Advanced launches new technology to drive solicitors’ productivity

As the government’s Digital by Default 2020 deadline approaches, solicitors are seeking ways to digitise their practice as, according to Advanced’s Managing Director for Legal, Doug Hargrove, many are under pressure at work and facing a “work-life balance crisis”.

“Law firms are looking to drive efficiencies and simplify processes by digitising their practices,” commented Doug. “Many are doing so simply because there is too much work to do in the time that they have. We are finding that solicitors – and indeed others operating in the professional services sector – are facing a work-life balance crisis. In fact, according to our recent survey on workplace stress, 61% of the sector attributed lack of time as a key source of their work pressure. We believe technology can help solicitors use their time far more effectively, which is why we have launched two new solutions.” 

Advanced has launched Cloud Forms, a Cloud-based solution that provides solicitors with a comprehensive library of 3,000 legal forms available for both paper and digital submissions.

It combines with the award winning digital submissions platform, Laserform Hub, which allows solicitors to submit certain legal  forms digitally to Government Gateways. Now, in conjunction with Cloud Forms, all legal forms can be stored, and either digitally submitted via Laserform Hub or accessed and printed, from one single, secure Cloud application – saving solicitors valuable time.

As the only legal forms solution offering a comprehensive forms library for paper and digital submissions, Cloud Forms provides solicitors with a significant step forward in their digital journey. Moving from paper to online submissions will become essential, and Cloud Forms will enable firms to begin their transition with ease and simplicity ahead of the 2020 deadline.

Advanced has also introduced new mobile capabilities to ALB 3.0, which allows solicitors to more flexibly manage aspects of their work. The new built-in mobile capabilities include time recording, diary, client, matter and task management, allowing solicitors to save time and work remotely at any time of the day.

Doug adds: “Our mobile solution for ALB empowers solicitors to maximise their time more effectively and eradicate their reliance on paper, which can make all the difference as they juggle the day to day pressures of delivering high quality legal services. It won’t be long before Cloud and mobile-based tools become a necessity in the legal sector – and they will also act as catalysts for solicitors to use disruptive technologies in the future. We are already seeing and delivering Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects, for example, used to automate mundane and repetitive jobs, freeing lawyers up to focus on higher value tasks. Today’s announcements are the first of a number of new innovative developments that we’ll be bringing to market shortly.”