Category: Business Process Management

How Roche Reduced the Risks of Incident and Compliance Investigations with Workflow Platform Technology

Posted on May 21, 2021 by - Business Process Management

More companies than ever have leaned into digital transformation, recreating processes and technologies associated with essential business processes such as incident and compliance investigations. Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche perfectly exemplified this type of innovation when it adopted a workflow automation platform to streamline its investigations.

Over the course of the decade, the company shifted from paper to digital spreadsheets to manage the incident and compliance investigations process and eventually implemented a case management system. However, they found the case management technology to lack the flexibility for continued innovation. The vendor could not quickly provide updated features and lacked simple conveniences such as presenting dates in the European format.

Roche quickly pivoted, a process discussed in a recent webinar held with Swiss LegalTech Association (SLTA), Onit and Kroll titled “Managing Compliance Investigations with Workflow Platform Technology at Roche.” Speakers included:

  • Sébastien Bergier, Director Internal Investigations, Roche
  • Imran Khan, Computer Forensics Manager, Roche
  • Matt DenOuden, Senior Vice President of Global Sales, Onit
  • Roger Jarman, Director, Legal Management Consulting, Kroll
  • Christoph Kueng, President, Swiss LegalTech Association
  • Nicolas Torrent, Vice President, Communication and Marketing, Co-head Geneva Chapter, Swiss LegalTech Association

You can view the on-demand presentation here.

Tackling Compliance Investigations with Workflow Automation

For Roche, a case management solution was critical not just for their teams to run their cases effectively, but also for senior leaders to have access to insights and trends in incident and compliance investigations. In addition, they wanted a system up and running as soon as possible that would cover their basic needs without compromising the integrity of their investigations and then evolve that system over time. After all, technology develops rapidly and businesses need to evolve in line with it.

The answer to building a proper case management system was to dismantle current processes that weren’t working. Roche then rebuilt by partnering with Onit and Kroll, exploring how the company managed its investigations, how they wanted to evolve them and what analytics they wanted to put in place.

With Onit Apptitude, Roche quickly built a front-to-back solution to manage the entire lifecycle of investigations. Thanks to the team’s vision, Onit and Kroll, the company introduced a solution that reduces risk by bridging the gap between legal, compliance and other departments. According to Roche, Onit Apptitude quickly and efficiently provided a visual on how the system would look and function.

Roche’s first iteration was ready in three months and went live within six months after that.

You can listen to the entire webinar and learn more about Roche’s transformation journey here.

To learn more about Onit Apptitude, visit here or schedule a demonstration.

AI in the Legal Sector by the Numbers

Posted on May 13, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management

Legal AI software has commanded the attention of corporate legal departments worldwide, thanks to its ability to offload manual work, increase efficiency and provide more insight into day-to-day tasks and strategic endeavors. As a result, more and more corporate legal departments are investing in AI and starting to discover its benefits.

By now, in-house counsel have been inundated with countless claims about how AI can increase productivity and efficiency, cut costs and boost revenues, and generally make work better. But, if you’re anything like us, numbers matter. They go beyond hyperbole and illustrate how effective legal AI software can be.

Here are data points to illustrate the difference AI is making across other businesses – and especially in the legal sector.

The Overall Use of AI

In November 2020, McKinsey & Company released a comprehensive report on The State of AI in 2020, and the results showed a commitment to AI across industries. Half of the 2,400 participants responding to the survey indicated that their organizations had adopted AI for at least one internal function or business unit. Not surprisingly, businesses in the telecom and other hi-tech sectors reported the highest rates of AI adoption.

As for the business functions seeing the most AI traction, service operations, product and service development, and marketing and sales topped the list. Over two-thirds of the respondents who said they incorporated AI into these functions also credited that adoption for increasing revenues.

Notably, 22% of the respondents said that they could attribute over 5% of their enterprise’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) to the use of AI. An additional 48% attributed at least some EBIT to using AI.

Legal AI Software Numbers

The overall enterprise-wide benefits of AI seen in organizations worldwide are certainly playing out in the legal arena. AI has now been applied to many routine but critical functions in the legal sector, with impressive results.

Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)

Contracts are one of the largest areas where legal organizations can benefit from AI.

According to Gartner, by 2023, legal AI software will bring 30% more efficiency to organizations that deploy CLM solutions, with 90% of multinational global enterprises and 50% of regional midsize organizations investing in CLM solutions by that year.

