Van Kooten Lawyers
Ease of use and time savings: the successful collaboration between Van Kooten lawyers and Documentaal
Van Kooten lawyers and Documentaal
"The biggest advantage of working with the Document Management System: Epona365 in combination with LegalWord365? Surely that is that this solution is focused on the legal work process," said Gerrit van den Brink of Van Kooten Advocaten. "And nice that everything works together seamlessly. That saves work and time. Also administratively since everything is delivered and invoiced by Documentaal ."
Old love
Back in 2016, Van Kooten Advocaten was already considering working with Epona365. "We were still working from Windows folders. At the time, this solution was not attractive in terms of price for a small office. We chose another solution that we used until last year." Still, the gnawing continued. "We chose that system at the time for financial reasons, but it was not set up for the legal profession and our practice in terms of structure. When the contract expired, I knocked on the door of my old love Documentaal anyway for a new conversation about the DMS it offers."
Meanwhile, it turned out not only that the solution had been further - and positively - developed, but also that the pricing had changed. Documentaal offered exactly what Van Kooten Advocaten was looking for: a DMS system that works easily and is accessible from Outlook, with text blocks and templates from LegalWord365. 'Of course I did some comparison online among other providers. But when we Documentaal the table, that conversation was so pleasant and to our liking that the decision was quickly made."
"I regularly argue in criminal cases. I used to pick up the last email in a criminal case in which I claimed. Now I do that as a text block, double-click on the element and adjust it."
Working from Outlook
DMS and LegalWord are two stand-alone systems that work extremely well together. From the DMS, Gerrit's team works finely based on SharePoint and Outlook, with everything on hand directly from the Outlook environment. "The advantage of LegalWord with that is the ease with which you can create text blocks and elements, which allows you to quickly draft documents that you save and view within the DMS."
"I draft regularly in criminal cases. I used to grab the last email in a criminal case in which I was arguing. Now I do that as a text block, double-click on the element and edit it. This saves ineffective and undeclared time. For the client, it means I prepare an advisory report in four hours instead of eight, which saves costs. Gerrit works on an hourly basis, and any time savings are valuable, both for the client and the firm. In addition, this kind of cleverness also saves the firm overhead costs. "I used to give my secretary the text and ask her to prepare it. Now I open the document and it is ready in no time. This saves on support costs and so we maintain competitive advantage."
Opportunities for the future
Asking clients for fixed prices and providing targeted estimates is now also possible as Van Kooten Advocaten standardizes and automates more. "Primarily we are there for the client, not for our own turnover. If a client calls with a case that has little in it, I am honest and say I cannot take the case. We're there to help as well and as quickly as possible."
Van den Brink is also looking to the future with AI: "I'm already quite busy with AI. The future is to save even more work and time and make the service even more efficient. For example, AI can help analyze documents. It's good to know that Documentaal is also making strides in this."
Ease of use is key within this collaboration. Through smart automation and cooperation with Documentaal , Van Kooten Advocaten keeps the focus on what is really important: its clients and a pleasant working environment.
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