Before I started at Morris Owen, back in 2012, I did some summers in our post room to assist with sorting the cellars of files we hold for all the historic client papers. With over 77 years of assisting our clients, you can imagine the sheer amount paper files we hold! Since becoming a Partner, I have been tasked at streamlining all our services and internal processes to reduce our paper output – and in turn our retention!
This year has been the large major roll out. If you are already a client of ours, you will have no doubt heard about ‘IRIS Openspace’ which is our secure document exchange. As well as sharing documents back and forth confidentially, it allows us to send documents to be electronically signed by you, and us, meaning no printing needed and you can download a copy to keep.
Generally most people are asking for electronic copies of documents more and more as whether it’s a business or private client the consensus is they do not want to retain the paper either. The online process means all documents are not reliant on the post timescales, meaning a much quicker turnaround for everyone.
We are, by no means, 100% paperless yet that is still a while away and, at first, the prospect of adopting new systems and procedures throughout the office seemed a little overwhelming! Transformation to date has made a positive impact for us and I believe our clients too. There are many reasons however why using our online systems is not suitable for everyone and that is why we will never be completely free of paper as its much more important to be accessible to all – but hey, every little bit still helps the environment!