Year: 2020

Watch Onit and Pearson’s Webinar: A Platform Approach to Contract Lifecycle Management

Last week we hosted a webinar with Pearson about the changing times and how Pearson has saved more than 35% using contract lifecycle management technology. You can view the recording today. The webinar, A Platform Approach to Contract Lifecycle Management, was part of our new Lean into LegalOps online learning initiative and included a comprehensive demo of Pearson’s contract lifecycle management (CLM) system.

Amanda Sengbusch, Senior Project Manager at Pearson, started the session with an overview of what Pearson does on a global scale. She also noted the efforts Pearson has undertaken to contribute during the current COVID-19 crisis. Matt DenOuden, Vice President of Global Sales at Onit, then offered some insight into Onit’s new online learning initiative, Lean into LegalOps, and our business continuity Apps.

In setting the stage for Amanda’s demo, Charmel Rhyne, CLM Sales Director at Onit, explained Onit’s contract lifecycle management solution and how it adds value, providing end-to-end automation of the entire contract management process. She also explained the many benefits of using contract lifecycle management technology, such as reducing the hours spent on contracts by 20%, automating renewal increases with an average of 5% per contract, saving 9% annually with good contracting, and reducing the average sales cycle by 24%.

Amanda then provided some background on how Pearson began their journey to reduce legal spend in 2017. In response, their legal department created the Transaction Services Center (TSC), which facilitates high volume, low risk standard agreements, allowing internal counsel to focus on more complex agreements and more time to support the business. Onit provided the contract lifecycle management solution used by the TSC, consisting of four main features: legal service requests, contract review and approval, contract database and legal advisory requests. Amanda emphasized that the game changer for Pearson was, “having data and being able to use it;” meaning that they used Onit data in conjunction with their Tableau business intelligence tool for advanced reporting.

Amanda continued by providing a highly detailed demo of their Onit contract lifecycle management system. We hope you’ll take some time view this highly informative webinar by clicking the link below.

Watch the recorded webinar here and sign up to learn more about the Lean Into Legal Ops initiative.

LegalOps Highlight: News, Trends and Legal Technology Vol. 9

The LegalOps Highlight is a bi-weekly blog series that features relevant news, market trends and legal technology updates from the legal ecosystem. The content is curated from legal and business trade publications, consulting and analyst firms, and Onit | SimpleLegal partners, customers and subject matter experts. Be sure to subscribe and follow Onit and #LegalOpsHighlight on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates!

Highlights


onitfinaostage.wpenginepowered.com Offering Free Business Continuity Apps Among COVID-19Onit Offering Free Business Continuity Apps Among COVID-19
Onit is offering free access to their new suite of business continuity apps for customers and non-customers alike. We hope to help with the transition to running your legal department remotely. These apps cover four critical areas: managing a remote workforce, overseeing business changes, managing risk and managing financial impacts. We know COVID-19 hasn’t been easy for anyone so hopefully, these apps can help ease some of the strain on your business.


 


COVID-19 Cools Legal Tech Investments, But Long Term Prospects Remain StrongLaw.com: COVID-19 Cools Legal Tech Investments, But Long Term Prospects Remain Strong
As the world has been settling at home during COVID-19, many have noticed a serious economic downturn, and the downturn catalyzed much more quickly than previously thought. During times like these, consumer spending is known for slowing down, a trend that could greatly affect the access legal technology offerings have to venture capital. While many in the legal industry believe the guidelines for who will obtain capital will remain largely the same, with compelling offerings not being at the same access risk, some believe that the higher risk profile of a bear market could prove difficult for about two-thirds of the offerings that don’t meet the higher expectation.



How To Practice Law Remotely and Efficiently During the COVID-19 CrisisABA Journal: How To Practice Law Remotely and Efficiently During the COVID-19 Crisis
Lawyers have been in a golden age of efficiency for the last decade or so, and there are many ways they can keep that going while working from home. Shauna Barnes comes to ABA’s Asked and Answered podcast to give insight on the best ways to stay on top of workloads when collaboration is more difficult.



David Lat, Eyeing Hospital Discharge, Talks About His Battle and Donating Blood to COVID-19 ResearchLaw.com: David Lat, Eyeing Hospital Discharge, Talks About His Battle and Donating Blood to COVID-19 Research
After nearly 17 days in the hospital, 11 of which in ICU, Above the Law Founder David Lat is finally being discharged. Lat was admitted to NYU Hospital on March 16th for breathing complications, and thankfully he was able to recover after a cocktail of strong anti-viral medications and a stint on a ventilator. Stay updated on Lat’s recovery by following his Twitter feed.



