Case Study

Supporting Excellence

Trilby Misso Lawyers is a leading Queensland legal firm specialising in personal injury claims. Established in 1956 Trilby Misso Lawyers today comprises 130 employees and provides legal counsel in areas such as workplace accidents, motor vehicle accidents, public liability and medical negligence.

At the heart of Trilby Misso Lawyers is the promise of excellent customer service. It was the first to recognise the extent to which injured workers were denied access to justice because they could not afford legal representation. Trilby Misso vigorously promoted the concept of the ‘No win, no pay’ fee arrangement to provide access to justice, which is still in place and bringing huge benefits to customers today.

Supporting this high level of customer service is a team of lawyers and office executives committed to efficient and responsible corporate practice. Critical aspects of the business are safe and secure document production, handling and management.

As part of its regular technology management cycle, Trilby Misso Lawyers went out to tender on its print and document management solution, in order to explore new opportunities for operational efficiencies and cost savings through increased workforce productivity.

Ultimately, Trilby Misso Lawyers was looking to work with a suitable vendor to deliver a tailored solution specific to the company and its print environment. Underpinning this was a need for a simple transition and ongoing peace of mind regarding the solution’s efficiency and reliability. Simply put, the solution needed to support Trilby Misso Lawyers’ superior customer service.

The Issue

Like all legal and professional services firms, Trilby Misso Lawyers has to manage a significant amount of inbound and outbound information which is critical and sensitive. As part of the company’s business continuity and disaster recovery plans, every single piece of correspondence is recorded and kept on file.

Previously that process involved a substantial amount of administration time. The correspondence would be manually scanned and converted to PDF and then consolidated to a group PDF. Finally this would be uploaded to the company’s practice management system for storage.

Making this task even more time consuming was the disparity amongst Trilby Misso’s fleet of print and scanning devices, including 35 standalone printers, 20 desktop scanners and nine photocopiers, all from various manufacturers and scattered around the office.

Using this mixed fleet, each team spent up to three hours every day managing this process and with 17 teams involved, the total company time spent on this was significant.

This process became a large part of people’s working days, which was ludicrous because our support teams are highly skilled so we saw it as wasted talent. – Daniel Buchanan, IT Manager.

A second issue caused by the company’s mixed print fleet was one of print efficiency in handling Trilby Misso Lawyers various templates. “We have a number of company templates, which obviously require consistency, being run off different printers with different print drivers and associated settings,” said Daniel. “Adjusting these often took time, again which we saw as unnecessary, especially considering how busy everyone is.”

In terms of security, the company was keen to eliminate any chance of documents getting mixed at the printer, an avoidable problem the company considered as unacceptable.

We have a reputation for superior customer service, so a robust security policy has always been central to this company and we will take all measures to ensure it. – Daniel Buchanan

The Solution

The vendor brief was an RFP for a standard solution, which would create a baseline for all vendors from which Trilby Misso Lawyers could derive cost, service and functionality comparisons. Based on this baseline comparison, three vendors were immediately ruled out and employee test sessions held with the remaining vendors. While the tests took place, Trilby Misso Lawyers also reviewed a number of its own business processes and considered which vendors could provide technology that could complement them.

One of the vendors invited to propose a new solution for Trilby Misso Lawyers, was Canon Australia, which sent a team to audit the company’s print and document management environment and uncover opportunities for efficiency improvements.

Canon’s solution set out a new structure for the company’s print and scanning operation to remove as much manual time as possible and the projected savings were substantial.

Deciding to work with Canon, Trilby Misso Lawyers signed off on the solution, which in terms of hardware included 16 new Canon imageRUNNER multifunction devices and eight Canon DR 9080 high-speed workgroup scanners, which when networked provided the physical capability to rapidly speed up the imaging environment as well as making it easier to use and maintain.

The solution also included 16 eCopy ScanStations spread amongst the scanners and multifunction devices and a new, customised eCopy connector. eCopy ScanStations are small-format touch screens that attach easily to any Canon imageRUNNER and allow users to scan back to a businesses network. For Trilby Misso Lawyers they will also be used to connect into fax, email and its existing document management application directly from the device.

“This was an obvious way to leverage our investment in Canon hardware,” said Daniel.

It is a convenient, low cost way to create e-versions of Trilby Misso Lawyers critical paper correspondence and distribute them quickly and efficiently at virtually no cost. – Daniel Buchanan

To complete the solution, Canon installed its uniFLOW Output Manager document accounting software, tailored to Trilby Misso Lawyers specific requirements. This enabled the company to enjoy ‘follow me printing’, where employees swipe an identity card (in this case their existing company security tag) before a print job is released. This ensures that all documents produced on the company’s multifunction devices can only be picked up by the authorised person.

Canon uniFLOW cancels unclaimed print jobs in the queue after a set amount of time, reducing the paper wasted on unwanted print jobs. Importantly for Trilby Misso Lawyers, uniFLOW also allows it to track and report on all printing and copying giving IT greater visibility and control over the print environment.

In addition to the significant workflow and security efficiencies, what impressed us was Canon’s clear, no-nonsense approach. As a company, we fully appreciate how the legal process can be very daunting for our clients, so we make it as clear as possible, using plain English at all times. Canon treated us in a similar way and it gave us great confidence. – Graeme McFadyen, Chief Executive Officer

The Result

Close attention has been paid to the improvements made at Trilby Misso Lawyers. The company has reported that time spent on the scanning and managing of inbound correspondence has halved, with documents now scanned directly into Trilby Misso Lawyers practice management system.

We estimate that over five years this solution will save us approximately $5 million. This, we believe, is the total productivity time saving translated into chargeable hours over the contract period of the solution. – Graeme McFadyen.

Using the same software across the print fleet has also helped with template production, which is now much quicker and easier, and from a corporate perspective much more consistent. Having installed the new solution, Trilby Misso Lawyers has also set up a print function whereby duplicate copies of all outbound documents are automatically produced for storage, saving the time of physically copying them.

In terms of security, uniFLOW removes the possibility of document mix-ups at the printer, which although never a big problem for Trilby Misso Lawyers, does give the company extra peace of mind that secure, efficient customer service remains a top priority.

“As for the IT team, we’re thrilled because the benefits are so clear, both from a commercial perspective and an operational one,” said Daniel. “The solution is also far easier for us to manage and maintain because we have greater control and fewer pieces of hardware to worry about.

“Our job is far easier because our users are happy, meaning less stress and less pressure on us.”

As if to underline Trilby Misso Lawyers new imaging efficiencies, the office space is also noticeably tidier with dedicated ‘utility rooms’ throughout the offices housing the hardware.

This really has been a great example of genuine, effective solution design, as opposed to a plug-in technology filler. We are thrilled with what will be ongoing results, which lets us focus on our business – delivering the best possible service to achieve the best possible outcomes for our clients. – Graeme McFadyen.