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GAZETTE
APRIL 1985
4. Less clutter around the general office area, it all
being contained at the fee earner's desk. There are
no floating trays of typing or documents for
photocopying and it puts an end to the ubiquitious
carbon paper which pollutes so many offices.
5. We believe it provides a better office atmosphere.
This would, of course, apply whether the equipment
was being used by the fee earners or by operators. It
is achieved by the elimination of a lot of the
drudgery involved in repetitive typing.
6. Doing ones own filing saves time and makes for
more accurate filing. However, it is only efficient as
long as one is able to cope with the work to be done
in a day.
There are also a number of disadvantages. One does
tend to forget problems once they have been overcome
but in general they may be summarised as follows:—
1. Choosing a system can be quite a problem. No firm
should allow itself to be used as a guinea-pig for a
new system. One should take advice from
colleagues who have been using word processing
equipment for a number of years and preferably the
type of equipment which you are intending to
purchase.
2. Expense. This consists of the cost of purchase,
installation and maintenance costs which are
normally a percentage of the purchase price.
Maintenance charges can be quite exorbitant. Also,
in a situation such as ours, additional costs occur
each time a new fee earner joins the firm and a new
keyboard, screen, etc., has to be acquired.
3. Continuity of maintenance. This can be a problem if
a supplier moves out of the market.
4. The teething period. Luck can, of course, play a big
part in this regard (although we were not so lucky)
but apart from breakdowns, etc., there are other
back-breaking jobs to be done during the teething
period such as organising all those precedents which
have been floating around the office for decades and
getting them finally stored onto the discs.
5. Under-utilisation of equipment. When the fee
earner is attending Court or out of the office for any
reason this very expensive equipment is lying idle
and of course depreciating and being under utilised.
There is nothing one can do about this problem
when operating on a do-it-yourself basis but it is
something that should be considered before
embarking on a project such as ours.
6. The once-off letter/document. There does not seem
to be any simple solution to this problem as not all
our work is standard. The problem is, of course,
reduced as typing speed increases.
7. Learning to type. Many people have an aversion to
typing and even more would not be prepared to
embark on the necessary exercises needed to
increase typing speed.
Obviously the above is only a summary but time and
space prevents pursuing this aspect any further.
It may be that our system of work would only suit
smaller offices. There is only one certain way of finding
out if a Word Processor is for you and that is to purchase a
system that you think best suits your needs. You will
never come to grips with the technology of word
processing by just reading about it. Seeing and using the
machines provides the best information of all. Rightly or
wrongly I believe the prediction that the £5,000.00 work
station performing as a Data Processor, Word Processor
and a Computer Terminal is coming and, when this point
is reached, the advantages of fee earner operation become
more and more obvious. There is little to be said for
adopting a wait and see policy if you have not yet taken
the plunge. It may result in your being left so far behind in
technology that it will be almost impossible to catch up on
the offices that have adapted to word processing.
•
Why is
ourmanager's
door always
open?
ANSWER:
We could try to be funny
and say it was to let the bank drafts in.
But the truth is it's just the way we
operate. Personal, attentive service at all times.
Total access to the manager. Longer hours than
most banks. And higher interest on deposits.
They may sound like small things. But when
you add up the little things we do and most
banks don't, you'll understand why our
18-21 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2. Tel. (01) 763502
3 The Crescent, Limerick. Tel. 061-319522
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