Introducing The Away-Team
If you are reading this, then you may be wanting to know a bit more about the Away-Team that works with you and the rest of the in-house team.
A brief history of the Away-Team's Home - Kolkata, Dominique Lapierre’s City of Joy
The Away-Team is based in Kolkata, India. Kolkata is a 300-year-old city and was the Capital of British India till 1911. The British East India Company first had a settlement in Kolkata in 1690.
We talk about Google and Amazon today as mega entities; the British East India Company was the first and largest of such entities that ruled countries through trade.
Over the next 150 years the British East India company grew its footprint across Kolkata and India.
It was only in 1858 after the Sepoy Mutiny (which is considered as the first freedom struggle initiative in India) that Queen Victoria became the Queen of India and Kolkata and the reign of the Board of British East India Company came to an end.
Kolkata and India’s legal system and universities are very much structured on the British system due to the long colonial rule (India won independence from the British in 1947).
Back to The Away-Team
They are called the Away-Team as we like to say the firm’s in-house team is the Home-team and the SBA Kolkata team is the Away-Team.
The Away-Team first commenced work with clients all the way back in 2010! In current Covid terminology that was 9 years before Covid.
During this time, client teams have evolved and grown. The scope and scale of using the Away-Team has also evolved across various tasks.
Some Key Operational Details of the Away-Team
Leverage the Time Difference
The Away-Team is 5 hrs 30 minutes behind Melbourne and Sydney and 2 hrs behind West Coast – So Away-Team starts the day at 2:30 PM AEST (which is morning in Kolkata) and then works through 10 to 10:30 PM AEST. The time difference means tasks allocated to the Away-Team before you finish up for the day can in most instances come back to you done by next morning when you start the day.
Away-Team Works in your Practice Management Environment
The Away-Team has access to software systems in the same way that the in-house team has access and performs tasks in that environment. Having worked with client teams since 2010 has meant the Away-Team has a good understanding of practice management systems and workflows.
How to Assign Tasks to Away-Team
How do you assign tasks to the Away-Team? There is a dedicated job email to which assignment instructions are sent by in-house team. Away-Team acknowledges jobs and sends a job completion update by email once the job is done.
How do you assign tasks to the Away-Team? - In more detail
There is a dedicated job email to which assignment instructions are sent by in-house team. Away-Team acknowledges jobs and sends a job completion update by email once the job is done.
From Matter opening, conflict search, draft and final billing, word processing, document formatting, email profiling, conveyancing support, drafting, marketing support and special projects and more, jobs assigned by the in-house team are varied.
Giving a job to the Away-Team is not complex –in-house team members may have already created cheat sheets for job specific instructions and can provide insights or help you if needed on how to assign tasks to the Away-Team.
Team SBA leverages 12 plus years’ experience in working with law firms and conveyancing businesses and general businesses in various industry sectors, to make the work flow processes easy for new clients as part of an engagement.
We demystify the deployment process for you, help you visualise it easily and work with you to roll it out quickly.
What type of tasks can you assign to Away-Team?
Anything that will save you time, anything that is not on the top of your to do list from things that need to be done but you don’t like doing! anything that is non-billable tasks and even help with billable tasks.
From a skill set viewpoint Away-Team are a bunch of lawyers, law graduates, paralegals, word processing operators, accounting professionals, marketing and IT professionals. There are some serious geeks in the Away-Team and they are also a fun loving bunch – the younger ones like going out on weekends, considers themselves foodies and some are cricket mad – Steve Smith and Steve Waugh are messiahs in India!
The Away-Team has been working with law firms since 2010 and are familiar with all major practice management softwares used by Australian law firms and also the legal and regulatory framework in various states.
Away team also works with accounting firms and businesses in various industry sectors.
Here is a snapshot The Away-Team
Amarjit Sen
Head of Operations - India
Bitoo Chakraborty
Manager - Process and Quality Precedent
Sunita Dutta
Manager - Finance & Accounts
Avishek Roy
Manager - Conveyancing and Data Entry
Koukab Jabeen
Manager - Word Processing
Vikash Joshi
Assistant Manager - Finance & Accounts
And Most of All, a Big Thank You!
For the Away-Team working with the in-house team is an honour and a privilege – the Away-Team greatly values the opportunity to work with you e.g during Covid the work assigned by the in-house team was a critical source of support for the Away-Team as there was no govt stimulus available in India during that time.
The Away-Team is present on MS Teams channels for communication, clarification of scope for any assignment and also any day to day interactions. This is over and above interactions by email.
We hope this outline provides you with an initial overview of the Away-Team and what and how the Away-Team can assist in your workday. Thank You!