Problem.
The Business Partner of a law firm noted that their five secretaries
sometimes didn't have enough work to
productively occupy them - while at other times, when deadlines
loomed, they fell behind.
When one of the secretaries resigned, he contacted
T-21, asking if it was feasible for us to take over some of their routine work,
only when they need it.
Plan. His
Team Manager (TM) suggested that, during heavy work periods, the firm's staff
should concentrate on transcribing dictation to rough-draft computer Word-Processing (W-P)
files. These
would be instantly e-Mailed to their T-21 Support
Team; handwritten documents and changes to drafts could be faxed.
For documents in process, the T-21 Team would fax drafts back for any desired hand-editing.
Final W-P versions would be e-Mailed to the firm - ready for printing right in their office.
Initial
Results. After the set-up and testing was completed, the plan worked
well. With T-21's support on-call, document production
actually speeded up, even with one less secretary. At the
firm's request,
T-21 arranged to make Holiday,
Night, and Weekend standby services available.
On some occasions, filing deadlines
caused some late-night drafting and editing. Handwritten drafts
were faxed to their Team, who transcribed, printed, and faxed
back double-spaced draft copies for revision. Final copy W-P computer files were e-Mailed
to the firm and needed only to be printed there. Without
exception, when the filing dates arrived, the documents were
ready.
Changes.
About a year later, another of the firm's secretaries
resigned to move out of state with her family.
Rather than immediately hiring a replacement, the firm's Business Partner had
T-21 pick up more of the work, using the same procedures.
The firm now operates with only three secretaries instead of five, and with
T-21's help, their work still gets done on time.
Current
Results. The Business
Partner reports that the secretaries are kept busy, but are no
longer inundated at times and don't have much "down
time." When a work backlog forms, they forward drafts to
T-21, until the workload smoothes out again.
The firm realizes an
on-going savings by eliminating two full-time positions and associated
overhead and benefits; they also save during light work load periods,
as T-21's work costs drop to zero. The office
morale is higher, now that T-21's flexibility allows them to balance the load among the remaining staff, resulting in a more even workload
and less pressure and tension, due to deadlines.
Also, now, when a secretary is out, sick or on vacation, there's
no problem.
|