Law Firms Conduct Layoffs, Slash Salaries in Response to PandemicAbove the Law: Law Firms Conduct Layoffs, Slash Salaries in Response to Pandemic
It was only a matter of time before law firms had to respond to the changes to the legal profession caused by the COVID-19 lockdown. Above the Law has reported on more than a few Biglaw firms that have had to adjust their ranks and payment schedules to accommodate for the drop in productivity. While some firms are slashing partner compensation, other firms are laying off associates without severance, so the situation will develop differently at different firms.



$5M Coming to Law Students Struggling Financially Amid COVID-19Law.com: $5M Coming to Law Students Struggling Financially Amid COVID-19
During COVID-19, it’s become increasingly clear that students are having some of the more difficult experiences as they mostly aren’t eligible to receive American federal stimulus benefits. Thankfully, AccessLex is here to help with grants totaling $5 million to help students at over 200 ABA-accredited law schools. These grants are distributed as $25,000 per school for their emergency funds and will be further distributed to students going through financial hardship. Whether these grants will have a long-lasting effect for law students is unclear, but AccessLex said they wanted to be quick to the draw and help law students quickly and meaningfully.

Letter From The CEO: Introducing The New Bodhala

Dear Friends,

We’re excited and proud to announce our new branding and logo. It marks the next phase in our journey and a new opportunity to deliver groundbreaking legal technology solutions to in-house legal teams.

You’ll see it’s not just our logo that’s changing. We’ve changed our website, our social media, our messaging, and our focus to better reflect the way we help our clients succeed.

It’s an exciting era for Bodhala — our steady growth has brought new clients, new teammates, and new products that are reimagining the legal services marketplace. By providing legal market intelligence, insights, and guidance to corporations, we’re able to help them optimize their legal spend and maximize their relationships with their law firms. 

Since signing our first client in 2016, we have seen multiple new trends surface in the legal industry, but we’re the first and only technology company that provides corporate legal departments with the “source of truth”  — real time, actionable data that unmasks law firm pricing and inefficiencies, empowering corporations to drive value on every dollar of legal spend.  

Our continued mission is to empower teams to analyze, interpret and optimize outside counsel spend, trailblazing a new era of legal market intelligence with real transparency, real accountability, and real control.

If you want to learn more about our product stack and legal market trends, I encourage you to visit our new website where you can sign-up for our webinars, check out our blog and industry-specific case studies. 

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out! Until then, we’ll keep working tirelessly to bring value to legal departments all over the world.

Sincerely,

Raj Goyle, CEO

Free Business Continuity Apps Offered in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic and Changing Market Landscape

As the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world around us, companies around the globe are facing the same problems: how to understand and adapt to the new circumstances coming our way, and how to anticipate what’s coming. This global crisis is challenging us all to develop survival skills, and forcing creativity to regain normalcy in a world turned upside down.

Our new Onit Business Continuity Apps are being built and deployed with three key principles:

  1. Free. The Apps are provided and deployed with standard configuration free of charge, with no subscription fees.
  2. Simple. The Apps are designed to be easy to set up and use across your enterprise, so companies can begin using them as quickly as possible.
  3. Standard. The Apps contain workflows built to apply across a broad variety of use cases. They are intended to be used out of the box without further configuration or customization.

These Apps fall into four critical areas: managing a remote workforce, overseeing business changes, mitigating company risk and managing financial impacts. Below is a description of some of these new workflows. Learn more about these Apps.

  • The Return-to-Work Risk Assessment App is designed for companies that are looking to re-open their offices that have been closed as a result of the crisis. This App surveys employees regarding risk factors for COVID-19 transmission and allows human resources and management to determine return-to-work dates and protocol.
  • The Contract Compliance Issue Tracking App provides a mechanism for companies to log and manage issues reported by (inbound) or reported to (outbound) external parties that impact the ability to deliver on a contract. This includes, but is not limited to, force majeure claims.
  • The Work Delegation App is for employees having to unexpectedly leave work due to illness, lack of childcare, or other personal issues related to COVID-19. This App collects information about open activities and deliverables and notifies recommended colleagues as well as management.
  • The Business Standup/Situation Reporting App enables managers and leadership to quickly establish a framework for offsite team communications, including managing agendas and follow-ups for standup meetings and aggregating updates for management reporting.
  • The COVID-19 Self Reporting App empowers employees to self-report when they have experienced symptoms or been diagnosed with COVID-19. This allows human resources teams to report required information to the appropriate authorities when needed.

