pdfDocs helps Swansea Council save their legal team 20 working hours per case with more efficient electronic bundling and distribution tools. Going digital also helped the Council to drastically reduce their paper usage.

Client Challenge

• Reduced the number of hours spent preparing case files to increase efficiency and output
• Streamline document bundling styles so that the client experience is optimised and consistent
• Send out document bundles electronically to ensure clients receive them in a timely manner
• Digitally search and redact information while guaranteeing privacy and confidentiality
  
  

pdfDocs as a solution

• Reduced the time spent bundling documents from 37 hours 50 minutes to 17 hours 23 minutes
• Gave the user a way to bundle multiple documents into a single PDF file that they can distribute electronically through their legal portal (ShareFile)
• Provided a built-in search and redact tool to completely erase sensitive information with confidence
  
  

Business Value

• Faster, more efficient processes that reduced the number of hours spent working on each case file
  
• A better client experience thanks to faster delivery and consistent styles
• Reduced paper usage, helping them to save resources and be more environmentally-conscious
• Information is protected by thorough redaction and a secure distribution method

The Swansea Council is the governing body for one of the Principal Areas of Wales covering Swansea, Gower and the surrounding area. The Council consists of 72 councillors representing 36 electoral wards. The Council also serves as the local education authority for schools based within the unitary authority.

Challenge: Reduce time spent on document bundling and find a solution to distribute them electronically

To allocate their resources to areas that were in real need, Swansea Council’s legal team looked to find an electronic solution for document bundle assembly and distribution. Since their focus is on helping the wider Swansea community, the Council wanted to create more efficient processes so that more could be accomplished. The legal team was spending over 37 hours manually editing and assembling document bundles for each case that crossed their desks. With caseloads of 12 per week per lawyer, it was a process that was consuming valuable resources.

The legal team need to bundle and distribute client files as part of Child Care cases. Often, they need to redact confidential information like names and addresses. To keep this information concealed the team was manually redacting it using black marker pens, a separate contents page in Word, and a lot of photocopying. Staff wanted a way to search for and redact words electronically.

The team wanted to reduce the amount of paper they were using by sending out the Child Care document bundles via email instead of mail. Not only were the bundled files taking up to five business days to reach clients, they increased paper usage. Inconsistent bundling styles among paralegals was also causing issues among clients, as the files weren’t always easy to navigate. Consistency across bundling was needed to optimize the client experience.

As the legal team reviewed the products available, DocsCorp was the clear choice for a PDF application that could transform their workflows and give members of the Swansea community an even better experience with the Council.

Solution: pdfDocs for electronic redaction and Binder assembly and distribution

The legal team at Swansea Council needed PDF software that could drastically reduce the numbers of hours spent assembling and distributing document bundles. They also needed software that could digitally search for and redact words in a document. pdfDocs delivered on both.

Users have the ability to create, collate, edit, redact, annotate and secure PDF content with pdfDocs. When creating electronic PDF binders, pdfDocs automates the process of converting and assembling many documents into a file that can be distributed to clients quickly and securely. Swansea Council users assemble Binders in pdfDocs and use their legal portal, ShareFile, to send to other parties. pdfDocs has shaved more than 20 hours off the document bundling process for Swansea Council.

The in-built redaction tool in pdfDocs does more than place a black box over text. It completely erases it from the document so that it cannot be uncovered. The users at Swansea Council can now search for whole words and phrases and redact all instances in a few clicks. No printing needed.

pdfDocs optimized the client experience for Swansea Council by making PDFs consistent across style and navigation. Paralegals can add headers and footers, page numbering, watermarks, stationery and security settings to each electronic binder. Recipients can easily jump between sections using the bookmarks.

By removing printing and mailing from the document bundling process, pdfDocs from DocsCorp has helped Swansea Council digitize and reduce their reliance on paper. Not only do they save up to 15 hours per lawyer each week preparing bundles, they are now in line with their goal of being environmentally-conscious.