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 Situation
Solution
Benefits
SituationWhen preparing legal documents and other client deliverables, lawyers in large firms often need to retrieve information from disparate line-of-business systems such as document management, contacts, and legal research systems. Lawyers and paralegals have to navigate to and switch among these different systems, perform lookups on each one, and then manually consolidate the information they find. As a result, these highly paid legal professionals might spend hours searching for the information they need, often without finding the most current content. The following challenges are typical in the process most law firms use for assembling documents: | • | Accessing existing content is difficult and results in limited reuse. | | • | Incorporating data from legacy systems into documents is manual and error-prone. | | • | Complex processes for identifying and enabling content for reuse results in limited available content or the selection of out-of-date content. |
SolutionA document creation and assembly solution built on the Microsoft Office System can improve productivity and reduce errors by enabling content reuse, streamlining document assembly, and optimizing content capture processes. With dynamic document assembly, a legal organization can also improve the quality of deliverables and broaden the scope of content available for reuse. Tools for Content Reuse | • | Access to knowledge-based content directly from common productivity tools including Microsoft Office Word 2003 | | • | User-specific and company-specific categorization of content | | • | Drag-and-drop functionality for document creation |
Streamlined Document Assembly | • | Ability to incorporate enterprise data dynamically into legal documents | | • | Integration to legacy data stores using Microsoft Information Bridge Framework | | • | Simplified tag-and-relate process to bring in legacy data for new or existing documents |
Optimized Content Capture | • | Content harvesting by tagging sections in existing documents | | • | Publication of categorized content for organizational reuse | | • | Centralized knowledge repository for standardization and review as part of overall risk management |
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See how the Microsoft Office System can help law firms more quickly and efficiently create and assemble documents.
BenefitsA document creation and assembly solution based on the Microsoft Office System enables professional services organizations to realize the following benefits: | • | Easier access to content from within familiar tools increases worker productivity | | • | Incorporating current and reliable content from existing systems improves the quality of deliverables | | • | Searchable knowledge-base of content ensures reuse of best information | | • | Advanced formatting tools saves time and assures consistency across a firm’s deliverables | | • | Automated processes leverage a firm’s intellectual capital by facilitating content capture and reuse | | • | Streamlined processes for content review and posting reduce administrative overhead costs and facilitate compliance with changing legal standards |
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