The relationship between humans and machines has been a contentious one throughout history. Concepts perpetuated by science fiction have led us to believe the robots are here to take over, but that’s far from the truth. In my experience, when implemented well, technology aids people to work more efficiently on the things we want to spend our time doing, and less time on the things we don’t.
It’s no secret that the legal industry has been slower to adopt technology than other industries, but if we’re to learn anything from sectors like banking, it’s that technology is here to help, not hinder. And that’s exactly how conveyancers should think of the digitisation of the conveyancing process, as a useful mechanism to create new workflows that let you spend more time applying your expertise and less time buried under hours of administrative tasks.
Nurturing the relationship between technology and people
Getting the most out of digitisation comes down to understanding where value can be added, and which tools make the biggest difference. Once you know this, you can swiftly begin implementing changes to access a plethora of benefits from improved productivity to consistency and time savings.
Those benefits are best achieved by nurturing the relationship between people and technology. It needs to be an organisational shift to ensure the full value of the technology you adopt, meaning you not only need to implement the tools within your business, but also place emphasis on training and development. People are inherently opposed to change, which is why getting everyone on board is so impactful when it comes to the adoption of digital in conveyancing.
The relationship between conveyancers and technology should be complimentary. Both parties bring value to the relationship; technology by reducing the administrative burden and conveyancers supplying their expertise. Knowing how to harness the best of both will yield impressive outcomes.
Building high quality title reports with tech
Title reports are a crucial part of the conveyancing process that requires experience and expertise to deliver high quality reports for your clients. Using technology to improve this process has a multitude of benefits from accurate and reliable information to consistency across your firm to time savings. Maximising automation saves conveyancers time on the administrative parts of the process without undercutting the value of your professional wisdom.
How exactly can you do this? By taking the data you already have from searches, title, and transaction information and pulling that through to populate your report automatically saves you the time of manually sifting through documents – electronically or otherwise. People can’t operate as quickly as technology when it comes to sorting data and information – that’s where the “robots” really shine.
It then has the power to flag any hazards or risks to bring your attention to it quickly. This is where your expertise takes over. It’s now your turn to take your years of experience and apply them to the information in the report, ensuring everything meets regulatory standards and isn’t leaving gaps where there shouldn’t be any. You’re making sure to cross the Ts and dot the Is.
Technology is giving you the means to access greater consistency because it uses the same process every time, and it’s done in less time. Ultimately, it gives you back that time for finetuning the matter-specific details of the transaction, without having to create every single report from scratch.
It’s about working smarter not harder
As we continue to see headlines about the impact of high case loads on firms and their teams, finding a way to minimise the burden should be a priority. Automation gives you the tools to ease time lost to administrative tasks, freeing up your skilled professionals to apply their knowledge to the complexity that title reports attract.
The result is not only a less overloaded workforce, but a happier one too. People spend years learning and mastering their craft to apply that expertise, not to sift through data when technology could do it in a fraction of the time. Using automation to help create your title reports doesn’t cut corners and it doesn’t undermine their importance; it’s a digital aid that is improving the process.
The ability to reduce the impact of administrative tasks on your workload while retaining the level of flexibility that title reports require is a practical requirement, and one that is achievable. Because great title reports are essential, and you shouldn’t have to compromise for less.
Better quality, improved relationships, more time
What happens when conveyancers are freed from the constraints of arduous admin? Better results all round. From improving job satisfaction to freeing up time to manage client facing work, the outcomes of working in tandem with technology are undeniable.
It’s not a debate about whether technology will take over, it’s about building symbiotic relationships with it to create a beneficial outcome for you and your clients, and to deliver the highest quality work.
Louise Edwardes, Head of Product, InfoTrack
This article was submitted to be published by InfoTrack as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.
