Case Study: The need for speed at Harrow
How the London Borough of Harrow has used Iken solutions to keep pace with caseload increases of 30% per annum
When asked what he believes to be the greatest business challenge faced by his department, Hugh Peart, Director of the large Legal Governance Services team at Harrow, states unequivocally that it's "keeping up with increased workload despite a zero increase in grant".
Like many local authority legal teams, the team of forty lawyers at Harrow is witnessing a year-on-year growth in legal challenges of around 30%, whilst resources to deal with these cases remain constant. Consequently, innovation is the name of the game for Harrow's Legal Team: finding ways to increase speed and improve efficiency in order to absorb the increased workload.
Supported by Capital Ambition, Harrow has been one of the driving forces behind the innovative new London Boroughs' Legal Alliance, designed to facilitate inter-authority working by providing a pool of resources to share workload and improve service delivery.
In addition to finding new models of working, the Harrow Legal Team has also fully embraced the use of IT. Finding their home-grown solution too restrictive, Harrow implemented a fully integrated combination of Iken Case Management, Time Recording, Legal Workflows and Court Bundling software in 2006. Hugh explains:
“We looked at a number of potential solutions, eventually drawing up a shortlist of two. I gave my team the final decision and they were unanimous in their choice of Iken Case Management due to its ease of use and the approachability of the Iken staff.”
When asked to list the key benefits that the Iken System has brought, Hugh Peart replies:
"Just one improvement? I struggle to pick out just a single one. I believe we're at the cutting edge of driving efficiencies and Iken plays an important part."
"Iken helps to cut out the drudgery"
One of the keys to efficiency is ensuring that every member of the team is spending as much time as possible on value-added tasks, minimising the time spent on tasks that Hugh calls “the drudgery”.
“One example is that lawyers and assistants no longer have to look up and re-enter the same information time after time, because emails and documents are pre-populated with names, addresses, file references and other common information at the point of creation. Eliminating this repetition saves time, it's a big deal."
The Iken Court Bundling software is another example. By automating the assembly, pagination and indexing of electronic documents, Harrow has been able to re-deploy two members of staff from full time preparation, photocopying, assembly and production of court documents to more value-added activities.
"We’re mad on workflows"
Iken is available with a wide range of legal worklows for an appropriate level of automation, including property, debt recovery and licensing.
“Using workflows makes such a difference. For instance, with one of the litigation workflows, the steps are so clearly defined that legal assistants rather than lawyers are able to manage the case right up to the point of submission, freeing lawyers for other work."
"We have improved the integrity of information"
High staff turnover and the use of locums is a fact of life for many London Boroughs. Staff changeover can be a risky time, when balls may be dropped and key dates missed. However, this has now become less of an issue for the Harrow Legal team. All legal documents at Harrow are either scanned into the Case Management System or created within it. There's no need to search around in individual filing cabinets, inboxes or 'sent items' folders to find the relevant information contained in emails and documents when a lawyer is absent or has left.
"To be honest, this was a business benefit that we hadn't fully anticipated. Iken has enabled us to improve the integrity of information in a case by making sure that it is always up to date and complete. This is particularly useful when someone leaves the department, as now I can easily run a report to see the status of work in progress, forthcoming key dates and areas of risk."
Going "Paper-lite"!
Storing all information in the Case Management System has meant that Harrow has dramatically reduced paper management, storage and archiving requirements.
"The paperless office remains a long-term goal at Harrow, but we have a 'paper-lite' initiative as a realistic medium-term objective. Iken has helped us along with this, we’re a lot lighter on paper usage than we were two years ago."
"Secure home working"
The Iken Case Management system also supports greater flexibility for home working.
“Obviously lawyers can't take files home with them to work on, that’s far too risky. However, they can securely login remotely to Iken and access the most up to date information from home, or indeed other locations."
What's next?
By harnessing the capabilities of Iken's legal software, the progressive legal team at the London Borough of Harrow has made significant strides in absorbing increased caseloads despite an effective year-on-year decrease in budget. However, Hugh Peart is still committed to continuous improvement and is already looking for results from the London Boroughs' Legal Alliance, together with even lighter paper usage and ever greater deployment of workflows. It is clear that sustained improvement will enable Harrow to continue to stay ahead of the game in today's fast-paced local government legal environment.
For more information on Iken Solutions for Public Sector Legal teams, click here or call us on: 44 (0) 117 373 0790, or on 0845 450 9201 from the UK.