Paperless Work Environment
ATS is moving closer to a paperless office environment and, as a result, to a more secure and efficient workplace.
From our perspective, a paperless office requires four components: 1) committing existing paper to electronic images, 2) elimination of paper coming into the office, 3) an efficient method to manage and make use of our information, and most important, 4) a rigorous plan to secure our information.

1) EXISTING PAPER: About a year ago, we invested in sophisticated document scanning software and hardware and committed all of our paper records to electronic images, stored in a secure central computer. We now scan all incoming documents and shred or return originals to our customers.

2) INCOMING PAPER: We are working on a number of projects to complete our paperless objective. In the near future, we will accept applications online and attorneys will have the option to view and comment on trust drafts through a secure online process. This should also solve one of our biggest problems -- deciphering occasionally poor handwriting. These projects should also reduce trust turnaround time by 20-30%.

3) MANAGE: Converting to electronic documents would spell disaster without an efficient method to manage and make use of the information. So, we have developed proprietary software that automatically retrieves relevant information while we are working on a particular job, and leaves it securely hidden at all other times.

4) SECURITY: Without going in to details about our security, one of the keys to securing important client information is to restrict unnecessary data movement and duplication. In our new process, client data never moves from its secure central server even though many individuals may collaborate on a particular document.