Year: 2021

What to Look For in Enterprise Legal Management Software

Posted on April 8, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Enterprise Legal Management

Enterprise legal management software turboboosts legal operations and brings new levels of operational efficiency to corporate legal departments. A comprehensive solution that combines e-billing, matter management and legal service request intake into a single, streamlined platform provides a game-changing way to analyze legal spend, minimize company risk and drive process efficiency.

All these benefits are only possible, though, if you find the enterprise legal management software (ELM) that can support your corporate legal department and its unique needs. Finding ELM software that meets the following criteria will put you on the path to success.

  • Future-Proof Functionality: You don’t want your enterprise legal management software to run on a platform with limited capabilities. Look for an ELM that runs on its own business process automation and business intelligence platforms that can accommodate the department’s future technology needs for AI, contract lifecycle management and legal holds. The workflow integration between products will be native and much more robust this way, compared to multiple systems on different, poorly integrated platforms.
  • Good User Experience: You want your ELM solution to be easy to use, with a modern interface and experience that gets users up and going quickly. You also want it to be something people enjoy using. Look into your product or vendor’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) – a rating of how likely customers are to recommend a company, product or service on a scale of 0 to 10. The higher the NPS, the better.
  • Enhanced collaboration: Prioritize no-code platforms for your enterprise legal management software, as they allow you to build whatever apps you need for your corporate legal department – even if you have little or no technical expertise. For example, the Onit Nation (our customers, partners, business analysts and developers who use Onit platforms) has developed more than 5,500 Apps. These Apps do everything from automating government regulation reporting to managing trade association approval to streamlining the trademark renewal process and beyond.
  • Flat Pricing: Speaking of collaboration, consider the pricing structure for ELM solutions. You want to avoid ELM solutions that are priced based on how many people use the software. Per-user pricing limits how you can use your solution, forcing the choice between cost and collaboration. When that choice is no longer needed, you can work across business units, automate requests and increase transparency and trust.
  • System of Engagement: Traditional ELM vendors take a data collection-minded approach to managing matters and legal operations. Their technology platforms act as a system of record but are rarely used by lawyers and legal operations managers to deliver any real strategic value. Look for a vendor that offers an ELM system of engagement. This process-driven solution integrates workflow and collaboration and allows you to define the legal business processes that are critical to your organization.
  • Partner Implementation Network: While your vendor is key to a smooth implementation, so is their partner network. Your ELM provider should have an experienced and professional partner implementation network made up of strategic alliances that will ensure success across your entire enterprise.

Interested in learning more about enterprise legal management software, platforms and optimizing technologies? Check out our guide to platforms or our breakdown on driving efficiency in a post-pandemic environment.

To learn more about how ELM from Onit can transform your law department operations, contact us or schedule a demo today.

Onit Welcomes Brad Rogers as Its Senior Vice President of Strategy and Growth

Posted on April 6, 2021 by - Company News and Events

Brad Rogers, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Growth, OnitToday, we are excited to announce that Brad Rogers has joined Onit as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Growth.

For many Onit customers, he doesn’t need an introduction. He’s very familiar with legal operations and transformation, as he most recently served as Chief Operations Officer and Chief of Staff for Advocacy and Oversight at a Fortune Global 100 company. While there, he held a leadership role in building legal operations capabilities designed to drive productivity and cost reductions.

In his new role, Brad focuses on developing, executing and sustaining corporate strategic initiatives that advance Onit’s aggressive growth trajectory and innovation. This is an area he’s well-versed in, having more than 25 years of transformation, process excellence, strategic planning and legal operations leadership experience at major multinational corporations, including Bank of America, GE and JPMorgan Chase. He also holds an MBA in Competitive Strategy and Quantitative Methods from Fordham University, a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master Black Belt in Six Sigma Quality and Change Management.

Podcast: Brad Rogers Discusses What is Driving Change in Legal

In Brad’s view, the legal industry is primed for transformation, not unlike that seen in healthcare two decades ago. Leaders in law are now thinking differently about how to drive efficiency, effectiveness and value.  The transition – which was happening well before remote working – is accelerating, with new operating models that are built on what he sees as the four major drivers of change in the industry. These include technology, the rise of legal operations, the replacement cost revolution and business model innovation.

To hear more of Brad Rogers’ insights on how the industry is poised for transformation, you can listen to our podcast interview with him (see below.)  You can also read the press release announcement here.

