Press Releases

Paperless Workflow® Patent Issued

PerfectLaw® is pleased to announce that its patent for Paperless Workflow® was formally issued on December 14, 2010. According to senior developers at PerfectLaw®, the invention is the outgrowth of research into two product lines, Paperless Workflow® and 3D Workflow™. In essence, the invention is a document imaging and management system that creates and stores a document profile with a unique identifier (key) for each document prior to scanning. Then, when documents containing the key are scanned, they are processed, routed and stored according to user defined rules.

Background
Since the beginning of digital devices, technology has been progressing to support the paperless office concept. In fact, today digital documents are stored and tracked in a variety of document management systems supplied by a plethora of companies. However handling physical papers and converting them to digital form still presents unique problems and challenges. To be more precise, paper documents, snail mail, or discovery originating from outside the office are difficult to efficiently convert and manage in digital form for many reasons.

In an effort to digitize paper documents, patented technology has been developed by IBM, HP and others. This technology attempts to use optical character recognition ("OCR") functionality that allows doc text to be interpreted and digitally processed. OCR, however, is at the moment still too error prone and slow for Paperless Workflow®.

Summary of the Invention
Paperless Workflow® provides faster and more accurate methods and technology to enable a paperless office. The system includes provisions for the automatic profiling and storing of imaged documents while incorporating automatic routing and distribution of documents.

According to examiners the invention's uniqueness stems from the fact that "it provides for creating and storing a document profile and unique document key prior to doc scanning, wherein the document profile also includes routing and handling instructions. Once the doc is imaged and the unique key read by the software after scanning, the system finds and accesses the doc profile and finishes processing automatically."

The patent also provides for error detection methods that identify missing documents or bad scans. Bad scans normally result from faulty printers or scanning devices. Once the paper copy of the missing or unprocessed document is located; it can be reprocessed after scanners or printers are repaired.

Bad scan detection is based on the simple concept that pending keys, i.e. document profile keys stored prior to scanning must eventually be linked to a scanned document. If after a time period a pending key is not linked to a scanned document, the pending key is sent to an error file for admin follow up and scan recovery.

The patent also provides workflow automation including provisions to automatically initiate or create a workflow, generate due dates and reminders, merge forms and generate documents to notify or seek authorization from clients, and otherwise provide professional services. Further objects of the present invention include the provision of an automatic log of all workflow in matters, automatic billing to clients, and automatic printing to network devices.

These and other objectives are achieved by providing a document imaging and management system with an ability to instantly read the computer-readable key identifier after scanning with essentially 100% accuracy (subject to functioning network hardware and reprocessing of bad scans).

For more information on Paperless Workflow®, please review the product information sheet.

About PerfectLaw® Software
PerfectLaw has been the leading legal software for almost 30 years by offering a true 32-bit SQL product and the latest technologies. By combining case, contact, and document management in the Front Office with time and financial management in the Back Office, PerfectLaw's® All-in-One® Software provides law firms with the necessary tools to streamline most law office functions without requiring integration from other products. For more information, please contact our sales department.