they have mail (yes, “you’ve got mail”).  The recipient doesn’t need to check for new mail – they’re notified when it arrives.

#2 – How does the recipient “route” the physical paper?  The mailroom back in the office is busy scanning paper mail. The recipient is at home and is notified of new mail – and can examine it in the DMS.  But how does the recipient let the mail room know where to dispose of the mail?  It could be a request to “place on desk” or “forward to records” or “shred” (yes – shred … for the intrepid). The ability to provide this disposition instruction is built into the Airmail2 Hub.

#3 – How does my colleague know about new mail?  The Airmail2 solution supports “pairings” – matching other folks with the mail recipient so that all appropriate folks are notified of new incoming mail. This is managed by the Airmail2 system which can update pairings as they change (for reassignments, vacations, etc.).

26 05, 2022

Optimizing Your Mail and Records Room for the New Reality: Hybrid is Here to Stay

2022-06-08T09:48:19-07:00May 26th, 2022|Paper2Digital Blog|

Optimizing Your Mail and Records Room for the New Reality: Hybrid is Here to Stay

The data from Cushman & Wakefield’s latest report, “Office of the Future Revisited: Three New Realities Shaping Hybrid Workplace Strategies,” suggests that almost half (40%) of the workforce will choose to remain in remote positions for the foreseeable future. If this is true, then law firms need a digital mailroom and digital records room operation that is secure, efficient, and reflects the needs for this new way of life.

Cushman & Wakefield’s report analyzes three new realities:

  • Office Space is Still in Demand
  • Hybrid is Here to Stay
  • Role of the Office has Changed

The data behind of each of these realities has drastic implications for law firms and organizations creating their office workplace strategies moving forward.

As firms begin to create their return to office strategies, it is important to factor in how the data of these realities will impact law firm security, efficiency, and attorney productivity.

Reality One: Office Space is Still in Demand

Demand for office space is finally returning for much of the world—and it is being driven by job creation. The world is seeing employment return to the levels it was before the onset of the pandemic. This accelerated growth is pushing more companies to feel the need to return to office or offer their employees the option to return to pre-pandemic office life.

Reality Two: Hybrid is Here to Stay

As organizations and firms create their return to office strategy, one thing is becoming clear: It is time to embrace hybrid. Instead of forcing attorneys and staff back into the office, firm and office leaders must cultivate a common understanding that will optimize employee experience for the limited time that staff is working in-house.

Reality 3: The Role of the Office has Changed

As the office becomes a less permanent staple in the lives of employees, the role of the physical office continues to evolve. Most organizations believe the office is now a place that can cultivate and build culture which can be used to inspire creativity and innovation. With that being said, this shift in mind set, coupled with the realization that hybrid is here to stay, is deemphasizing individuals and their dedicated desks. Instead, offices are focusing more on collaborative spaces and desk sharing.

The Normal NowTM

While these three realities are distinct, they are not all exclusive of one another. All three affirm that the workforce will dictate the next steps for law firms and organizations. While the workforce retains the leverage, hybrid is here to stay according to the data in Cushman and Wakefield’s report.

At the time of the report’s release, there are over 11 million job openings coupled with a 3.6% unemployment rate. The demand to fill roles has provided workers with the leverage to demand workplace flexibility like a hybrid schedule or work from home.

As of the last quarter of 2021 nearly half (40%) of the workforce indicated that they would prefer to never work full-time in office. One fifth of the workforce indicated that they would be open to a hybrid option. With 40% of the workforce stating that they would prefer to never work in office full-time. It is imperative for firms and organizations to create a hybrid workplace strategy that works well for employees and operationally.

A Best Practice Digital Mailroom and Records Room for a Hybrid Workforce

As attorneys and staff change the way they work, the delivery of client mail and requests for physical matter files must change as well. Scan-to-email work arounds that were put in place when the workforce first went remote were only tolerable as stop-gap emergency measures because they present real security risks.

Daily mail is mission critical because it contains client information that is confidential and time sensitive. Attorneys and staff working from home need a reliable, secure method for digital delivery. A daily mail process that relies on the conventional scan-to-email approach is not secure because it was never designed for this purpose.

A best practice digital mailroom operation delivers mail directly into the document management system (DMS) where sensitive client information is kept secure and governed according to firm policy. A best practice digital records room is similar, building a digitization project for scanning large volumes of paper records and storing them in the DMS.

Security is just one of many reasons why law firms need to design a digital mailroom. It is also essential to keep attorneys and staff productive, no matter where they choose to work.

Airmail2 Digital Mailroom and Digital Records Room are direct-to-DMS solutions with certified integrations for iManage and NetDocuments. Transform your firm’s paper-based mailroom and records room functions into streamlined, digital operations with a flexible design that supports work-from-home, hybrid, and return-to-office strategies.

Read the full report by Cushman & Wakefield Here

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