Request more information about these Business Continuity Apps.

Onit and Pearson to Host Webinar: A Platform Approach to Contract Lifecycle Management

Please join us for a webinar with Pearson on Wednesday, April 8 at 12:30 p.m. CDT with Amanda Sengbusch, Senior Project Manager from Pearson, to hear about their award-winning approach to contract management. The session, “A Platform Approach to Contract Lifecycle Management” is part of our new Lean into LegalOps online learning initiative. Sengbusch will demonstrate Pearson’s contract lifecycle management system and show how they have realized savings, efficiency and unprecedented visibility with their contract portfolio and internal workload. You’ll also learn:

  • Why Pearson embarked on a contract lifecycle management project
  • The visibility into contracts and internal legal workload they’ve achieved as a result
  • Example reports that help Pearson drive efficiency in their process
  • How users inside and outside the legal department experience the system

Register for this webinar today.

Learn more about Onit’s Lean into Legal Ops initiative.

Letter from the CEO: COVID-19 Update

Friends, Colleagues & Partners,

The COVID-19 outbreak is an unsettling time. Our sincere hope is that you are healthy, safe, and secure during this extraordinarily challenging period. As the situation has unfolded these past few weeks, and as we continue to work remotely, I wanted to briefly share how Bodhala has acclimated and performed. 

Our crisis-management plan has exceeded expectations to date — I will continue to monitor developments closely.  

I am grateful that our Client Success, Tech, and Product teams have been able to deliver all of our work seamlessly and on time. Specifically, Bodhala has taken the proper precautions to ensure the following:

  • Each Bodhala team member is secure and safe while working remotely. All employees are fully equipped with the technology required to continue working on all client matters without disruption. Key employees assigned to your company’s matters have complete access to all pertinent information needed to execute their work.
  • The Bodhala platform is secure and will not experience any data interruptions. Invoice data will continue to be ingested on its regular cadence and your team will have uninterrupted access to the cloud-based Bodhala platform.
  • Although working remotely, productivity has not diminished – in fact, many team members have expressed higher productivity levels during this time. Each employee is working efficiently and tirelessly on all business matters. We stand at the ready to support you and your team.

To guarantee we stay focused on the tasks at hand, I convene our senior leadership team twice daily to provide updates on each team’s work and to address any concerns that arise. We pay very close attention to the health — physical and mental — of each employee.

In these uncertain times, finding efficiencies in your enterprise’s spend categories has never been more urgent. Bodhala is here to help you. 

Our team continues to lean into our work and we are more passionate than ever about the service and success we provide to you. We remain intently focused on our mission to deliver groundbreaking legal technology solutions to empower you to analyze, interpret and optimize outside counsel spend.

We are incredibly grateful for your partnership and continued support. Together, we will navigate this uncertainty and come out stronger because of it. Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Raj, CEO

Onit Honors Sheroes as Part of Women’s History Month

Paige EdwardsPaige Edwards, one of Onit’s first Account Managers, is based in Houston, TX, and has played a critical role on the Account Management team over the past two years. Since Paige joined Onit, she has built a customer community where our customers are able to come together and share their stories and case studies. After Onit’s Customer Forum in March, Paige shared that the team received “so many emails and messages thanking us for the event and how we support and encourage our customers.” Paige applies Onit’s value of passion as she works through everyday tasks and chases the bigger picture. Paige believes that “passion drives your attention to energize actions and your intention to drive future transformation.”

As Paige continues to work with customers, she is starting to dip her toes more into public speaking. She would like to develop the skills to be able to command an audience and speak with ease and grace. Paige mentioned that “if you have ever watched Eric M. Elfman give a presentation, then you know exactly what I mean!” Paige’s favorite part of Onit is the opportunity for growth and the people who want to see each other succeed. Paige shared that “it’s very rare to find a culture like ours.”

Jessica LinJessica Lin is a Strategic Planning Analyst based in Houston, TX. In her role, Jessica has contributed to many of Onit’s strategic initiatives. Recently, Jessica participated in Onit’s initiative, All Hands-on Deck, during the last quarter of 2019. Through this initiative, employees were selected to lend an extra hand to the Professional Services Group team and push towards 2019 year-end goals, which were all met! Jessica shared that “it was a great experience that provided me a better understanding about the work involved to keep our clients happy.” Jessica represents Onit’s value of people through her work with the organizational health team. Jessica takes pride in “helping leadership create clarity about what’s important and improving communication throughout the company.”

