Else Solicitors is a leading Commercial and Private Client Law Firm based in Burton-on-Trent. Tracey Marsh, Partner Designate – Practice Manager explains how using Box-it has benefited the practice, saving both time and money.
1. How were Else Solicitors managing the business archive before? We were using four separate units within a secure storage facility in the centre of Burton to store our archived files.
2. What were the difficulties and challenges with that? The fact that this wasn’t a managed service, meant that every time a file was requested from archive resulted in a trip to the storage unit and therefore time out of the office. The boxes were stacked 6 high on tightly packed shelf units, the logistics of accessing a file from a box located on the top shelf was extremely difficult and time consuming.
3. Else Solicitors are obviously a thriving and growing legal practice – has this growth presented additional challenges in terms of time and effort spent managing the documents that need to be retained? As Practice Manager, growth in the business has meant my increased involvement in many areas of the Practice. The managed storage service provided by Box-it has greatly reduced the time once involved in our archive process, thus freeing up time for me to focus on other areas.
4. What prompted your decision to seek a professional document management company? We looked at the costs/time/challenges involved in using the storage facility and concluded that there had to be a more cost efficient/time saving solution.
5. Why choose Box-it? A locally based company who filled us with confidence right from the initial meeting.
6. How did the transition from self-store to Box-it work? When you consider the volume of boxes, the transition was surprisingly pain free. The only real-time burden for us was barcoding the boxes, after that the real hard work was carried out by Box-it, in terms of the physical removal of boxes and scanning into the system.
7. Was the process and transfer of boxes carried out in a professional manner and to your satisfaction? Absolutely, all members of the team were courteous and professional at all times. The transfer process was well planned, resulting in minimum disruption to both Else staff and also other users at the storage facility.
8. Having been with us now for over a year what are the benefits over your previous arrangements? One of the biggest benefits is that we no longer have to take time away from the office in order to retrieve archived files. The convenience of being able to request boxes from storage and arrange collection of new ones via the Omnidox Records Manager portal is another massive plus. Having the flexibility of requesting an urgent box retrieval after the normal cut off time is excellent.
9. Are the service levels what you expected? Orders and queries dealt with promptly? Retrievals and collections on time? The service levels we receive are exactly what were promised from the outset. Every member of the Box-it team I’ve met have been courteous and professional at all times. All retrievals and collections have been exactly when expected.
10. What are the overall benefits to Else? Any cost savings? Time savings for key members of staff? We now have sight of all archived boxes at the touch of a button via the ORM portal. This has in turn streamlined our internal process for the retrieval and collection of archived files. As mentioned previously, there’s a massive time saving for me, in not only not having to travel into the centre of Burton to retrieve boxes, but also walking up and down rows of shelves trying to find the correct ones! There has been a cost saving, even if we factor in the cost of retrieval along with purchasing better quality boxes.