Stop Shipping Profits Out the Door Best Practices for Law Firm Mailroom Management

Nick Staffieri, CMDSM Regional Director, Mail Systems Management Association August 2012

Mailrooms: A Law Firm Cost Center • Mailrooms are costing law firms more than they know.

• A study cited in The Facility Management Handbook reported mail accounts for

more than 9% of operating costs for Fortune 500 companies.

• For midsized law firms, that percentage is likely higher because they usually lack the resources to buy the latest technology and stay abreast of changing regulations and opportunities.

• One way to contain mailroom costs and ensure efficient operations is to consult with an expert — a Certified Mail and Distribution Systems Manager (CMDSM).

• About 300 people nationwide hold the CMDSM certification, a credential issued by the Mail Systems Management Association.

• MSMA is a non-profit group founded in 1981.

Nick Staffieri, CMDSM

Mail Expenditures • Use of express delivery services such as FedEx and UPS has exploded,

rising from $10 billion in 1989 to $180 billion in 2009.

• About 10% to 25% of these expenditures could be avoided by improving the operations in shipping departments and mailrooms.

• Law firm administrators need to calculate time and costs for inter- and intra-office mail when assessing mailroom operations.

• Firms operating more than one office can accumulate significant delays, security risks and expenses just moving documents within their own facilities using messengers, couriers or full-time staff.

• As labor and fuel costs rise, mailroom costs escalate accordingly.

Finding Savings • The challenge in finding mailroom savings is that many legal

administrators don’t know what solutions are best for their firms.

• In 2009, InfoPrint Solutions surveyed 102 people responsible for their mailroom operations:

• About 60% said they were not confident that their organizations pay the least amount possible for postage.

• Nearly half do not think their mailrooms are running as efficiently as possible.

• Specialists can bring the latest information, guidelines and data to clients to help them apply best practices.

• With a full audit, a CMDSM can help law

firms to choose technologies and processes that maximize their efficiency.

Improving Efficiency • Solutions that may improve mailroom efficiency and reduce or contains

costs include: • Revising document handling processes and workflows • Upgrading or changing computer hardware and/or software • Using onsite, non-employee specialists in place of employees

• Data recognition and capture technologies have evolved.

• Many organizations are switching from traditional process where scanning is done after sorting and handling mail to early scanning beforehand.

• This can reduce manual work by 50% or more.

• Automating mailroom processed can show a return on investment in less than one year.

Legal Requirements & Outsourcing • Firms should look to mailroom solutions that help them conform to legal

requirements: • Capture documents as they enter the office. • Provide secure audit trails for the entire document lifecycle.

• To do this, they can rely on trained, onsite professionals who are better

qualified to support chain-of-custody requirements and compliance with requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley.

• Outsourcing mailroom operations also eliminates the need to recruit specialists in an area unfamiliar to most legal administrators.

• It also helps law firms contain headcount limits on full-time employees.

• By working with a mails systems expert, legal administrators can get a grip on their firm’s mailroom expenses …

… and stop shipping profits out the door!

Resources

There are several trade association-sponsored certification programs for mail and document management. Check a list of associations and programs here: http://www.gsa.gov/portal/category/21912. For other information about improving mailroom operations, visit the MCS Management Services Knowledge Center: http://www.mcsmanagement.com/KnowledgeCenter.aspx?id=1

Company Background

MCS Management Services is a leading provider of on-site business support services, including

mail center operations, shipping and receiving, records management, document and print center

management, in-house litigation support, managed print services and related professional services.

Over 30 Years of Business Support Experience

Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBENC)

96% Client Retention Rate since 1993

Senior management team of experts has an average tenure of over 15 years