 

NDA Automation: Get Better, Faster NDAs With the Help of Artificial Intelligence

Posted on April 1, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are some of the most commonly drafted agreements at any company. While they may be common, however, that doesn’t mean they’re unimportant – in fact, they’re critical to protecting a company’s business strategies and trade secrets.

Most companies use the same form NDA in almost every situation, changing only party names and the description of the confidential information involved, leaving the rest of the agreement to a series of standard terms. This means that, even though they’re important, NDAs are very repetitive and routine in terms of drafting.

Corporate legal departments have long been bogged down in routine contracts. Preparing NDAs can take up a significant amount of lawyers’ time, taking them away from other important work that can bring more value to the organization.

The routine nature of NDAs makes them a prime candidate for contract artificial intelligence. With the combination of AI and contracts, business users can engage in risk-free self-service to review and redline NDAs in less than two minutes. This frees up your legal staff to focus on higher-value work that helps support and grow the business.

Contract AI for NDAs and NDA Automation

AI is changing the game when it comes to routine contracts like NDAs. With AI, you can increase the speed of contract preparation and review while at the same time reducing your risk.

Onit’s ReviewAI software employs AI to quickly and accurately draft, review, redline, and edit all types of contracts, including NDAs, in a matter of minutes. ReviewAI isn’t just for those with legal training – non-legal business users can use ReviewAI to receive reviewed, redlined, and approved NDAs via email or a self-service portal in less than two minutes. This self-service option removes a huge burden from legal’s shoulders, freeing up valuable time for more complex legal matters.

For lawyers and contract professionals working on NDAs, ReviewAI offers a Word add-in that offers more hands-on functionality. The add-in automatically drafts, reviews, redlines and edits your NDAs against corporate standards. You’ve likely invested time in crafting standardized language for your NDAs and defining exactly what constitutes confidential information and how it’s to be treated. ReviewAI will learn those terms and customize them based on user feedback, making your NDA applicable to whatever scenario you’re addressing at a given moment.

ReviewAI is a game-changer because it contains NDA automation. The software empowers legal departments to review contracts 60-70% faster. It also leads to a 51.5% increase in user productivity, which is critical for making the most of your resources at a time when legal departments are under increased pressure to do more with less. With Review AI, it takes two minutes or less to review and redline a contract and also offers:

  • Contract summaries that identify a risk profile, issues, and recommendations after contract review
  • AI-assisted contract redlining that automatically generates track changes and commentary in either Word or PDF
  • Contract review templates for customizing contract review and ensuring corporate standards are being met
  • Automated alerts that use contract review templates to automatically flag key contract issues and suggest proper edits
  • Customizable clause library where you can create unique company clauses or leverage over 2,600 clauses created by legal experts
  • Enhanced navigation that helps you quickly jump to key legal concepts, clauses, and terms
  • Seamless integration with Onit’s Contract Lifecycle Management solution or third-party CLM tools

ReviewAI handles the entire pre-signature phase for NDAs. This dramatically reduces your contract lead time while decreasing your legal costs.

NDAs Made Simple

NDAs and other routine, repetitive contracts shouldn’t take attorney time and focus away from higher-value legal work. Tools that combine AI and contracts to produce NDA automation take these time-consuming tasks off your lawyers’ plates and also empower your business users to engage in self-service without increasing risk.

Contact Onit today to learn more about how ReviewAI can help with NDAs and other routine contracts.

Legal Industry News: Current News and Trends in Legal Operations, March 2021

Posted on March 31, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management

Welcome to our March industry run-down, where we share with you some of the most pertinent and timely articles on legal industry news. We hope this roundup of legal industry trends provides some useful takeaways.

In today’s lineup, we share insights about how Lenovo uses AI and automation for contract management, legal technology trends from Gartner and how leaning into communications and leadership traits exhibited by women can enhance collaboration between lawyers and clients.

#1

 An AI Checklist for Every Phase of Contract Lifecycle Management

Contracts are the main source of risk and obligations for corporate legal teams, and if not managed properly, they can lead to a whole host of complications and business failures. The right contract lifecycle management (CLM) tool allows you to modernize the way you deliver legal services, automating and standardizing processes to create a single point of truth for all your contracts.

