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New product developments for managing matters, spend and contracts highlight company’s dedication to the transformation of the legal department into a strategic business partner

HOUSTON, May 16, 2023 — Onit, a leading provider of legal workflow solutions including enterprise legal management (ELM) and contract lifecycle management (CLM), today announced a range of new product developments that help corporate legal departments optimize their material impact and evolve into more modern and interactive business partners.

The product developments for ELM and CLM highlight Onit’s dedication to enabling more efficient and cost-effective legal workflows for customers. Since acquiring SecureDocs in December 2021, the most recent of six acquisitions in a span of three years, the company has been hyper-focused on integrating its subsidiaries and technologies to provide the most comprehensive portfolio of ELM and CLM solutions on the market. In March 2023, Onit announced several updates to its offering, including the launch of the OnitX platform and Onit Catalyst portfolio and new integrations to its spend and matter management solutions — all of which stem from the strategic acquisitions of Bodhala in August 2021, BusyLamp in September 2021 and McCarthyFinch in November 2020.

A Comprehensive Portfolio of Legal Solutions That Meet You Where You Work

With solutions designed for medium and large enterprises, Onit enables legal departments of all sizes to modernize workflows, improve operational and cost efficiency and contribute to faster revenue generation and business growth. The following features and capabilities will be demoed by request and at CLOC Global Institute 2023 in Las Vegas:

• Clause Creator AI: ContractWorks (a product of SecureDocs) launched Clause Creator AI, enabling users to easily create new clauses in full legalese and save them to a clause library for future use in a few clicks. Clause Creator AI reduces the time attorneys spend drafting clauses from scratch and helps non-legal users draft clauses that require less effort to review.
• Task Management: SimpleLegal’s Task Management bolsters the company’s matter management solution by enabling legal teams to monitor a matter’s tasks through the various stages of its lifecycle. With all matter-related affairs in a single location, Task Management makes it easy for users to meet deadlines, ensure appropriate coverage, share progress and evaluate success. Task Management will be available later in 2023.
• Interactive Analytics: The OnitX platform now provides Matter Suite Best Practice Value Dashboard with interactive analytics that produce action-oriented summaries about legal matters and spending over time. The customizable dashboard also provides broader insights by integrating with other data sources, like HR or ERP data. More dashboards will be introduced later in 2023.
• Enhanced Reporting: SimpleLegal’s (acquired by Onit in May 2019) Enhanced Reporting, the fastest-adopted feature in SimpleLegal’s history, strengthened its offering with new datasets for invoice-level spend and reports for timekeepers rate requests and predicted versus actual spend. Enhanced Reporting’s data visualizations and report customization capabilities make it easy for legal teams to make more informed, data-driven decisions and gain a deeper understanding of their legal spend, matters and outside counsel performance.

Legal’s Path Forward: A Strategic Partner and Material Business Driver

Amid a challenging economic climate, the legal department can evolve beyond business protector and into the role of strategic partner and material business driver by becoming more modern and efficient. Data from the 2023 Enterprise Legal Reputation (ELR) Report reveals the quality of interactions between Legal and its internal clients has noticeably decreased year over year across every enterprise function — and that legal professionals are acutely aware that concerns around their responsiveness, communication and efficiency are impacting their working relationships.

However, there are roadblocks hindering Legal’s ability to be a faster, smarter and more modern partner. Nearly four in 10 (37%) legal respondents believe a lack of budget for modern solutions is holding them back from providing positive experiences for internal clients, while a similar percentage (36%) cites a lack of technology solutions.

“Our mission at Onit has never wavered — it’s always been our goal to provide enterprises with technology that automates business-critical legal workflows and helps transform corporate legal departments into business-driving strategic partners,” said Eric Elfman, Onit’s CEO. “By building the most comprehensive and sophisticated solutions for ELM and CLM, we are empowering legal professionals to positively impact materiality, increase efficiency and better collaborate with their internal clients.”

Learn more about Onit’s portfolio of ELM and CLM solutions at CLOC Global Institute 2023 on May 15 – 18, where the company is a proud diamond sponsor.

