Modern businesses survive or die by their ability to adapt to changing environments and embrace new ways of working.
Core values such as customer service or relationship building remain the foundations for successful companies but the best ones are those that grasp new and innovative ways of delivering services.
Forward thinking businesses are always looking to streamline procedures as well as creating the right environments to stimulate creative thinking, encourage collaboration and of course attracting and retaining staff in an increasing competitive landscape for talent.
Being able to adapt to changes in the legal sector relies significantly on incorporating agile working practices. Major legal firms such as DAC Beachcroft, Dentons and Shoosmiths are passionate advocates.
Shoosmiths designed its state-of-the art Manchester office with agile working at its very core. Lawyers do not have their own desks, but work flexibly in “neighbourhoods”.
In an interview with the Manchester Evening News, the office managing partner at the time, Vaqas Farooq, explained the ethos behind agile, stating;” No one has a desk. Each practice group has their own neighbourhood where their PAs are located, but beyond that there are collaboration zones, with lots of different types of working environments in which to work.
“We want lawyers to collaborate with their colleagues rather than sitting at their desk and emailing when a colleague is sat just 10ft away.”
Investment in IT and embracing new technology is a integral to agile working. Martin Arnold of Wedlake Bell told the Law Society Gazette: “‘The use of technology and the flexible working practices that it enables are vital. Agile working is something that is not only possible but essential for a full service law firm that is seeking to achieve the highest level of service integration.’
As firms change the way the work to increase client service, collaboration and efficiency, it makes sense for management teams to look at all areas of operation.
In our experience, areas such as print management can sometimes be overlooked by hard-pressed IT departments managing and implementing change.
This is surely a missed opportunity, since the right software platform for a firm’s print needs can unlock both process efficiencies and significant cost savings, particularly where firms have high print needs.
Just as employees are being encouraged to adopt a flexible approach to their style of working, administration tasks that can be long and laborious need to be streamlined to make firms more agile.
Print management is an essential process to adapt to a quicker moving business environment.
At Kutana, our pioneering print management solution Kappris is a great fit with the agile working agenda, making your way of working more flexible and efficient especially for home workers.
In a modern business world, where processes and technology are changing all the time, Kappris is an easy to use solution that has seamless integration with Word, Outlook and Excel.
Not only that, while many print solutions encompass a “one size fits all” philosophy that can lead to lengthy configuration or even software rewrites, Kappris can be tailored to a user’s specific needs and can be easily edited as and when upgrades are required.
Agile working and adapting your workforce to work smoother and quicker is essential, but unless all procedures are dealt with in a joined up way, then maybe you’re missing a trick?