Nick Whitehouse, general manager of Onit’s AI Center of Excellence, tackles the latest in legal industry news by sharing a checklist for contract AI, covering all phases of CLM. The article includes considerations for both the pre-signature and post-signature contract management phases, including topics like the importance of pre-trained AI, how a CLM solution can turn contract data into actionable intelligence and the overall benefits of contract AI.

(Source: Lexology)

#2

Are You AI-Certified? According to Experts, You Might Want to Look Into that.

While AI solutions are often touted as the solution to human error and bias, the data underlying those tools can contain just as many biases. Problematic data means problematic results, and even potential liability.

One current initiative is trying to change all that by empowering attorneys to give their clients reliable and substantive advice about the AI tools they’re considering using. The University of Toronto’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society has partnered with AI Global, a nonprofit focusing on advancing responsible and ethical AI, to create a certification project for lawyers looking to help their firms implement AI tools or advise their clients about AI. The goal of the new program is to create an international framework of AI across a number of industries that is fair, ethical, and responsible, eliminating bias and privacy breaches.

(Source: ABA Journal)

#3

Five In-House Legal Tech Trends from Gartner

In recent years, automation and other technologies have emerged as the obvious solution for beleaguered legal departments that are under constant pressure to cut costs and boost efficiency. While the legal industry has historically been resistant to technology, things have slowly been changing. When the pandemic hit, legal departments shifted gears. As a result, they’ve been able to discover the many benefits of incorporating and embracing technology to achieve business outcomes.

The trend toward widespread technology adoption is only expected to continue. Gartner recently predicted five trends we should expect to see in legal tech in the coming years:

  • By 2024, 20% of generalist lawyers in corporate legal departments will be replaced by nonlawyer staff
  • By 2024, 50% of corporate legal departments’ work related to major corporate transactions will be automated
  • By 2025, corporate legal departments will triple their spending on legal technology
  • By 2025, at least 25% of corporate legal application spending will be on nonspecialist technology providers.
  • By 2025, corporate legal departments will have only captured 30% of the potential benefits of their CLM solutions

 (Source: Gartner)

#4

Look to Women to Advance Success and Collaboration in the Legal Industry

In honor of Women’s History Month, the Women’s Network of the Legal Value Network’s shined the spotlight on what makes women leaders successful and how adopting feminine leadership and communication styles can benefit law firms by advancing collaboration between lawyers and clients.

Female leadership has really risen to the occasion in the face of the pandemic’s challenges, largely because traditionally female leadership qualities – compassion, humility, and collaboration – have been what companies have needed to thrive despite uncertainty. “The qualities that make women great leaders through times of crisis are also what make them great leaders every day,” says Shelley Zalis, CEO of The Female Quotient and founder of The Equality Lounge.

(Source: Legal Value Network)

#5

The Future of Contracting: CLM Automation + AI Transformation at Lenovo

Every legal department can benefit from more efficient processes. Technology is the key to making that possible. The World Commerce and Contracting Association recently held a webinar that looked at the Lenovo legal department transformation journey, highlighting how Lenovo successfully built a strategy for an effective global rollout of contract lifecycle management technology that relied heavily on AI.

Key themes of the webinar included:

  • Lenovo’s CLM evolution and transformation roadmap
  • Multi-year goals related to their contract management technology
  • Why the culture must eat change management for breakfast
  • The benefits and ROI of a single CLM platform

You can watch the entire webinar to learn how AI is driving the future here.

(Source: World Commerce and Contracting Association)

Bonus Resource: Lean Into LegalOps

Get the inside track on corporate legal and operations trends, the very best events and helpful content from the legal community by joining Lean Into LegalOps today. The online forum lets Onit customers and other members of the legal community share and learn from one another with webinars, debates, weekly catch-up calls and more.

From the CEO’s Desk: Change is Hard — Especially in Legal Services

Posted on March 31, 2021 by - Legal Operations

By Bodhala CEO & Co-Founder, Raj Goyle

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of sitting down for a conversation with Justin Kan — serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Twitch, and Silicon Valley darling — on a recent episode of Nasdaq’s hot, new World Reimagined podcast. 

Spending this time recording with Justin got me thinking about Atrium’s journey, its downfall (Justin shared a terrific self-analysis of key learnings), and how its efforts related to our mission at Bodhala. As a legal tech CEO navigating the extremely nuanced world of legal services, I wanted to share some thoughts on Atrium’s rise and fall. 

It’s no secret that the legal industry is a laggard on the technology adoption curve. 

But that’s rapidly changing.