• Jean Yang, Vice President of Onit’s AI Center of Excellence, will moderate a panel titled Exploring the Implications of Generative AI and ChatGPT on May 17 at 10:30 am PDT.
• Visit us at Booth #207 to learn more about these product updates, book a demo or arrange to meet the team at CLOC.

Additional Resources

​For more company news, industry trends and best practices from corporate legal innovators, read the Onit blog and follow us on LinkedIn.

About Onit
Onit is the leading provider of legal workflow solutions for enterprise legal management (ELM) and contract lifecycle management (CLM). Onit’s comprehensive product portfolio customizes AI-driven workflows for managing matters, spend, vendors and contracts. With Onit, companies can evolve the legal department’s role as a business protector and transform it into a business driver that materially influences the enterprise by improving operational and cost efficiency while simultaneously contributing to faster revenue generation and business growth.

The Onit portfolio of products also includes SimpleLegal, AXDRAFT, BusyLamp and SecureDocs. Learn more at onitprostg.wpengine.com.

Media contacts
Mike Nadeau, [email protected]

The 2023 Enterprise Legal Reputation (ELR) Report uncovers opportunities for legal departments to maximize their material effect on the business through better collaboration, increased efficiency and smarter technology

HOUSTON, May 10, 2023 — Onit, a leading provider of legal workflow solutions including enterprise legal management and contract lifecycle management, today released the concluding chapters of its 2023 Enterprise Legal Reputation (ELR) Report. The ELR Report is an annual multinational study spotlighting year-over-year changes in the brand image of corporate legal departments through the eyes of their internal clients, the way legal professionals perceive their interactions with other departments, and the material impact Legal can have on its businesses — from revenue generation and operational efficiency to innovation and corporate culture.

In November 2022, Onit commissioned Provoke Insights, a New York City-based market research firm, to conduct a study of 4,000 non-legal enterprise employees and 500 corporate legal professionals in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany. The study helps corporate legal teams and executive teams explore ways to improve working relationships, accelerate legal workflows and transform the function’s material role in large enterprises.

While the first chapter of the ELR Report reveals the quality of interactions between Legal and its internal clients noticeably decreasing year over year across every enterprise function — particularly with public-facing, revenue-impacting departments like Sales and Marketing — the latest installment of the report finds that legal professionals are acutely aware that concerns around their responsiveness, communication and efficiency are impacting the quality of their working relationships.

As current macroeconomic distress exacerbates the pressure on all employees to show value by improving operational efficiency amid cost-cutting measures, the need for faster execution and better collaboration with Legal is evident — more than nine in 10 (91%) legal respondents acknowledge that other departments bypass their team because of slow processes or perceived non-responsiveness, even if it means circumventing company policy. This evasion has adverse repercussions. Legal’s enduring image is a trustworthy protector of the business, but ensuring compliance, managing risk, and avoiding liability issues is hampered when employees knowingly bypass legal policies.

The Cost of Modernization: Addressing Legal’s Barriers to Efficiency

More than half (61%) of legal respondents believe their internal clients see them as inefficient because of a lack of communication (51%), too many processes (46%) or poor collaboration (31%). Modernizing operations can combat the perception of inefficiency by enabling faster execution and better collaboration, undoubtedly increasing Legal’s opportunity to positively impact enterprise materiality.

Despite Legal’s desire to evolve into a faster, smarter and more modern partner, the study finds there are roadblocks preventing forward movement. Nearly four in 10 (37%) legal respondents believe a lack of budget for modern solutions is holding them back from providing positive experiences for internal clients, while a similar percentage (36%) cites a lack of technology solutions. Moreover, one in three (34%) believe leadership does not value efficient workflows.

However, when it comes to critical yet time-consuming processes like contract management — where only 22% of legal respondents say contracts are managed efficiently — modernizing workflows can directly address issues related to speed and collaboration. The report found that four in five (83%) companies handle up to 2,000 contracts annually and invest an average of 4.5 hours a day working on contracts, with one in five (21%) legal respondents admitting to spending six to eight hours on contract-related matters every day.

