3 ways to optimise email management

While document management has remained a key concern for law firms, email management is one discipline that is sometimes overlooked. On a daily basis, lawyers send many emails to colleagues and clients - making email management a top priority. After all, inefficiencies in the way you work with email can result in wasted time and time is your most valuable resource.

Therefore, streamlining email management is crucial for lawyers. Here are 3 ways you can optimise email management and save time:

Draft emails directly within your PMS

Many lawyers manage cases in their practice management software and manage emails separately, in an email software like Outlook. If you are working on a case and need to draft an email, you need to switch from your practice management system and open your email software – wasting time.

However, if your email tool is integrated with your practice management software, you can avoid having to switch between different programs. For example, in Kleos, you can integrate your Outlook to launch directly inside your practice management software, saving you time! All the tools of Kleos are usable within your Outlook that the integration enables all the advantages of your practice management software within your email software.

What’s more, when you have an integrated editor, working with templates is hassle-free. For example, in Kleos, you can quickly choose a template, and even switch templates mid-way through, without losing your work.

2. File emails in your practice management software automatically

It can be challenging to find, sort and organise information derived from emails according to the cases. Email services do come with some tools; folders, rules and tags. Yet, finding information in your email tools can be a hassle. You might have to go through tons of email chains looking for a piece of information – wasting much of your time. In the best-case scenario, you might store your emails in folders by client or cases, but this is still a manual job, and your emails are still disconnected from your practice management software where the rest of your case information lives.

What’s more, assume you and your partners are working together on a case. All of you are exchanging emails with the client and saving emails to case folders manually. The issue is that some of you might not see the latest correspondence when working on the same case, resulting in inconsistencies. You and your colleagues will neither be updated in real-time nor have full oversight over case information.

To save time, you need a practice management software that integrates with your email tool and makes saving emails to your practice management software, into the correct case folder, quick and easy. This means that information is updated in real-time and everyone working on a case is informed about the latest developments as they take place – making case management across the law firm more consistent. For example, with the Kleos plugin for Outlook, you can file emails into the correct case folder immediately with one click. It proposes you the best-fitted case to file your email (and attachments).

Not only does this help you keep active cases up to date, but it can also allows you to find emails much easier in the future!

3. Add a chain of tasks related to the email

Most of the time, an email requires an action. It could be fixing an appointment with a client, having to carry out a task or simply following up. If you manage your emails separate from your practice management software in your email tool, you have to manually make a note of what you need to do with your emails. Instead, if you integrate your email tool with your practice management software, once you file an existing or a new email, you may add an appointment, a task or follow up activity. You can add actions based on what is required from your emails, making it so much easier to work with cases you will know what to do with your emails and when to do them – never having to miss a deadline!