We are proud to partner with UpLevel Ops, a certified Woman-Owned and operated Legal Operations consulting firm that defines its work with a focus on people and process. Together we can drive clients to the most successful outcomes in technology implementation projects. With decades of in-the-trenches, in-house Legal Ops experience, UpLevel creates bespoke strategic and advisory solutions to assist Legal departments as they move up the Legal Operations maturity curve. UpLevel provides custom consulting solutions that fit the precise needs of its clients, whether in providing Legal Operations expertise clients may not yet have, or in extending the capabilities of overburdened Legal Operations teams.
In addition to helping clients assess and design solutions for the broadest spectrum of Legal Operations challenges, UpLevel specializes in workflow automation and contract lifecycle management readiness, process design, and implementation project management. Workflow automation tools are essential for the modern enterprise, and the modern legal department. Whether clients are focused on legal request intake from the business, driving self-service contracting, or automating repeated processes such as conflicts-of-interest checks or stock sale clearances, these tools provide a flexible, scalable solution to enable business teams, while freeing up valuable legal team time for higher-value, higher-risk work.
No matter where you are on your workflow automation journey, UpLevel recommends the following:
Prioritize Your Approach While workflow automation has almost unlimited potential, approach it in stages starting with one or two low-to-medium complexity workflows which will deliver the most value. Learn from those, and build out from there. Remember that your Phase 1 projects are just the beginning of what you can accomplish. Make sure you develop a workflow automation roadmap to continue to drive the next phases of improvements for your organization.
Understand and Refine Your Processes Start by thoughtfully mapping out your processes to identify inefficiencies and potential improvements that technology can help deliver, working to address (and hopefully eliminate) traditional bottlenecks. If you automate a bad process, you will end up perpetuating the same problem.
Define What Success Looks Like for You Make sure you have clearly defined the goals for each automated workflow (i.e., what does success look like for your legal department, and how will it address the needs and requirements of your organization).
Focus on Readiness Before you start any workflow build, be sure you have prepared effectively. Understand the goal process flow, know what input and approvals are required to successfully complete a process, update any relevant self-service contracts, and consider what data and reporting you will need to effectively manage the process from end-to-end.
Promote Good Communication Provide formal and informal channels for feedback and communication to get input from stakeholders, both during your implementation process, and on an on-going basis. One of the best benefits of automated workflows is that they are relatively easy to update and refine to meet the ever-changing needs of your business.
Manage the Project Properly Develop a project plan, and assign owners who are accountable for each task/phase. Be sure to account for the scope of the project and available resources to set realistic expectations. Establish a small, but engaged working group who can provide process expertise, help communicate with stakeholders, and clear roadblocks.
Be A Change Management Champion New processes demand change management and tailored communications for different stakeholder audiences.Remember to celebrate small victories, and express gratitude to those who have contributed to the implementation. Leverage early successes to drive additional change.
Leverage External Help to Achieve Success If you don’t have the internal expertise or bandwidth to contribute on your workflow automation project, consider bringing in external resources who have proven success and experience that can be leveraged for your, and your organizations, benefit. It’s better (and frankly far less costly) to get things right from the start than to have to remediate a failed implementation. Both MyLegal and UpLevel Ops can help ensure your success.
If all of this sounds like it’s a lot of work, that’s because it is. Technology selection, process design and implementation are some of the most complex projects we do at UpLevel Ops. However, when done right, the resulting efficiencies, cost-savings, and visibility our clients enjoy are worth all the effort.
For more on implementation best practices, please read this recent White Paper from UpLevel Ops: Legal Tech Done Right: How Best Practices and Process Improvements Can Make All the Difference
For more information about how UpLevel Ops takes Legal to the Next Level, please email us at [email protected] or discover more at UpLevelOps.com.