Onit has discovered comparable results with its own CLM solution (which is powered by business process automation and AI-powered business intelligence platforms), finding that corporate legal departments can expect to see the following savings:

  • A 24% reduction in the average sales cycle
  • A 20% reduction in the average hours spent on contracts
  • A 9% annual average cost savings

With legal AI software for contract review, data shows that in-house attorneys and legal operations professionals can expect to:

  • Increase contract review and approval speed by 60-70%
  • Improve user productivity by 51.5% on average
  • Redline contracts in less than 2 minutes

Of course, contract lifecycle management doesn’t end when your contract is signed. Each signed contract contains valuable data that can be extracted to improve your contracting processes going forward and allow you to make better, more informed business decisions. AI for contract extraction can help corporate legal:

  • Review 6,000 contracts at once
  • View over 500 contract data points
  • Export contract data in 5 seconds

Legal AI Software for Enterprise Legal Management (ELM)

AI performance extends beyond contracts to managing legal spend. For example, Onit’s ELM solution will help in-house counsel save 5-10% on outside counsel spend. Those savings increase when AI is applied to the first-pass invoice review. We’ll have more data illustrating this point coming soon with our upcoming announcement for InvoiceAI for enterprise legal management.

To learn more about how Onit’s AI solutions are changing the way legal professionals do business, contact us today or email [email protected].

ReviewAI Tools Revolutionized with ReviewAI Smart Checklists

Posted on May 11, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management

It’s no secret that in-house lawyers have too much to do and too little time to do it, making contract review tools a necessity, not a luxury. So, how can contract AI help in-house lawyers? They often have a long list of what they want and need from AI and technology that includes:

  • Eliminating painful, repetitive and non-complex work
  • Freeing up time to focus on strategy and high-value work
  • Increasing the quality of contract review
  • Working faster and handling higher volumes of work

With these priorities in mind, Onit launched contract AI tool ReviewAI seven months ago. ReviewAI does the repetitive work that lawyers want to streamline so they can concentrate on more strategic contributions. It reviews, redlines and edits all types of contracts in less than two minutes, including NDAs, MSAs, SOWs, purchase agreements, employment agreements and more. In addition, its Microsoft Word Add-In enables lawyers to work the way they are accustomed to working.

Now, Onit has announced a substantial enhancement to ReviewAI – Smart Checklists. It’s contract AI that goes beyond alerts and does the work.

Keep reading to learn more, view a demo here or you can hear Jean Yang, Vice President of the Onit AI Center of Excellence, explain it in the latest episode of our Onit podcast.

Contract AI That Goes Beyond Alerts – It Does the Work

Smart Checklists, offered as part of the ReviewAI Word Add-In, evolves contract review tools by turning playbook checks into intelligent and collaborative tasks. It tracks what’s important, what to do next and what is done – all in an intuitive solution that requires no training.

How does it work? Open a contract, and ReviewAI has Smart Checklists ready to go.

As a result of this contract AI tool, lawyers save upward of 52% of their time on contracts, while legal teams improve consistency, lower contract risks and better support the business.

Making ReviewAI Tools Smarter

Lawyers have always worked off of some sort of checklist during contract reviews. The problem is that the lists often only exist on a piece of paper or in someone’s head. They’re static.

ReviewAI Smart Checklists uses AI to create checklists made up of concrete, task-based actions that are generated from your company playbook. Rather than going through the tedious undertaking of applying that playbook yourself, ReviewAI digitizes it for you automatically. If you need to break your contract review into multiple sessions, ReviewAI and its Smart Checklists remember where you left off and make it easy to keep track of where you are, what’s been done and what you still need to do.

How to Get Started with ReviewAI Smart Checklists

Onit’s ReviewAI Smart Checklists, a revolutionary approach for contract review tools, is available immediately.

To learn more, you can:

Legal Industry News: Current News and Trends for Legal Operations Resources, May 2021

Posted on May 6, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management

Welcome to our May run-down of legal operations resources, where we share with you some of the most pertinent and timely articles for industry news. We hope this roundup provides some valuable takeaways.

In today’s lineup, we feature insights about how platform technology is transforming legal operations, the benefits of CLM and AI for the Lenovo legal department and new CLOC leadership.

#1

How Platform Technologies Enable Enterprise Collaboration For Corporate Legal Departments

Legal departments no longer function as black boxes within organizations. Today’s legal department regularly engages in cross-collaboration with all departments across the organization, typically with a high level of transparency. Along with the increase in collaboration has come a greater expectation that legal departments will heighten the level of service they provide and demonstrate the value they bring to the business.

Platform technologies are making it possible for legal departments to meet these expectations. Many organizations have replaced stand-alone software and solutions with a platform approach that allows companies to streamline processes across the organization and empowers legal departments to better connect with other departments. The article provides an in-depth discussion of the benefits of platform technology and essential tips on how to pick the right platform.

 (Source: The Impact Lawyers)

 #2

What’s Fueling Transformation in Corporate Legal? A Leading Operations Expert Explains.

