How Proclaim Case Management powers Auxillis, the UK’s leading accident assistance provider

Part of £589.7m turnover support services provider, Redde plc, Auxillis is the UK’s leading provider of accident assistance services to drivers involved in non-fault accidents.

Launched in 1992, Auxillis now employs over 1,400 people across 2 operations centres and 27 branches, offering a range of services including credit hire, credit repairs, managed repairs and claims management services.

Almost 600 Auxillis staff use the Proclaim Case Management system. CIO, Andrew Langford (pictured), talks us through his experience of Proclaim.

Why Proclaim?

In 2009 Redde plc took the decision to merge three separate operating businesses to streamline our operations and remove the IT duplications that a series of company acquisitions had brought us.

Across the three businesses that dealt with claims management and hire services, we had a grand total of five separate software systems.

This was far from an ideal position, providing multiple points of data entry (difficult to control quality), multiple ways of working (making internal training long-winded and expensive) and a lot of duplication of effort in terms of moving and manipulating data between five places.

One business had been successfully using Proclaim since early 2001 (with over 300 concurrent users). It been tried and tested, and we saw it as having the most functionality and flexibility when it came to our plans for service expansion.

An in-depth systems assessment was carried out, to determine which system was the best fit for Auxillis moving forward. Using productivity benchmarking tests, Auxillis Operations Director, Susan Howe, found the business using Proclaim was the most efficient of the three businesses. This ultimately sealed our decision to roll out Proclaim as a replacement for the other systems.

The system transfer project was completed in July 2010 and saw a total of nearly 600 Auxillis employees using Proclaim.

Providing an end-to-end solution

Proclaim is used to support the full end-to-end accident management and vehicle hire process. The system gives us a holistic approach to case management – one integrated and consistent way of processing files, and one core data repository meaning a truly centralised approach.

Data integrity, and the resultant management information we can extract, are both of huge importance to Auxillis. Proclaim enables us to accurately analyse performance in real-time, and extract precisely what we need from the system. Nothing is ‘lost in translation’, and there is no need for guesswork or leaps of faith.

Given that we are controlling outsourced services from major financial services organisations and insurers, the confidence Proclaim gives us in our figures is invaluable.

Secure, robust and flexible

Given our scale and our fluid operational requirements, system resilience is vital. To aid our development team, we run three environments internally; the live one, a development area, and a test area.

These three sections are perfectly in tune, and the setup allows us to have a ‘sandbox’ creative attitude to system design which will not impact upon our live systems should we change our plans.

This helps us to be extremely reactive to business requirements and quickly deploy bespoke screens, fields and workflow steps.

We recently started to use Proclaim’s Web Services functionality to support full, real-time integration with our core business partners, using Microsoft BizTalk as a messaging layer. This will provide us with a deeper level of (fully reliable) real-time interactive intra-system messaging.

For overall system resilience, we utilise the ‘OpenEdge Replication’ toolset, which provides fast and accurate failover, should disaster strike. In fact, we have managed to create a strategy that will enable us to be up and running – all 600 users – just 10 minutes after an event that renders our primary systems inactive.

The benefits

Our Operations Director, Susan Howe, rightly places great emphasis on the ability to induct new employees quickly. Proclaim provides an extremely familiar Windows environment and ‘look and feel’, meaning that new users buy in to the system very quickly.

This continues when they find that Proclaim is genuinely straightforward to use, and as a result training is blissfully cost-effective for us. We can run sessions internally without the need to bring in external assistance.

Proclaim enables us to seamlessly link with case referrers to automatically import cases and updated details. The time savings here are immense – data inputting is made redundant, and mistakes (the ‘human factor’!) are greatly reduced. This makes for much closer and more valuable business relationships, reducing waste and frictional activity.

In addition, we use Eclipse’s FileView and SecureDocs tools to support our online Hire Agreement process, giving our customers the ability to electronically sign their rental agreements. Again, this streamlines our processes immensely and speeds up our overall service offering.

Following detailed internal analysis, we are actually able to put a figure to the productivity gains we see using Proclaim. We estimate that the system has reduced our ‘cost per case’ by approximately 20%. Considering the volumes we put through the system, that adds up to one very large annual cost saving.

The decision to standardise on Proclaim as our overall claims management platform has been truly validated. The system is by some distance the leader in the claims sector.

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Scottish start-up firm Teepee selects Proclaim Case Management solution from Eclipse

Start-up motor claims specialist Teepee is implementing Proclaim, the Case Management Software solution from Eclipse, a Law Society Endorsed legal software provider.

