Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/30285
PERCEPTION ISN’T REALITY Considering the business impact of print, copy, fax and scan activity also helps dispel many of the misperceptions of current cost recovery practices and technology. Utilized to its fullest potential, cost recovery technology provides the tools to increase productivity, as well as the insight into document- related activities that can lead to more effective financial management. Perception: Including cost recovery for printing and scanning will have a negative impact on staff productivity because of added steps to the workflow. The reality is that ad hoc or front-office scanning performed at an MFP or departmental scanner is easier. Using a cost recovery solution that integrates with document management systems, email, and network locations makes scanning simple. It lets users perform scanning through an already familiar interface and eliminates the need for IT to have to program each MFP to accommodate changes in scan workflows. In addition, client/matter information can be seamlessly associated with each scan job for billing and accounting purposes. Positive impacts to print workflows are numerous. By using print management capabilities built into a modern cost recovery system (such as pull printing), users benefit by gaining secure access to any printer on the network. With pull printing, documents are held in a virtual print queue until they are released by an authenticated user. If a printer is unavailable, the user simply goes to another device and retrieves his print job. Since authentication can be made simple through the use of ID cards, the benefits of being able 22 Financial Management ILTA White Paper to print anywhere, anytime far outweigh the cost/time to perform the authentication step. Perception: We don’t need a cost recovery system because we are using a negotiated fee/ fixed fee model, or have stopped billing clients for document reproduction expenses. The latest ILTA Technology Survey shows that upwards of 10 percent of all firms and nearly 20 percent of firms with less than 50 attorneys are using a flat fee approach to cost recovery or incorporating document reproduction costs into their billing rates. While one could argue this as a reason to eliminate cost recovery systems, the opposite is true. Sound accounting strategies still require firms to measure, monitor and manage document-related activity in order to identify opportunities for efficiencies. Effective financial management of these costs can only be achieved when the usage and costs are accurately measured and analyzed. Cost recovery technology provides the easiest and most comprehensive way to capture these costs by extending its capability to track prints, scans, faxes and copies. Perception: Cost recovery systems are expensive and cumbersome to maintain. Cost recovery systems are only viewed as expensive when they are not utilized to their full potential. As more of a firm’s activity is monitored, reported on and managed by the cost recovery system, the ROI increases dramatically. Whether that is due to an increase in the percentage of billable costs charged back to clients, or by using data to deploy a