Document assembly reduces the amount of staff drafting and proofing time spent for every document that you invest the time to program. The profit margin is incalculable, because it depends on how much work you can put through your system and whether your billing on a flat rate structure rather than a per hour fee. This series of articles covers 3 basic "approaches" to document assembly and should give you an idea of what steps you might consider.

In the most basic sense, consider this scenario: every support staff member's document production time is reduced by 15% and each author's drafting & proofing time is reduced by 20%. Or, more accurately, document output is 15% more and author output is 20% more. Is that a large ROI for your firm? Do your support staff spend hours each day typing documents? Do your authors spend time per day drafting, proofing, re-drafting and correcting documents? Does your firm continually write off recorded time when you bill because you feel the charge is inappropriately high? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, document assembly is possibly a large avenue for profit for your company.

Some companies are not looking for complex document assembly systems that embody their author's knowledge and processes, they are simply after a means to produce documents simply, effectively and consistently. Other companies are looking for a programmed document assembly system that allows them to produce complex documents in a fraction of the time when compared to "regular drafting" procedures (dictate, type, proof, mark-up, amend, finalize).

Consider First

When considering what approach you should take towards document assembly, you should consider why you are investing. Are you looking for a means to "organize templates", "create documents" or "get efficient and profitable"? Embarking upon any software investment is folly without having defined goals that you hope to achieve. The aim of this section is to help identify what you view as suitable for your company's document assembly undertaking.

The trick with making money on this stuff is indentifying how you are going to use it to make money for your company. It is a custom industry as opposed to "off the shelf". This means you buy the software and build with it, rather than buy, install and use. The "secret" is identifying where you should go heavy with it (large investment for large leveraged returns) and where you should go light on it. Meaning you don't spend lots of time and money on a system that will not be used constantly. Conversely, you do not do a "quick & dirty" template & document system that will be used practically non-stop. This is just common sense!

After thinking long and hard about how to discuss differing levels of investment (or approaches if you will), I have arrived at a tentative conclusion that there are 3 generic levels of document assembly. Each level includes the functionality of the previous level.

Organise & Centralise

Organize and categorize your precedents in a central location so they are quickly and easily accessible by your entire firm. This isn't "document assembly", but its related and is the first step in any document assembly undertaking.

Create Simple Templates

Have templates that save general data for each matter to avoid data re-entry (such as client names, plaintiff or supplier names and the like) and provide general documents that can be edited easily while ensuring there are no duplicative precedents available on your network. The user still has to know how to navigate a document and what information will be needed. This is what many companies do with HotDocs.

Create Document Producing Systems

Create systems for various identified areas where you feel your company can substantially increase revenue from efficient production of documentation, or stop losing money on inefficient document creation. The user doesn't need to know a thing about the document they are producing, as the system will simply present a series of questions that need to be answered.

Decide what you want before you buy! Most companies would use a mix of the 2nd and 3rd options above or at least, they probably should if they produce volume in any given area. Some areas you don't need to invest heavily in - most likely because you don't have enough throughput to ever recoup a large investment. Other areas will be ripe for document automation and can be programmed heavily to reduce drafting times from hours to minutes.