The German Employers’ Association, vem.die arbeitgeber e.V., supports its members with comprehensive legal advice and represents members in all individual employment, company constitution and social law disputes before labor courts and the courts of social justice.

As part of its ongoing legal support, extensive document collections of legal or court files are created. In the past these were paper-based files.

EXTENSIVE PAPER FILES LIMIT EFFICIENCY

As the German legal community underwent digital trans-formation - encouraged by new regulations on electronic legal transactions and the establishment of a special digital mailbox for transmitting legal documents - the Employers’ Association wanted to keep pace with new digital practices. Nevertheless, the Association's paper-based management model was a major obstacle.

DIGITAL LEGAL FILES BOOST EFFICIENCY AND MOBILITY IN COURT AND LEGAL CONSULTING

CASE STUDY

RECORDS MANAGEMENT

Customervem.die arbeitgeber e.V.

IndustryLegal / Consulting

LocationGermany

WHY M-FILES?

CASE MANAGEMENT MOBILE

The paper-intensive system limited the transparency of filings, limited search and access options and also required considerable space for physical archiving.

Most importantly, it could not support the desire of legal experts to use mobile devices for urgent access to files. Instead of having to carry large amounts of paper to the client or court, the association felt that legal experts should simply have mobile access to files in their digital form to be able to resolve any open issues immediately.

DIGITAL LEGAL FILES CREATE TRANSPARENCY AND FLEXIBILITY

With this need in mind, the Employers' Association decided to completely digitize its legal files. A compre-hensive solution for the digital management of legal files was developed utilizing M-Files in order to increase efficiency and facilitate the mobile work of employees.

"As an association, we recently negotiated a collective agreement between our members and the unions on mobile work. The ability to access documents via mobile devices during consulting appointments or in court makes our work so much easier and - in the interests of our members - also more efficient and better," explains Alexandra Wellmann, attorney-at-law at the Employers' Association.

Today, all documents are brought together in a digital, case-based legal file. For this purpose, documents that reach the legal team of the association in paper form are scanned and assigned to the respective case.

Old files and documents are digitized only when needed if they are required for new cases. Thus, all relevant documents are in one place and the search for paper files with cumbersome manual processes and spatial limitations are omitted.

The access rights are controlled in a transparent and comprehensible manner in full compliance with data protection requirements. In the case of a vacation or

illness-related absence, another team member can quickly and easily access the files of his colleague.

Even the long-awaited ability to work "on the go" has been greatly simplified. The extensive and field-proven offline functions of M-Files ensure that the documents are available even when there is no access to the Internet, which is especially important in court. In order to make the conversion to the new solution as easy as possible for the users, the new mobile court file mimics many commonly used procedures. In the court, the lawyers have digital access to the complete court file - even offline - via an iPad Pro. The tabs and post-it notes used in the paper file are implemented digitally in the PDF as a table of contents with jump marks and annotations for quick navigation and special hints. The additional capability of full-text search creates new, fast access to all relevant information. Even notes can be recorded directly into the document during the trial in court.

DOCUMENT CLASSIFICATION AND METADATA ENSURE UNIFORM HANDLING

With input from the users, an individual structure for the classification of documents was developed.

"Today, we can see at a glance which deadlines are up and whether and how they have been reacted to.

This way, we always have transparency about the current status of a case. This is particularly helpful if you need to step in while a colleague is ill or on

vacation."

Alexandra Wellman, attorney-at-law,vem.die arbeitgeber e.V.

Three main classes subdivide the approximately 20 detailed document classes: for example, one's own and opposing letters are classified as "Outside-Judicial." The class "Judicial" is subdivided into various pleadings, records, lawsuits, replies, and judgments. The main class "Attachments" includes, for example, dismissals and employment contracts.

Each document is assigned to the corresponding file, as well as its document class, based on its content. The necessary metadata results from the document class and M-Files allows access rights, workflows and archiving periods to be controlled. The document classes are also used for the automatic generation of content indexes and jump marks in the PDF of the court file.

"Thanks to the new solution, the tedious search for documents in large paper file stacks is finally a thing of the past. Today, we have modern search capabilities and can narrow our search by metadata and document classes to quickly get the right documents," says Wellmann.

Beyond the digital management and archiving of documents, the new solution can do much more. For example, deadlines in documents can be marked and converted to metadata. Thus, M-Files also manages deadlines and appointments to proactively inform the relevant users about them with direct reference to the documents. In addition, M-Files handles the management of contacts with individual cases.

"Today, we can see at a glance which deadlines have approached and whether and how they have been met. This way, we always have transparency about the current status of a case. This is particularly helpful if you need to step in while a colleague is ill or on vacation," emphasizes Wellmann.

AGILE IMPLEMENTATION IN CLOSE COOPERATION WITH THE USERS

The implementation of the entire project took place in an iterative process. In doing so, the project was able to benefit from the flexibility of M-Files: ideas and require-ments of the users could be implemented quickly to develop an optimal solution.

"The adaptability of M-Files to our specific needs is greater than that of all other law firm software solutions I've worked with so far. This, in combination with the great technical know-how of the consultants, has led to a good price-performance ratio. The flexibility and simplicity of the solution also inspired my colleagues and me," praised Wellmann.

BEST PREPARED FOR FURTHER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

With the digitization of legal files, the association has taken a significant step forward in terms of efficiency and usability. The legal experts now have much better access

to all documents and can also use them easily on the go in a secure and professional way.

As a universal platform for intelligent information management, M-Files is suitable for additional application areas within the employers' association.

"Digital transformation is an important issue for us, as well as for our members. With the digital legal files, we were not only able to significantly improve our processes, but also serve as an example for our members of how modern IT solutions can increase efficiency and employee satisfaction," says Thorsten Bröcker, senior managing director of vem.die Arbeitgeber e.V.

"M-Files has established itself as a solid base for the modernization of processes and procedures. We will continue to drive forward the further development of intelligent information management in order to continuously improve our processes,” says Bröcker.

M-Files provides a next-generation intelligent information management platform that improves business performance by helping people find and use information more effectively. Unlike traditional enterprise content management (ECM) systems or content services platforms, M-Files unifies systems, data and content across the organization without disturbing existing systems and processes or requiring data migration. Using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in its unique Intelligent Metadata Layer, M-Files breaks down silos by delivering an in-context experience for accessing and leveraging information that resides in any system and repository, including network folders, SharePoint, file sharing services, ECM systems, CRM, ERP and other business systems and repositories. Thousands of organizations in more than 100 countries use M-Files for managing their business information and processes, including NBC Universal, OMV, Rovio, SAS Institute and thyssenkrupp.

ABOUT M-FILES

Websitewww.m-files.com

Emailsales@m-files.com

Germany Phone Number+49 (0)2102 420616

UK Phone Number+44 (0)3300 889569

Finland Phone Number+358 3 3138 7500

USA Phone Number+972 516 4210

"Digital transformation is an important issue for us, as well as for our members. With the digital legal files, we were not only able to

significantly improve our processes, but also serve as an example for our members of how

modern IT solutions can increase efficiency and employee satisfaction."

Thorsten Bröcker, Senior Managing Director,vem.die arbeitgeber e.V.