Jessica is working towards establishing metrics on organizational health to make sure that Onit is focused on the right initiatives. Jessica enjoys gaining insight into different aspects of Onit while working on ad hoc strategic projects. She appreciates the opportunity to “work with highly motivated and intelligent leaders in the company.”

LegalOps Highlight: News, Trends and Legal Technology Vol. 8

The LegalOps Highlight is a bi-weekly blog series that features relevant news, market trends and legal technology updates from the legal ecosystem. The content is curated from legal and business trade publications, consulting and analyst firms, and Onit | SimpleLegal partners, customers and subject matter experts. Be sure to subscribe and follow Onit and #LegalOpsHighlight on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates!

Highlights


ICYMI – Highlights from Legalweek 2020: Trends, Technology and NetworkingOnit: ICYMI – Highlights from Legalweek 2020: Trends, Technology and Networking
Onit represented at the longest running tech show once again, this time showing off our recently launched CLM product in addition to other offerings. Check out this blog for a recap of the trends we spotted and sessions we attended. We hope to see you all next year for more of the best Legaltech has to offer!


 


2020, The Year Legal Operations Finally FlourishLaw.com: 2020, The Year Legal Operations Finally Flourish
It’s the start of a new decade and it’s already shaping up to be quite eventful for the legal ops function. Innovations with legal technology usually start on the technological advancement side, but process improvements are still key for leveraging all the value of your technology. The community of legal operations professionals has grown slowly over the last decade and now top professionals believe the community is mature enough for legal ops to have a large growth spurt over the next decade. Much of the legal profession lies within data that needs to be analyzed, and legal ops might be coming to the rescue for legal departments to tackle the multifaceted business demands.



Half of Legal Departments Do Not Have Anyone Dedicated to Legal OperationsLaw.com: Half of Legal Departments Do Not Have Anyone Dedicated to Legal Operations
According to ACC’s Chief Legal Officers Survey, roughly 70% of legal departments have one or fewer dedicated legal ops professionals. While this is mostly the case because a good population of the respondents come from smaller companies with small legal departments, Catherine Moynihan, executive director of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s legal operations arm believes that legal departments with legal ops functions are better build for scalability. At the end of the day, legal ops professionals can be vital to making sure lawyers get to focus on practicing law now and avoiding stressful change management later.



In-House Departments Lead Legal InnovationAbove the Law: In-House Departments Lead Legal Innovation
Corporate law might be something of a pressure cooker based on the way businesses tend to use lawyers as a first line of defense, but some of the best meals I’ve ever eaten come from a slow steam cook. According to Parley Pro’s Olga V. Mack, the business demand facing legal seems to be a major driver for innovation in the legal practice as corporate lawyers are often tasked with being key decision makers in corporations. Despite the risk of arduous change management, Mack offers the advice that legal technology can be a lawyer’s best friend and becoming familiar with the solution landscape can help them find the diamond in the rough solution of which they might willing to be an early adopter.



Tips, Tools and Biggest Bummers: What Lawyers Really Think About the State of Legal TechLaw.com: Tips, Tools and Biggest Bummers: What Lawyers Really Think About the State of Legal Tech
One of the best parts of Legaltech 2020 was hearing what top legal professionals have to say about the technology they’re using every day. In this installment of LegalSpeak, ALM’s Vanessa Blum and Leigh Jones speak with some of the most innovative people in legal about the best tools they’ve found for driving greater efficiencies, such as AI and blockchain. They also discuss what has what might be a bit over-hyped, such as AI and blockchain!



Feeding A Baby Unicorn — Land A Startup ClientAbove the Law: Feeding A Baby Unicorn — Land A Startup Client
The start-up world can be kind of scary as the value of the company can be quite volatile and everything could come crashing down at any moment. Sarah Feingold shares her accounts working with Etsy and Vroom while they were in their “baby unicorn” status before they became a full blown billion-dollar mythical creature. This article is the first in a series of Feingold’s accounts.

Onit Honors More Sheroes as Part of Women’s History Month

Dayana JosephDayana Joseph is one of Onit’s Software Support Analyst based out of the Austin, TX, office. Over the past two years, Dayana has played an important role on Onit’s Customer Support team. Recently, Dayana was able to support a client’s streamlining efforts for their invoices which resulted in “virtual hugs and ‘thank yous’ every day.” Dayana commented that, “these wins definitely make my day and allow my passion to come up with creative solutions thrive.” Dayana shares Onit’s values of passion and persistence, which allow her to “tackle the many different challenges that are presented and maintain positive relationships with my clients.”