The legal services market is a half-a-trillion dollar global industry. Like any massive market, opportunity, disruption — or transformation — is inevitable and is finally starting to take hold. And along with innovation comes investment. More money has been invested in legal technology companies in the last year than ever before — and things are just beginning to heat up. 

That’s why it’s no surprise that Justin started Atrium. He saw an obvious problem — law firms are incredibly inefficient — so he set out to create the “law firm of the future”. A hybrid of technology and technology-enabled services, Atrium would tackle inefficiency while delivering the level of service expected from top-tier lawyers. 

His history of success drew big-name investors like Andreessen Horowitz to his vision, landing Atrium $75M+ in funding by 2018. Fast forward to 2020: Atrium closed its doors for good. 

With a world-class leader, $75M in funding, and an industry seemingly “ripe” for disruption, it seemed to be “all systems go” for Atrium. So what happened? Why do some legal tech startups fail, while others succeed? 

Price Isn’t Everything

The legal services industry is a unique beast. While price is always important to some degree, it’s not as big of a determinant for corporate clients as you might think. Aptly dubbed an “old boys club,” in-house lawyers often source their law firms the same way they picked their kickball teams in elementary school — by choosing their friends (often law school buddies or old law firm colleagues).

This presents a unique barrier to entry. Moving from a relationship-driven selection process to a price-driven selection process can be a major hurdle, requiring buyers to change how they think about not only the procurement process but also the value of the service.

While Atrium’s services and its fixed-fee business model were appealing to its target market, it focused on a practice area that was already relatively commoditized. Startups never had money to burn, and law firms had long been forced to price competitively in order to win business. 

Much like investing in a startup, many firms would give “bargain-basement” rates to get in early with potentially large, long-term customers. In this particular market, there is not a lot of wiggle room to undercut on price, which forced Atrium to set rates at almost a loss in order to be truly “competitive”. Atrium hoped its margins would improve once it could automate some of the lawyers’ tasks, but maintaining a team of lawyers proved to be expensive. The more clients sought out their low-cost services, the more money Atrium lost. 

While undercutting on price is a fair strategy for new businesses to gain traction with customers, it’s not sustainable for long-term growth. When it comes to legal services, corporate clients prioritize expertise and value over the price tag. Their focus lies on finding out the level of value delivered at that price and whether or not they could find equal or better value elsewhere at a lower cost. 

But the opacity of the legal services market and the complete lack of price discovery have made this nearly impossible. That’s why data is a critical piece of the puzzle. 

Data is Key

Legal services are not a commodity product. There is a finite amount of work that is routine enough to be simplified through automation. Atrium looked to become the technology-run law firm of the future, but its maniacal focus on simplifying and commoditizing services failed to recognize the nuances of the services themselves.

When it comes to legal tasks, everything is not always what it seems. Tasks that appear similar at face value can be drastically different in execution, resulting in the “same task” taking 10 times longer to complete in one matter than in another. For example, a task performed for an M&A-related matter might require more expertise than the same task performed for a litigation-related matter, thus making it more time-consuming and expensive. Without extensive, structured legal billing data, it’s impossible to truly identify like-tasks or average time or cost.

Atrium ultimately under-priced its services because it likely didn’t have the legal billing data necessary to appropriately model the costs. As a result, the business’ prices were set so low that it could not even cover its margins. 

Pricing is complicated, but data is key to success.

Knowledge is Power

Legal billing data is a beast. Cleaning and structuring it is tough and so is building up a critical mass of data to even glean insights from. But it’s a crucial step in understanding the minutiae of legal services. Without it, you’ll succumb to the nature of the beast. 

When it comes to legal services, corporate clients prioritize value over price. However, value cannot be measured effectively without data on your side. And as we’ve learned from Atrium, data can play an influential role in determining whether a startup sinks or swims. 

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Get in touch with our team of legal billing and data experts to find out how Bodhala can transform your legal department.

4 Benefits of Legal Spend Management Software

Posted on March 30, 2021 by - Legal Operations

In today’s economic climate, companies are increasingly focused on optimizing both internal and external resources; Legal is no exception. From simple spend visibility to cost control and efficiency, modern legal spend management solutions are helping forward-thinking General Counsels make more strategic, data-driven decisions about how they invest their outside counsel spend.

But what benefits can you expect from your legal spend management system? Let’s break them down here: 

1. Better Strategic Decisions Driven By Data 

When it comes to managing your outside counsel spend, everything (and we mean everything) starts with your data. 