Established in 2019, the Glasgow-based firm specialises in motor claims; arranging repairs and credit hire through strong relationships with partner agencies that also utilise Proclaim. Proclaim will enable Teepee to operate with a high level of efficiency from day one.

As a new firm, Teepee requires a solution that will facilitate growth of the business – by establishing efficient processes for managing claims that ensure greater profit margins. Staff will benefit from this additional efficiency that permits them to focus on new business opportunities.

Proclaim’s self-service portal TouchPoint+ which includes an app that allows clients to access case information from their smartphone or tablet – will allow Teepee to differentiate from the established competition with increased levels of client care.

Tony Parris, Managing Director of Teepee, comments:

“Proclaim is going to be a game-changer for our firm – it’s exactly what we’ve been looking for. The flexibility it provides will really enable us to get the most out of this software, so we can concentrate on delivering a great service to our clients.

“TouchPoint+ in particular is going to be very well-received by our clients. The ability to keep them up to date in real time will help to create a smooth client journey during what can often be a stressful time.”

Proclaim integration with RMail enables law firms to send encrypted, tracked emails

Law Society Endorsed legal software provider, Eclipse Legal Systems, has announced integration with leading encrypted email service RMail.

RMail is a powerful email tracking and certification platform, used to send encrypted emails, confirm when an email was delivered, and at what point it was opened by the recipient. The tool is used by businesses throughout the world, many of which are required to send encrypted emails by law.

Proclaim, the Case Management solution from Eclipse, will embed RMail functionality to offer law firms a seamless way of sending and tracking important emails to clients, partners and external contacts.

Not only does RMail provide a receipt of email delivery, confirming the recipient has received and opened the email, but this receipt is also a court-admissible record proving the email was sent and received. Firms that are required by law to send encrypted emails can demonstrate they have met regulatory standards.

Email recipients do not require RMail to receive an encrypted email and can even reply to the encrypted email in a secure encrypted portal.

Mick Thompson (pictured), Technical Director at Eclipse, comments:

“Our integration with RMail will enable even better data security for law firms and their clients. With information security becoming increasingly important, the ability to seamlessly send and receive encrypted emails will prove invaluable to firms when transmitting sensitive documents and data.”

Video: how a bespoke Proclaim Case Management solution has enabled JMK Solicitors to achieve the best possible outcome with the least stress.

Cate McQuade explains how a commitment to embracing innovation and utilising the latest technology has led to JMK Solicitors choosing a bespoke Proclaim Case Management solution to achieve their goal of improving the lives of clients by achieving the best possible outcome with the least stress.

The team at JMK Solicitors benefits from an entirely paperless office enabling anyone to assist a client with their case and allows tablets to be taken to court instead of heavy paper files.

Proclaim provides automated reminders, document production at the click of a button and secure online portals helping to continually make clients the number one priority.

Three risks posed to Conveyancers and how to avoid them

Risk management is an essential part of running any law firm.

The costs – monetary and otherwise – can be substantial if practices don’t identify risks, and do everything they can to mitigate them.

Different types of challenges can present themselves depending on the exact nature of your firm, and the work you do.

Here, we’re going to look at those who specialise in Conveyancing.

The exact risks posed to those who work in this field can be managed with Proclaim, our Case Management software. We’ll explain exactly how throughout the course of this article.

Risk 1 – losing customers due to lack of efficiency

Those looking for a conveyancer, whether they’re a buyer or a seller, are going through the frustrating, sometimes long process of completing a house sale/purchase.

They want things to get done quickly so they can get on with their lives.

A big risk for conveyancers is that if they take too long to get the job done, clients and potential clients could decide to go elsewhere instead.

So efficiency is essential. Nobody expects the conveyancing process to take a day, but if you’re taking longer than your competitors, your client numbers will start to decline.

Conveyancers who utilise Proclaim don’t have this problem, as it automates many time-consuming tasks and allows everything to be completed in a timely manner.

In the past, it might not have mattered if things moved at a steady pace – but as more and more firms are utilising automation software, you’re only getting left behind if you don’t.

Risk 2 – making mistakes that cost time and money to fix

Making mistakes is a part of life. But where we can reduce the chances of mistakes happening, especially with something as important as legal work, we absolutely should.

Mistakes are often made when filling out paperwork. There’s lots and lots of paperwork in the legal sector, and it’s not uncommon to find inaccuracies.