Time to Shine: Legal’s Positive Impact on Revenue Growth and Operational Efficiency

The ELR Report reveals Legal’s opportunity to directly contribute to business growth — six in 10 (60%) legal respondents believe they help Sales effectively negotiate deals and generate revenue. Yet, nearly half (49%) also believe lengthy contract cycles negatively impact deal closure and delay revenue generation (49%). Legal can improve efficiency and influence growth by embracing technology solutions for managing legal operations. Automating tedious parts of the contract negotiation process can expedite the time it takes to execute sales contracts — a welcome change given more than eight in 10 (84%) legal respondents say it takes over a month to execute sales contracts and one in four (26%) admit it can take upward of three months. Inefficiency within the contract management process may also have a negative impact on vendor procurement (43%) and M&A and partnerships (29%).

“The need for every legal department to execute faster and communicate better is clear,” said Stasha Jain, General Counsel of Onit. “The current challenging macroeconomic climate has caused each department to emphasize cost containment, but it’s up to us as legal practitioners to evolve beyond enterprise guardians. Triangulating people, process, and technologies — which includes testing new developments in AI — is fundamental to Legal’s transformation into a more collaborative partner and material business driver.”

Read the ELR Report to learn about the opportunities for Legal to evolve its image from a traditional transactional back-office function to a material driver that impacts business growth, faster revenue generation and operational efficiency.

About Onit
Onit is the leading provider of legal workflow solutions for enterprise legal management (ELM) and contract lifecycle management (CLM). Onit’s comprehensive product portfolio customizes AI-driven workflows for managing matters, spend, vendors and contracts. With Onit, companies can evolve the legal department’s role as a business protector and transform it into a business driver that materially influences the enterprise by improving operational and cost efficiency while simultaneously contributing to faster revenue generation and business growth.

The Onit portfolio of products also includes SimpleLegal, AXDRAFT, BusyLamp and SecureDocs. Learn more at onitprostg.wpengine.com.

Media contacts
Mike Nadeau, [email protected]

The OnitX platform tightly integrates with the AI-enabled products of Onit Catalyst to provide business-critical ELM and CLM workflows that empower corporate legal teams to make better decisions faster

HOUSTON (March 20, 2022) — Onit, the leading provider of legal workflow solutions, including enterprise legal management (ELM) and contract lifecycle management (CLM), today announced OnitX, the next generation of its configurable platform for automating complex legal workflows, and Onit Catalyst, a family of AI-enabled products purpose-built to transform ELM and CLM.

OnitX evolves and expands capabilities from the company’s original Apptitude platform, optimizing customer workflows across their legal operations spectrum — from managing spend and matters to contract lifecycles and risk. Onit Catalyst provides legal teams with insights at the point of need, enabling them to swiftly make better data-driven legal and contracting decisions and proactively manage their law firm business relationships.

The release and integration of OnitX and Onit Catalyst are purposefully timed. As enterprises operate in uncertain economic times, both help corporate legal departments optimize their operations by addressing three rising challenges: increasing volume and complexity of matters, unclear ROI and changing dynamics between Legal and internal clients.

According to HBR Consulting, in-house legal teams anticipate an 84% increase in demand in the coming year. In addition, new data from Onit’s 2023 Enterprise Legal Reputation (ELR) Report reveals a decline in the quality of interactions that Legal has with various departments, particularly with revenue-impacting functions. A year-over-year comparison shows a 30% and 27% drop in the quality of Legal’s interactions with Sales and Marketing, respectively.

OnitX and Onit Catalyst support customers to improve internal client experience, optimize spend and increase the efficiency of legal operations at a time when executive teams are searching for new ways to drive growth and EBITDA.

New Integrations and Product Developments Increase Value for ELM and CLM Customers

OnitX gives large, global enterprises flexibility in running its legal operations with a business-critical platform that is configurable, automated, smart and extensible. The OnitX platform seamlessly integrates with Onit Catalyst, a family of AI-enabled products from several recent strategic acquisitions — including Onit’s Precedent and Bodhala — to form ELM and CLM solutions that provide insights at the point of decision.