Legal billing — from getting rate visibility to discount clarity — is complicated. For example, your rate card and the effective rates you actually pay may be very different. Understanding that (and many other aspects of your bills) is critical to effective budgeting, forecasting, and strong outside counsel vendor management. 

Knowing your numbers like the back of your hand won’t only help with budgeting or operational efficiency. Data will also help you make better, faster decisions. For example, which firm in a panel is most efficient for certain matter types? Are you overpaying because of inappropriate staffing decisions (e.g., partners executing associate level tasks or consistent meeting overstaffing)? 

Fast access to trustworthy data that can be sliced and diced to support your business’ specific needs and your specific questions will not only save you and your team time and money, but it will also give you the fuel you need to quickly make truly informed decisions. 

2. Clear “Should Cost” Understanding

What should that big matter you have coming up actually cost? It’s a question GCs and finance departments ask themselves all the time, with little success. RFPs are often wildly off when it comes to predicting costs. It’s common for a matter to cost 150-200% of the firm’s original bid. So, what’s the best way to anticipate what a big upcoming matter will cost? 

True, market-driven benchmarking is the only way to not only anticipate more accurate costs for upcoming matters, but also to obtain the most competitive rates or AFAs. 

However, benchmarking can be tricky. Make sure your benchmarking solution considers practice area, matter type, and tier of firm. For example, you can’t compare complex real estate litigation with standard insurance claims litigation. You also can’t compare insurance claims litigation costs for one cause of loss with another, or from one jurisdiction to another. So, make sure your benchmarks allow you to get granular; anything less can leave you holding the bag on a very big and unexpected bill! 

3. Better Governance 

Managing your outside counsel firms can be challenging. Just enforcing guidelines accountability is not only time consuming but can also be like finding a needle in an intentionally large haystack. Even getting visibility on their staffing practices can be tough. 

Modern legal spend management software can remove the headaches of guidelines compliance and provide much-needed visibility on staffing and billing practices for both you and your firms. Some solutions provide easy-to-use firm report cards that show trends over time on everything — average hours per matter, timekeeper breakdowns, rates, and more. When shared with your firms, report cards provide a fantastic basis for effective management; many forward-thinking GCs use them to drive quarterly or biannual reviews. 

4. Clean, Structured, Usable Data

Data can provide a window into performance, highlighting meaningful opportunities for improvement. Most successful businesses have leveraged data for years to inform strategic decisions as well as operational efficiency – but not so much in legal departments. 

Legal billing data is a necessity to understand all aspects of success. However, historically, legal billing data has been a mess (to put it mildly). With no standard taxonomy (way of organizing data), copious human error, and unique domain challenges led to a web of tangled data that in most cases just didn’t line up. With no apples-to-apples comparison possible, data often led to misleading takeaways and potentially poor decisions. 

But, never fear. Advanced legal billing software can help you make sense of your data. By leveraging new technologies like machine learning and AI, cutting edge legal billing solutions can not only structure the data you have but also correct errors and enhance the data to allow for deeper insights. 

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Get in touch with our team of legal billing and data experts to find out how Onit can transform your legal department.

The Future of Contracting: CLM Automation with AI at Lenovo

Posted on March 30, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Company News and Events

Every company can benefit from faster and more efficient contracting processes, such as CLM software automation and AI, that enhance risk and spend management, improve revenue and profit margins and increase visibility into counterparty relationships. In a recent webinar for the World Commerce and Contracting Association, the Lenovo Legal Department described a transformation journey that can deliver value to any business.

The webinar paints a picture of the ideal overall transformation of the legal function, going from a bespoke system of subject matter experts to a legal function that combines that bespoke talent with standardized operations and digital efficiencies. The result is a legal department that’s digital, scalable and value-driven. This is achieved through the right combination of contract lifecycle management (CLM) and artificial intelligence (AI).

The Pillars of Lenovo’s CLM Automation and AI Journey

Lenovo identified three ideal outcomes that guide contract management transformation.

