Letters in a digital age

Laroque moves to working from home

When the work-from-home regulations came into force, we didn’t have to think too hard about what we would need to do. We’d been lucky. We’d had a dry run, as it were: in June 2018 we were flooded out of our Kelvinbridge office. We were out for three months.

The facts were bizarre: it had been the warmest and sunniest spring and early summer any of us could remember. Then, during the night of 19-20 June, a whole season’s worth of rainfall cascaded on to Scotland’s central belt. Immediately after the deluge, the lovely weather resumed.

A colleague texted me from the office a little after nine on yet another gloriously sunny morning: “It’s raining. From the ceiling…”

In the end, we lost about £5,000 worth of equipment. But we learned what we needed to do to allow us all to work efficiently from home. So, we were fortunate to have resilience measures already in place when homeworking came into force in March this year. We appreciate this was not so for all businesses, and our team has been busy working with firms to ensure they have the capacity they need to maintain productivity levels as they work remotely.

Support

One of our clients was able to switch to homeworking with impressive speed. We had already worked with them on automating routine tasks and on outsourcing their postroom: getting letters into the post during the pandemic was a problem already solved. Among the problems remaining: how to get client signatures on to terms of business and agreements. Before the pandemic this had been done by posting out hard-copy documents, but a new, smarter solution for both their employees and clients was now needed.

Sign&Send

Sign&Send allows our clients to send letters by post (first class, second class, and recorded delivery) directly from Microsoft™ Word in just three clicks. It also allows our clients to send
out documents for legally valid signature collection online.

The Sign&Send print process is entirely automated. This limits human contact with the letter, reducing the risk of virus transmission. Trips to the postbox or post office are no longer required. The sending and collection of documents requiring client signatures is entirely electronic, with zero human interaction, and offers a quicker return rate than business reply envelopes.

Professional standards

Our service uses high quality printers, paper and envelopes to ensure a consistent letter print process to maintain professional standards.
The system automatically inserts your signature graphic to outgoing letters. High-quality printers ensure that the final version looks as if it has actually been signed by hand. Letters can be sent in just three clicks directly from Microsoft Word. All that is needed is an internet connection; location is now irrelevant.

New solutions

Listening to and working alongside our clients as we negotiated the current situation has changed our release schedule. One challenge many firms faced was post arriving into a central location that needed sorted and returned to the original sender. We’re pleased to have a solution for this. It will soon be possible for Sign&Send clients to include a business reply envelope allowing the returned mail to be delivered directly to them.

Laroque Software has over 20 years’ experience developing bespoke IT solutions for the legal industry. We are committed to embedding efficiency and providing personalised, ongoing support to our clients.

If you would like to learn more about how Sign&Send could help your business, please visit signandsend.co.uk, email enquiries@signandsend.co.uk, or call us on 0141 357 0453. One of our team members would be delighted to speak to you.