Dayana recently obtained her master’s degree in engineering management and would like to eventually become a project manager. Dayana says that her favorite part of Onit is that “the people are passionate about their work, the environment is energizing, and the future is exciting!” She shared that she appreciates that her team has brought out her potential to not only resolve issues, but also to work through complex enhancements.

Kate KatzKate Katz is one of Onit’s Strategic Alliances managers based out of the Houston, TX, office. Over the past two years, Kate has been a key player in building and shaping Onit’s Strategic Alliances Program. After gathering input from teams across the company and building out the necessary infrastructure, Kate and her team formally launched the Strategic Alliances Program last month. Kate shared that Onit’s values of passion and people resonate with her the most. Kate states, “I am passionate about the people we work with: our partners, our clients, and my colleagues here at Onit.”

Over the next year, Kate will focus on the execution of Onit’s strategic vision with its alliance partners. Kate will be “setting goals with our partners and marshalling them through to completion.” In-line with Kate’s achievements, Kate shared, “my favorite part of working at Onit is the freedom and responsibility to create and execute on new initiatives.”

Pooja PatilPooja Patil is a Professional Service Engineer in the Professional Services Group in Onit’s Pune, India, office. Recently, Pooja worked with one of Onit’s more complex clients through the end-to-end process of their implementation. This client recently had a successful go-live and Pooja shared that “it’s pleasing to see them happy with the implementation.” Pooja believes that Onit’s value of people is the most important, stating that “Onit strives for a blameless culture that respects people as individuals and paves the way to genuine learning and improvement.”

In the coming year, Pooja will continue to work on becoming an expert in her field. She shared that her favorite part of Onit is that the company welcomes and values feedback from its employees. Pooja values that “we can voice our thoughts and they are respected.”

Jozlyn Ver MeerJozlyn Ver Meer is a Sales Operations Analyst based out of the Houston, TX, office. Jozlyn plays a critical role in the day-to-day functions of the sales team and the other teams they interact with. Jozlyn shared that she has automated reports that previously required manual entry and “helped cut down on the time it takes to complete reporting to the executive team and board members.” Jozlyn believes the Onit value of persistence is key in a company like Onit. She believes that “even as we continue to provide high quality performance, there are always places to improve and become more efficient.”

Jozlyn will continue to implement more processes over the next year to “automate reporting, make cross-team collaboration more efficient, and hopefully build out the team to support the company in our growing initiatives.” Asked about her favorite part about working at Onit, Jozlyn stated, “the culture at Onit is one of the best that I have worked in. Colleagues aren’t just the people who you see in the office, but they are also invested in you personally and want to see everyone succeed.”

Onit and SimpleLegal Offer Free COVID-19 Related Workflow Solutions and Launch Online Learning Initiative in Response to Changing Market Landscape

Onit understands the unique situation of this new business environment as communities across the country feel the impact of COVID-19 and its related economic effect. For us here at Onit and SimpleLegal this means finding an immediate and concrete way to help our customer family and their families. We have implemented two new initiatives to build an even deeper online connection with the legal community and be a good corporate citizen during these times of uncertainty:

  1. Workflow Solutions Designed for 4 Critical Areas: Managing A Remote Workforce, Overseeing Business Changes, Mitigating Company Risk and Managing Financial Impacts
    Onit’s free workflow solutions are available to its more than 400 corporate law department customers and 8,000 law firm customers during this time of crisis. They are designed to be easy to implement and use. We are also offering these Apps to non-Onit customers who can benefit from them. These are the first of a series of new business continuity solutions Onit will release to support remote workers and their families that are sheltering at home. To learn more, listen to our webinar from Tuesday, March 24th or request a meeting to discuss how you can take advantage of these tools.
  2. Lean into Legal Ops: Online Curriculum with Master Classes & Toolkit
    The new online learning initiative will highlight programming from Onit and SimpleLegal’s customer base, industry thought leaders and innovators in the space. The master classes will cover topics such as how to use workflow tools to manage a distributed workforce, how to implement technology strategies that deliver immediate cost savings and ROI, how to quantify and defend the value in the legal department, process efficiency with a globally disparate workforce, and change management best practices in a challenging environment. To see a complete list of the upcoming programming and to join the program to get updates, visit the Lean Into LegalOps homepage.