  1. Centralize – Your organization should have a single legal team – not geographically, but operationally. Centralization enables agile support for both the legal function and the enterprise as a whole. It also allows the legal function better flexibility to support new business areas and a greater ability to align resources with tasks.
  2. Standardize – Once you’ve centralized your legal function, you want to create and reinforce standardization across all activities. This includes enhanced and consistent documentation, harmonized workflows and standardized R&Ps for legal and other stakeholders in the organization, among other things.
  3. Digitize – A modern legal function is built around system-based workflows with increasing automation. Digitizing increases visibility into the E2E process and improves your reporting capabilities. It has also proven crucial for helping businesses navigate pandemic disruptions, thanks to solutions like CLM with e-signature capabilities.

Improving Efficiency by 30% with Contract AI

"It's not just a matter of looking at the CLM system and the capabilities. It’s really understanding the journey that you're going to go through and having the right partner to be with you. For us, we needed flexibility. We needed to have strategic discussions with stakeholders at our partners' organization, both from Duff & Phelps and Onit. When we were selecting our [CLM] solution, those were key elements.”AI is critical to the CLM automation process, according to the Lenovo team, because it not only improves the efficiency of the work, but it’s also actually doing some of the work for you. AI-powered CLM software helps remove the productivity bottleneck that plagues many areas of the legal function today.

While CLM software and AI have already established a strong foothold in legal departments across the country, their prevalence is only going to grow in the coming years. By 2023, Gartner estimates that 90% of multinational global enterprises and 50% of regional midsize organizations will have invested in CLM solutions, and that AI will bring 30% more efficiency to the contract negotiation and document completion processes in organizations that deploy leading CLM solutions.

CLM handles your contracting from end to end, starting with legal review intake and leading you through redlining, drafting and negotiation to approval and execution, and finally creating a repository and empowering intelligent reporting to support informed decision-making. CLM with AI does all those things even more accurately and efficiently.

The panel walked through the major goals of any successful CLM automation and AI program:

  • Faster and cheaper contracting
  • Enhanced risk management
  • Data analytics
  • Visibility
  • Revenue and profit improvement
  • Spend management
  • AI capabilities

Additionally, the webinar highlights a number of key themes that are critical to anyone on the CLM transformation journey, including:

  • Lenovo’s CLM evolution and transformation roadmap
  • Multi-year goals related to their contract management technology
  • Why the culture must eat change management for breakfast
  • The benefits and ROI of a single CLM platform
  • How AI is driving the future for its enhanced vision

Download the webinar here to learn more about Lenovo’s strategy for a global rollout of CLM technology and why AI is key to the services delivery model of the future.

Bodhala CEO, Raj Goyle, Appears on Legal Tech Startup Focus Podcast

Posted on March 27, 2021 by - Legal Operations

Bodhala CEO, Raj Goyle, recently joined Legal Tech Startup Focus podcast host, Charles Uniman, to discuss his journey to becoming a legal tech startup founder, the current issues plaguing the legal services marketplace, and how data is transforming the legal industry.

“In the law, the buyer of legal services has none of the five key attributes that the buy-side deserves to have — price discovery, innovation, data, competition, & accountability to the sell-side. The entire legal system in America is set up for the benefit of the law firm vendor.”  — CEO, Raj Goyle

Bodhala’s mission is to create a transparent market for legal services. Using data to illuminate price discovery, we can drive competition and innovation not just for buyers of legal services, but for the entire industry.

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Get in touch with our team of legal billing and data experts to find out how Bodhala can transform your legal department.

Inc. Ranks Onit as One of the Fastest-Growing Companies in Texas

Posted on March 26, 2021 by - Company News and Events

Onit has once again been honored by the Inc. 5000 awards program – this time scoring #44 on the Inc. list of the top 250 fastest-growing companies in Texas. This is the second time we have been on the regionals list, moving from #70 in 2020 to #44 in 2021 with two-year revenue growth of 273%.

Out of the 250 companies on the list, Onit is among only 20 that are repeat honorees.

According to our CEO and co-founder Eric M. Elfman: “This award for fast growth is significant, given the challenges we faced during 2020 with the pandemic. Being among the 250 fastest-growing companies in Texas further validates our strategy of focusing on our customers and continually fostering innovation.”

Overall, companies on the Inc. 5000 Regionals: Texas 2021 list had a median growth of 95%, total revenue of more than $4 billion and added more than 2,400 jobs.

The 2021 Inc. 5000 Regionals are ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2017 and 2019. To qualify, companies have to be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies. Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Regionals: Texas can be found at https://www.inc.com/inc5000/regionals/texas.