So, how do you overcome this issue?

Proclaim stores all client and case data, automatically fills out the necessary forms, and allows you to submit them at the click of a button.

The forms use client and case information you have entered upon opening the case. So as long as everything is accurate then, it will be accurate on every form that requires that information.

Obviously no solution can eliminate mistakes, but Proclaim does an excellent job at minimising them.

Risk 3 – staff leaving to join a more modern working environment

Proclaim promises a more efficient law office. The ease at which cases can be managed, and the speed at which tasks can be completed brings many benefits.

One major benefit we haven’t yet discussed is employee happiness. Fee earners who use Proclaim are impressed they don’t have to spend hours and hours doing long, mundane tasks.

This naturally leads to a more positive work/life balance.

Law firms not offering a more efficient workplace are at risk of losing their top talent to competitors – practices that do provide a better working environment.

Fee earners want to work in a modern, forward-thinking business, utilising the latest technologies to ensure their work can be done to a higher standard.

And to enable them more flexibility.

Proclaim offers all of the above. Hundreds of conveyancing specialists are already operating with our case management software, and delivering an exceptional service to their clients.

To see how you can do the same, book a free demo of Proclaim by clicking here.

Boost efficiencies in your law firm by embracing flexible working

Darren Gower (pictured), Marketing Director at Eclipse spoke to LPM Magazine to discuss how flexible working can benefit law firms.

The nine-to-five working week is over. Well, for most people anyway. Whilst some businesses cling to the traditional ways of working, many others are embracing a more modern approach – to give employees more flexibility.

This change has been ongoing for a number of years, and now we live in a world where individuals can choose (to an extent) their own working hours and where they work from. Strict schedules where everybody comes into the office at the same time every day are becoming less and less common.

It has been a necessary evolution. People have important things to do outside of work – such as picking up their children from school – and a standard 9-5 job doesn’t offer that flexibility. In order for businesses to keep their top talent, they need to compete with other employers who are offering a flexible working environment.

This is why it’s particularly important for SMEs to embrace this type of thing. You need skilled people to help your business grow, but you won’t be able to keep hold of them if bigger firms are offering these sorts of benefits.

As a result, flexible working is now incredibly common in the law sector. Firms big and small all over the UK offer their employees different options. Some allow a set amount of ‘working from home’ days per week or fortnight, others allow staff to choose their own start and finish times.

In what is a very traditional industry, you might be surprised to see how many law firms are embracing these practices. Because they recognise that it’s not only good for their employees, but it’s good for them too. A number of studies have shown that it actually increases productivity.

So, how do they do it? How have businesses been able to allow flexible working without compromising on the quality of service they offer to clients?

One of the most important things is they have internal systems, processes and procedures that are flexible. Employees need to be working with software that allows them to log in and work from home. They need to be able to access files and folders remotely in order to continue delivering exceptional service.

And they need to be able to communicate with each other. Teamwork and communication are essential aspects of running a successful practice, so there needs to be a way of replicating the closeness of an office space into a remote working environment – which primarily takes place online.

Staff are legally allowed to request a flexible working arrangement once they’ve been at a company for 26 weeks. But law firms can make this easier, for themselves and their employees, by offering it right away.

Start-up firm Integral Law selects Proclaim Practice Management solution from Eclipse

Start-up law firm Integral Law is implementing the Proclaim Practice Management solution from Eclipse, the Law Society Endorsed legal software provider.

Established in 2019 as an Alternative Business Structure (ABS), London-based practice Integral Law specialises in Conveyancing services, and has chosen to utilise Proclaim to offer a high-quality, efficient service to clients throughout the UK.

As a new firm, Integral Law required a scalable solution that could facilitate growth in the business – and determined the Proclaim Practice Management software, with inbuilt accounting toolset for seamless billing procedures, was in the best position to meet their needs.

The software will be utilised throughout the firm, enabling a more efficient processing of Conveyancing transactions to allow for greater profit margins at Integral Law. The additional resource this creates will permit new business opportunities that will prove crucial for the growth of the practice.

Jon Carroll (pictured), Managing Director at Integral Law, said:

“Proclaim has proven to be the standout Practice Management solution on the market, and we’re extremely pleased to be experiencing the benefits of the system within our business since its implementation.”

“As a new law firm it’s important for us to deliver an excellent service to our clients, distinguishing us from the established competition whilst still processing each property transaction efficiently. Proclaim is the tool we need to enable this.”