The legal industry is primed for transformation, not unlike that seen in healthcare two decades ago, according to Brad Rogers, SVP of Strategy and Growth for Onit and former Chief Operations Officer and Chief of Staff for Advocacy and Oversight at a Fortune Global 100 company. 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. You can hear Brad discuss these factors in this podcast.

(Source: Onit podcast)

#3

CLOC, One of the Leading Legal Operations Resources, Welcomes a New President 

The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) announced a shift in leadership, with Mike Haven assuming the role of President on May 1. Haven has been a board member of CLOC since March 2019.

According to Haven, “I will continue to build on our commitment to support the entire legal ecosystem and foster a more diverse, inclusive, efficient and innovative culture.”

Haven is currently the Head of Legal Operations and Associate General Counsel for Intel, with prior law and legal ops experience that includes roles at K&L Gates LLP, NetApp and Gap Inc. He has long been active in the CLOC community, advocating for unity in the legal industry to overcome obstacles to progress.

As a reminder, the CLOC Global Institute starts on May 10. You can sign up now to join discussions on everything from the state of the industry to advancing the strategic direction of a corporate legal department and beyond.

(Source: CLOC)

#4

The Future of Contracting: CLM Automation with AI at Lenovo

Contract lifecycle management (CLM) software and AI continue to transform legal operations by allowing for faster and more efficient contracting processes – something that can benefit every company out there. The combination of CLM and AI also allows organizations to enhance risk and spend management, improve revenue and profit margins and increase visibility into counterparty relationships.

Companies that are looking to reap the benefits of digital transportation can learn from those who have successfully undertaken the transformation journey before them. In a recent webinar for the World Commerce and Contracting Association, the Lenovo Legal Department provides an important touchstone for legal operations resources by describing how they did just that, laying out the crucial factors that led to success and the ability to improve efficiency by 30% with contract AI.

(Source: Onit)

#5

Law Firm (Mostly) Goes Meeting-Free to Address Fatigue

It’s no secret that nearly everyone across the legal industry is suffering from at least some level of burnout after the past year. But what can we do about it?

For Dentons, one idea has been to place a pause on meetings for a week to allow employees to either take time off or play catch-up. The no-meetings week, which occurred the last week of April, applies to standing meetings but not to project and client deadlines. It’s not the first time the firm has tried this approach – they had a similar no-meetings week in December 2020. While the larger question remains as to whether the move is enough to combat a year of pandemic-related stress, the pause is an excellent recognition of the past year’s unique demands.

(Source: ABA Journal)

Get the inside track on legal operations resources and trends, the very best events and helpful content from the legal community by joining Lean Into LegalOps today. The program provides members of the legal community with a forum to share and learn from one another via webinars, debates and weekly catch-up calls. Visit this page to join.

What the Future With AI Looks Like for Enterprise Legal Management: InvoiceAI Coming Soon

Posted on April 13, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Company News and Events

As technology continues to evolve, many in-house counsel and legal professionals wonder what their future with artificial intelligence (AI) looks like. Will legal AI technology replace lawyers? Will it make work easier or more complicated?

Fortunately, we already have indicators of legal AI success. It’s providing commendable results in contract lifecycle management, accelerating contract approvals by up to 70%. Now, AI is also enhancing enterprise legal management software.

InvoiceAI, the new, AI-enabled invoice review solution for enterprise legal management, is coming to Onit and SimpleLegal next month. It lets corporate legal departments leverage the power of AI to boost efficiency in invoice review drastically. When InvoiceAI does a first-pass invoice review, in-house counsel reset their activities to review only the invoices that genuinely need their attention. This frees them up to focus time on more critical, higher-value work that helps the company succeed.

The Future with Legal AI Technology for Legal Operations

More and more companies are incorporating the benefits of AI in their workflows every day. In their annual global survey on artificial intelligence, The State of AI in 2020, McKinsey & Company found that half of their respondents had adopted AI in at least one function in their organizations. The survey also found that companies were increasingly using AI as a tool for generating value, particularly in the form of revenues.

Recent research from Gartner agrees. According to Gartner, by 2023, having AI will be a substantial competitive advantage for companies, bringing a 30% increase in efficiency to document completion and contract negotiation processes via AI-enabled contract lifecycle management tools. They also predict that, by 2023, 90% of multinational global enterprises will be investing in those solutions, as will 50% of regional midsize businesses.

What do these AI advantages look like when quantified?

Onit conducted a study of its ReviewAI software to quantify the time and cost savings for its pre-signature contract review AI software. The study found that lawyers were 51.5% more productive when using ReviewAI than when working manually. The percentage of productivity increased the more proficient they became with the tool.

