As the summer wanes, we approach the upcoming legal department technology planning season. One of the most challenging parts of the process is to identify the areas that are in most need of digital transformation. Equally as difficult is determining which identified areas when addressed with technology, will have the highest impact on both the legal department and the organization as a whole. Hence, why prioritization is such a key element of your technology planning.
All too often we see legal departments make the decision to take on large technology initiatives that end up being extremely time-consuming, resource heavy, and costly. Two to three years later they end up seeing very little return on their investment, and in the process haven’t accomplished much else because the project overwhelmed their staff.
It is possible to accomplish more toward your digital transformation goal, in a shorter period of time and in a more cost-effective way, by executing a well thought out automation initiative. A good plan does not consider automation in the traditional sense. Rather, it is putting automation at the foundational layer of your legal technology stack. This avails critical attributes like speed of development, agility, and self-support, which are necessary to deliver on your transformation goals.
According to a recent article by CRE8 Inc., “Studies show that a properly deployed automation technology can improve a process from 25% to 75%, resulting in an ROI of up to 10X”. Imagine having the ability to quickly address a broad set of processes instead of a single application. What might the return on this investment look like?
This is why we are so excited about our recently launched solution MyLegal, our legal department portal and automation platform. We think it is a more sensible approach for supporting your digital transformation efforts, allowing you to automate a wide array of workflows and business processes, and in a short period of time delivering a best-in-class ROI.
Not only is MyLegal becoming the de facto “legal department front door”, but it also strives to create added value for its customers on an on-going basis. To that end, we can now announce that MyLegal has been extended to include core CLM capabilities (document assembly, clause and template library, and collaborative review) as a result of our recent OEM partner agreement with Leaflet Corporation.
With MyLegal, you have the ability to automate virtually any legal business process including those workflows which involve contract requests. MyLegal now provides a “walk before you run” path for departments that need CLM capabilities, but want to avoid committing to a more exhaustive, costly, full-scale CLM implementation.
We believe you will be able to move your legal department along the maturity scale faster through a broad-scale automation initiative. Efficiency and productivity gains will be realized immediately. Customer service levels will improve. Ultimately, it will have the greatest impact on your ability to achieve near-term and long-term objectives.
So, as you begin your legal technology planning, understand that the plan’s effectiveness will directly impact your budget. Feel free to reach out to us for our decades of experience in workflow automation do’s and don’ts. If you are currently looking for help with your planning process, we have several experienced consulting partners that can quickly and cost-effectively help you build a high impact roadmap. Send me a note at [email protected] and I will make the introduction.
Please know, we are here to assist in any way we can.
Best Regards,
Jim Tate
Co-Founder – CEO
Legal Automation Group