Several key product developments for the OnitX platform and Onit Catalyst will be demonstrated at Legalweek New York 2023:

• Benchmarking for smarter spend management: OnitX Spend Management’s integration with Onit Catalystenables legal operations teams to make better timekeeper rate approval decisions faster by using external benchmarks versus conducting a time-consuming and expensive separate analysis.
• A complete European ELM solution: OnitX Matter Management’s integration with Onit BusyLamp provides European corporate legal departments with flexible and configurable means to manage legal matter workflows, including outside counsel spend using BusyLamp capabilities designed to address specific European currency, regulatory and tax requirements.
• Smarter contract lifecycle management: Onit Catalyst ReviewAI and Catalyst Contract Extraction help streamline the contract lifecycle pre- and post-signature processes by using AI to review contracts and extract essential data — such as key terms and obligations, dates and other relevant information — to quickly identify contract risks and opportunities.
• Seamless litigation compliance: OnitX Legal Holds Management streamlines litigation compliance management and reduces the risks associated with pending litigation.
• Visual forms builder: Build custom applications powered by the OnitX workflow engine to address simple legal-related requests like invention disclosures, trademark or logo usage and data breach incident reporting.
• Application and data integrations: OnitX leverages scalable technology from Workato, an industry-leading iPaaS technology provider, to integrate with applications such as Salesforce, SAP Ariba and Microsoft 365 so users can work in their preferred tools while data flows into other critical business systems that support revenue and operating expense management.

“Onit’s mission is to elevate Legal’s stature within the enterprise by automating business-critical workflows that drive material impact,” said Scott Wallingford, President of Onit’s Enterprise Business. “With the next generation of our platform in OnitX and key product updates from Onit Catalyst, customers can optimize legal workflows across their entire enterprise — from ELM functions like matter and spend management to CLM functions like contract management and review. Macroeconomic pressure influences enterprise functions to show value in new and visible ways, and we’re partnering with our customers to do just that. Legal’s moment of impact is now.”

Learn more about OnitX on March 20 – 23 at Legalweek New York 2023, where the company is offering live demonstrations of all its ELM and CLM solutions.

Additional Resources
Learn more about Onit’s recent integrations here. For more company news, industry trends and best practices from corporate legal innovators, read the Onit blog and follow us on LinkedIn.

About Onit
Onit is the leading provider of legal workflow solutions for enterprise legal management (ELM) and contract lifecycle management (CLM). Onit’s comprehensive product portfolio customizes AI-driven workflows for managing matters, spend, vendors and contracts. With Onit, companies can evolve the legal department’s role as a business protector and transform it into a business driver that materially influences the enterprise by improving operational and cost efficiency while contributing to faster revenue generation and business growth. The Onit portfolio of products includes SimpleLegal, AXDRAFT, Bodhala, BusyLamp and SecureDocs. Learn more at onitprostg.wpengine.com.

Onit’s 2023 Enterprise Legal Reputation (ELR) Report reveals Legal’s direct impact on business — from sales and innovation to brand and corporate culture — hinges on ability to evolve relationships with internal clients demanding better communication and efficiency

HOUSTON, March 15, 2023 — Onit, the leading provider of legal workflow solutions including enterprise legal management and contract lifecycle management, today released the 2023 Enterprise Legal Reputation (ELR) Report, an annual multinational study spotlighting year-over-year changes in the brand image of corporate legal departments through the eyes of their internal clients. The study reveals the linkage between Legal’s relationship with the business and material impact — from revenue generation and operational efficiency to innovation and corporate culture.

In November 2022, Onit commissioned Provoke Insights, a New York City-based market research firm, to conduct a study of 4,000 non-legal enterprise employees and 500 corporate legal professionals in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany. The study helps corporate legal teams and executive teams understand areas to improve working relationships, accelerate legal workflows and transform the function’s strategic role in large enterprises.

The 2023 ELR Report reaffirms one of the most prominent findings from its inaugural edition in 2022 — Legal’s enduring image as a trustworthy protector of the business. About four in five (78%) non-legal enterprise employees view the legal department in this light. However, the 2023 report reveals a changing dynamic between Legal and its internal clients. In one year, the quality of interactions noticeably decreases across every function. The decline is most evident between Legal and public-facing, revenue-impacting departments. A year-over-year comparison reveals a 30% and 27% drop in quality among Legal’s interactions with Sales and Marketing, respectively.

Employees Continue to Bypass Legal and Its Policies

According to the 2023 ELR Report, employees are concerned about Legal’s responsiveness, communication and efficiency — or perceived lack thereof. These concerns are further exacerbated by macroeconomic distress and the subsequent pressure on employees to show value by improving operational efficiency amid cost-cutting measures and demands to execute faster. The need for speed and collaboration exposes that legal departments are viewed as slow or non-responsive. Seven in 10 (71%) non-legal enterprise respondents say it often takes days or weeks to receive a response from Legal. For the second year in a row, just two in five (41%) view Legal as efficient. As a result, only one in four (27%) consider Legal a good business partner.

Apparently, enterprise employees are not waiting around. Two in three (67%) admit they bypass Legal and its policies — up from 65% in 2022 — because Legal is overly bureaucratic (31%), slows employee productivity (30%) and does not understand their business needs (23%).

These findings put Legal in a unique position. How the profession chooses to adapt will dictate Legal’s relevance and impact during an uncertain time when businesses are searching for cost efficiency and growth from every corner of their enterprise.

Legal’s Golden Opportunity to Impact Sales, Revenue Generation, and More

Despite nagging concerns affecting Legal’s brand within its businesses, the 2023 ELR Report shines a spotlight on the function’s opportunity to foster better relationships with internal clients. According to the report, greater support through communication and collaboration will not only improve Legal’s image as a good business partner but also contribute to directly influencing enterprise growth and efficiency, particularly amid economic uncertainty.

The study reveals an overwhelming belief that Legal positively impacts multiple revenue-impacting functions around the enterprise, including contract renewals (64%), sales and revenue operations (56%) and deal cycles (51%). This is where Legal’s stellar negotiation skills provide major material impact — three in four (76%) employees acknowledge impressive negotiation skills.

“Legal is at a crossroads — a difficult macroeconomic climate has presented the department with an opportunity to evolve into a better partner and material business driver,” Onit CEO and co-founder Eric Elfman said. “As CEOs and executive teams search for new strategies to achieve greater growth and EBITDA, the 2023 ELR Report spotlights Legal as a relatively untapped resource within enterprise organizations that can add a meaningful and material impact.”

The ELR Report concludes that increasing communication and deepening collaboration will enable Legal to improve its interactions with the business, decrease the frequency in which employees bypass its policies and directly influence materiality, growth and efficiency.

Other key findings that further magnify Legal’s material impact across the enterprise include:

• Enterprise employees believe Legal has a positive effect on corporate brand (61%), procurement (54%) and innovation (48%).
• Six in 10 (60%) acknowledge Legal’s positive impact on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); 57% say the same regarding corporate culture.
• The most frequent types of interactions with Legal involve contract review and signing (46%), compliance (46%), HR matters (37%) and patents, trademarks, copyright and intellectual property (IP) matters (25%) – fundamental activities that protect and enable its businesses.

To learn more about Legal’s brand image in the eyes of its internal clients, download Chapter 1 of the 2023 ELR Report, register for the ELR webinar, visit Onit at Legalweek New York 2023 or read the 2022 ELR Report.

About Onit
Onit is the leading provider of legal workflow solutions for enterprise legal management (ELM) and contract lifecycle management (CLM). Onit’s comprehensive product portfolio customizes AI-driven workflows for managing matters, spend, vendors and contracts. With Onit, companies can evolve the legal department’s role as a business protector and transform it into a business driver that materially influences the enterprise by improving operational and cost efficiency while simultaneously contributing to faster revenue generation and business growth.

The Onit portfolio of products includes SimpleLegal, AXDRAFT, Bodhala, BusyLamp and SecureDocs. Learn more at onitprostg.wpengine.com.

Media contacts
Mike Nadeau, [email protected]