To illustrate this benefit, consider that a typical midsize company in the United States employs 28 lawyers and reviews 4,850 contracts annually. With ReviewAI, each of these lawyers can unlock capacity – 51.5% more – and that same team of 28 lawyers can now process 2,498 more contracts annually.

That’s the same as adding nine lawyers to the team.

A Better Way to Review Invoices

The competitive advantage that AI has brought to functions like contract lifecycle management is now coming to invoice review. With InvoiceAI, general counsel and in-house counsel will finally be able to stop wasting precious time on tedious invoicing tasks. While legal AI technology handles your first-pass review, you can focus on more important things.

Onit’s founding principle is to help lawyers more effectively practice law, and InvoiceAI is a critical new tool to make that goal a reality.

AI-enabled legal invoice review from Onit and SimpleLegal will be available in May 2021. To learn more about InvoiceAI and how AI can improve your legal invoice review, contact Onit today or email [email protected].

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.

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.

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:

How to Prepare Your Team for an Enterprise Legal Management Software Implementation

Posted on March 16, 2021 by - Business Process Management, Enterprise Legal Management

An enterprise legal management software implementation brings all-new operational efficiency levels to corporate legal departments. By combining e-billing, legal spend management, matter management and legal service request intake into a single, streamlined platform, corporate legal departments can gain visibility into legal operations, cut costs and automate manual processes. In fact, some estimate that enterprise legal management (ELM) helps save up to 10% on outside counsel spend.

While it’s critical to focus on the technologies and processes involved in the implementation, often the people component lacks the same level of attention and planning. We asked ELM implementation experts from Onit about best practices to manage the people side of implementation and here are the four actions they recommend.

1.   Get the right hands on deck for your enterprise legal management implementation.

To start, you want to establish internal governance over your ELM implementation. You should determine crucial involvement from the beginning, such as who will have a vote on decisions, who will have input into decisions, who will be involved in reviewing implementation progress and how often, and more.

At many corporate legal departments, this involves creating an internal steering committee responsible for overseeing the implementation and an internal project sponsor who is usually the business unit leader who’s receiving the implementation. You might also involve the PMO and someone from finance who can monitor whether you’re getting what you expect out of your investment. The software provider should also provide a steering committee on their side, but your essential players should still be involved in your internal governance.

Because you’re likely making a pretty significant investment in your ELM solution, you’ll want to establish a consistent cadence for reviewing the implementation progress. For example, set a weekly or monthly schedule for monitoring whether you’re on track to hit milestones and whether progress is dependent on anything else within your organization that needs to be addressed.

2.    Get your internal business partners on board.

Implementation will look different for every legal department depending on who is spearheading the effort. If your legal team is contracting with a provider, have you lined up the support of IT or other departments in your company? Many departments try to move forward without any internal consultation. Because implementing ELM will require integrations with other systems and migration of data from your old system, you’ll need to get all your internal partners on board and determine what agreements and resources need to be set up before your implementation.

You’ll also want to assess the impact of your implementation on the rest of the business. Who do you need to inform? Will you need to notify an internal change in the control board that your company’s data will be hosted in another system? Will your internal audit team or information security need to check project documents before going live?

To get the engagement you need, you should start working within your internal channels as early in the process as possible. That groundwork needs to be paved by your team before implementation starts.

3.    Get your users ready and excited for the enterprise legal management software implementation.

As with any change, it’s important to prepare your users. The more you can get buy-in across the organization, the more successful the implementation will be.

Determine who needs to know when the solution is going live and how you’re going to tell them. Getting them excited about the change will be easier if you can proactively address any concerns they might have about new processes or systems. Whether it’s a company-wide email, a newsletter, a town hall meeting, or something else, you want to generate buzz about your new enterprise legal management software implementation.

Also critical to overall implementation success is a well-defined user training program. The proper training will allow end-users to be comfortable with both the system and your change management efforts. The means they feel empowered and confident to complete their daily tasks with minimal interruption after the ELM system becomes part of their workflows. You can tailor the training program to be as formal or casual as you need. There are endless options to deliver the right information in the right way for your end-users.

4.   Help your ELM provider deliver the system you need.

Preparation and testing are key components that your department can provide to help your ELM provider deliver the best implementation possible. Invest some time analyzing your department’s current state before implementation kicks off, documenting your processes end to end. Process maps and use cases are valuable for requirements and design and can save a lot of time and minimize distraction during the ELM design phase.

After all, you know your business better than anyone. As you work with your provider to design your system, think about how you’ll test the system via User Acceptance Testing before it goes live.

If you take the proper steps in advance, you can make sure you’ll get the best enterprise legal management software implementation for your corporate legal department and the business units that work with you.

Contact Onit today to learn more about how Onit offerings can help you provide better service to your business while improving operational efficiency.