But wait – There’s More! Onit is Also On the Austin Business Journal’s Austin-Area Tech Employers List

In addition to being named one of the fastest-growing companies in Texas, we are also happy to announce that Onit has landed on the Austin Business Journal’s Austin-Area Tech employers list. This year we joined the ranks of more than 100 other companies, including Dell, Apple, IBM and Amazon.com, coming in at #78. Onit opened its Austin office in 2012, which is now located on the north side of the city.

The Austin Business Journal ranks Austin-area tech employers that provide proprietary technology that changes the way business is done. Overall, the list includes hardware and software makers, internet-based services, e-commerce companies, semiconductor corporations, manufacturers, biotech firms and artificial intelligence businesses. Information for the list is gathered from ABJ surveys, news coverage and company websites.

This news is inspiring for us because Onit was also recently included on both Forbes’ America’s Best Startup Employers and the Houston Chronicle’s Top Workplaces lists.

Come Work at Onit

Onit is hiring worldwide, aiming to bring even more employees on board to continue our rapid growth. If you’re interested in learning more, go to our careers page or check out Glassdoor and LinkedIn to see reviews.

Ten Things to Look For When Choosing a Legal Platform

Posted on March 23, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management

Legal platform technologies have proven invaluable for helping corporate legal departments adroitly navigate the ups and downs of the past year. Thanks to the flexibility, customization, unlimited scalability and limitless building opportunities they offer, no-code platforms have provided legal departments with the tools they need to innovate and adapt to meet change after change.

Perhaps you’ve already decided that a platform approach is right for your legal department. How do you know how to pick the right one?

What to Look for When Buying a Legal Platform

Here are ten things to consider when choosing a legal platform to meet the unique needs of your corporate legal department.

  1. Enterprise-wide solution development

The ideal online platform will give you the ability to create all the solutions you need for day-to-day operations, both within your legal department and in any department across the organization, allowing for cross-collaboration between all departments.

  1. Agile project management

The right platform will be able to adjust and evolve as your department’s and organization’s needs change. When considering a platform, make sure it continually releases updates, so you know you’re always incorporating the most up-to-date security standards and user feedback in the solutions you create.

  1. No-code technology

You shouldn’t have to be a technology or coding expert to reap the benefits of an online platform. Many platforms today are no-code, bridging the gap between business and technical users. This makes it simple for anyone in the legal department to build new workflows, even if they have little or no technical training.

  1. Quick realization of value

With any business change or new technology, the faster it can start creating value, the better. A legal platform that allows you to quickly build solutions from day one lets you start realizing value for your organization almost immediately.

  1. AI and automation

The platform you choose should ideally incorporate the power of automation and artificial intelligence to eliminate time-consuming and costly manual legal processes. You’ll also benefit from continuous learning, which automatically examines and adjusts business process rules and workflows over time, even predicting necessary changes before they arise.

  1. Third-party integration tools

While it’s critical that you’re able to build whatever solutions you need on your platform, it’s equally important that those solutions are able to connect to the other tools you use every day. The ideal platform will include a third-party integration tool that seamlessly moves data between all your systems and acts as a centralized hub for your operations.

  1. Robust business intelligence tools and analytics

Today’s legal departments are sitting on more data than ever before. It’s time to make that data useful. Your platform should integrate robust business intelligence tools and analytics capabilities that empower you to leverage your data to make valuable, informed business and legal decisions that will benefit the entire organization.

  1. A responsive user interface

For a long time, technology struggled to find a way to be suitable for viewing on all devices. Instead, what you saw varied depending on your screen size or resolution. Enter responsive user interfaces, which adjust your content according to the device that’s being used, so your users can always view the content as you intended it to be viewed.

  1. An adaptive end-user experience

Adaptive platforms offer multiple layouts in order to provide the best possible experience for your end users. An adaptive platform will detect where your user is accessing it and automatically provide the most appropriate layout for that user’s situation, role, or activity.

  1. Best-in-class partner programs

The best technology providers should be partnered with the best talent, resources, and experience in the industry. Your platform provider should give you access to a top-notch partner network where you can get whatever help you need with technology, implementation, or services in order to maximize your investment.

Onit’s legal platforms, business process automation platform Apptitude and AI-based business intelligence platform Precedent, help corporate legal departments adapt and innovate to meet whatever challenges arise. Contact us today to learn more about how a platform approach can benefit your corporate legal department.

For fmore information on how to choose the right platforms to benefit your corporate legal department, consider these resources: