For tax consultants and lawyers, it's primarily about specialist knowledge and paragraphs. But zeros and ones are also playing a growing role in these sectors. Clients increasingly expect digital services from their lawyer or tax consultant.
The digital law firm has arrived in the present. And that has positive aspects: If you get it right, the digitalized law firm is more efficient, more modern and offers your clients an optimized service. In this guide, we show you why the "digital step" is worth taking and how to do it right.
What is a digital law firm?
A digital law firm is a tax consultancy or law firm that scores with a high degree of digitalization. Digitalization refers to services for clients as well as internal processes and workflows. This is made possible, for example, by legal tech, i.e. special legal software applications.
Efficient at all levels: Advantages of digital collaboration for you & your clients
Digitization is the key to greater efficiency for your law firm's internal processes - if you exploit the potential properly. However, as the owner of a service-oriented law firm, you also need to ask yourself how digitization will benefit your clients.
Clients benefit from modern service and accelerated services. If, for example, your clients can send you documents for their tax return with just a few clicks instead of by post, this saves time and money. Digital meetings also score points for time efficiency.
This is also reflected in your law firm's internal processes: if your employees are working from home, collaboration must function regardless of location. Important documents must be accessible to everyone involved and must be able to be sent to clients quickly and easily. You can see where the journey is heading.
Inventory & potential: Which processes can be digitized in everyday law firm life?
What about the digitalization of your law firm and where do you stand as a tax consultant with regard to the digital law firm? You can digitize these areas at a low threshold to make work easier for you and your clients:
- Communication
- Document dispatch
- Collaboration
- Project management
- Workflows
- Dates & deadlines
- Signatures
Digital tools: Finding innovative solutions for the digital law firm in addition to the DATEV standard
DATEV is the name that probably comes to mind when you think of "digitalization" and "law firm". However, there are extensions that optimally complement and link standard applications for a truly digital law firm.
The Collaboration Suite from DOCPIT makes your day-to-day business much easier - including data sync to DATEV and BMD:
- Communication: With a chat function, you can handle many question-and-answer sessions and save your team calls so that they can concentrate on their work.
- Conferences: Video conferencing is ideal when there are several participants. You save travel time, and: If guests don't have to be served coffee all the time, the back office will probably be grateful, right?
- Correspondence: Do not use email attachments to send documents! With secure data transfer, you are also on the safe side with regard to the GDPR.
- Collaboration: Rely on digital task management. Then responsibilities are clear beyond doubt.
- Isolated solutions: Seemingly quick problem solvers often end up causing more trouble. We therefore recommend converting isolated solutions into a functioning, comprehensive system.
- Signatures: Signatures no longer have to be handwritten. With DOCPIT, you can rely on digital signatures (tax consultants and lawyers - equally relevant for you!) to speed up many processes in a legally compliant manner.
- Follow-up: With IURIO, however, you can automate tedious follow-ups and thus relieve your employees.
- Project management: With Legal Project Management, you have deadlines and To DoS in front of you. IURIO also enables you to efficiently map your workflows on the platform.
How to get to a digital law firm step by step
Every journey begins with a first step - including the journey to a digital law firm solution. With DOCPIT, the journey is child's play:
- Needs analysis: What do your employees and clients want?
- Stocktaking: What is already digitized in your law firm, where is there a need to catch up?
- Choose a solution: Choose carefully what will actually help you. No quick fixes, please, but a well thought-out solution that is intuitive to use even for people with little digital affinity.
- Introduction of a collaboration suite: Rely on a tool such as DOCPIT that brings workflows together in a meaningful way instead of letting them ripple along in individual solutions.
- Take your team with you: Get your employees excited about the new possibilities and show them the practical benefits.
Data protection & co: Challenges for digital law firms & tax consultancy
A common problem with digitalization for tax advisors and lawyers is the misconception that they don't need a complete package, but rather small digital everyday helpers. Ultimately, these are isolated problem solutions. What you need is an overarching solution that bundles such partial solutions like DOCPIT.
When it comes to digital law firms, some lawyers and tax consultants may also have concerns about data security. The most important thing is therefore to opt for a GDPR-compliant solution. DOCPIT, for example, relies on secure encryption methods for digital tax and legal advice.
Another typical challenge is getting your clients and employees on board. Make the digital law firm appealing to your team by pointing out the many advantages: Improved collaboration in a collaboration suite, home office and less time spent on routine tasks. Your clients will also quickly realize that they benefit from an intuitive system like IURIO.
Consulting & on-boarding: DOCPIT supports you in the digitalization of your law firm
For your digital law firm, you need a digital ecosystem that understands the needs of legal and tax advice. DOCPIT's Collaboration Suite maps relevant workflows instead of just providing you with functions. The software was developed by lawyers who know the relevant workflows in law firms inside out.
To assist you with the implementation of DOCPIT in your law firm, we offer you comprehensive advice and naturally also involve your employees. We guide you through the on-boarding process in person or online and answer your questions in day-to-day business thanks to constant collaboration.
Your digital law firm: tax consultants and lawyers at home in new territory
The digital law firm is an important step towards future viability. It means more than just writing emails instead of letters. Rather, work processes should be rethought and simplified. With DOCPIT, you have a suitable solution at hand.
With the Collaboration Suite, the digital law firm is within reach - if you would like to find out more about gaining a foothold in this new digital territory, get in touch with us!
