Category: Contract Lifecycle Management

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”
– Bill Gates

When I was serving in the Marine Corps, we were obsessed with becoming the quintessential lean, mean, fighting machine. It wasn’t the lifestyle for everyone, but it was our passion and we took it very seriously. But think about it: can’t lean, mean, fighting machine be applied to the corporate world? In fact, it’s not a stretch by any means. The Art of War has been required reading for top executives for decades. And everyone is striving to be fitter these days, and leaner. The ‘mean’ and ‘fighting’ part? Our definition here is to aggressively pursue a strategy of driving efficiencies and optimizing the legal department’s ability to grow the company.

The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) was created to help legal operations professionals and other core corporate legal industry players optimize the legal service delivery models needed to support the needs of legal departments of all sizes. CLOC’s 12 core competencies represent areas of focus that every legal operations department must manage to have a disciplined, efficient, and effective legal operations function. These competencies serve as a benchmark to compare a legal operations department’s growth to others in the industry and break down legal operations departments into foundational, advanced and mature in order to improve and grow systemically.

One of the 12 competencies is Technology and Process Support. This is defined as:

“Create a long-term legal operations technology roadmap including tools such as e-billing/matter management, contract management, content management, IP management, business process management, e-signature, board management, compliance management, legal hold, subsidiary management, etc.”

CLOC’s other 11 competencies are equally important to legal operations, but we will be focusing on Technology and Process Support, and how it plays into becoming a lean, mean legal department. This blog series will focus on strategies to achieve these seemingly elusive, but not out-of-reach, objectives.

Read our white paper, Doing More with Less: How Technology is Optimizing Legal Operations.

Many folks in legal departments feel, and rightfully so, that the new paradigm is to do more with less money and fewer resources – otherwise known as lean legal. In the overall scheme of legal operations in achieving its objectives with “less,” technology has increasingly played a prominent role. Driving efficiencies and controlling costs in the legal department are being borne, to a significant degree, by well-chosen technology solutions, and legal operations managers who understand this and are taking action. The major school of thought currently is to run legal operations like a business – and to achieve that goal technology has been playing a key role.

Technology is optimizing legal operations in several key areas. Workflow and automation of processes deserve a spot at the top of the list. Automating routine tasks can shave hours off any busy schedule. Collaboration in 2019 via technology gives a whole new meaning to “work together,” and is forging the future of legal operations in ways we could never have imagined. Data analytics is increasingly important, as analytics can demonstrate the value of technology in the department. Looking at the CLOC Legal Operation’s 12 Core Competencies, the Mature Level is what legal departments should be striving for. Whether legal operations staff are familiar with the competencies or not, technology has been there (for those using it), quietly helping them to reach that magic level.

So if technology is so good at helping us in legal operations, what were the barriers to using it in the first place? A lean budget is often cited as one of the major reasons. Resistance to change also places on the list. But one of the other major reasons is integrating new technology with existing systems. Nowadays, resistance to change is really the only thing that should be holding up progress – the other issues of budget and integration have changed considerably in favor of organizations seeking new technology. There are technology solutions out there for practically every budget and integrations have never been easier. And for the “hard of hearing,” there is no longer a good reason not to be taking advantage of cutting-edge technology. Above all, doing more with less in the lean legal department has never been easier and affordable.

“Daedalus…had the power to construct statues endowed with motion and to compel gold to feel human sensations.”
– Callistratus, Descriptions, 4th century A.D.

In part one of this series we discussed some early attempts at automation, some more successful than others. Surprisingly, we can push the history of automation back even further to about 762 B.C. in ancient Greece. In Homer’s Illiad, he discusses the workshop of Hephaestus and the automatons that worked for him. These automatons were basically mechanical robots that served different purposes. For example, his tripodes khryseoi (golden tripods) were wheeled tripods that would wheel themselves in and out of the halls of the gods during the great feasts as they were needed. There were at least seven other named automatons used to carry out various tasks and missions. Although these automatons lived only in the realm of myth (as far as we know), the fact that automation was already being pondered in the 8th century BC is amazing in itself.

Pushing forward many centuries we find more solid evidence of real automation which laid the groundwork for modern business process automation and our process automation platform, Apptitude. In the 12th century AD, Ismail Al-Jazari created his famous Castle Clock. This clock was renowned in its day for its magnificence and accuracy in telling time, but its foreshadowing of automation is undeniable. Replicas of this clock can be found throughout the world today, including the United States. Through trial and error, Al-Jazari used gears, chains, wood, metal, a float chamber, flow regulator, and water to make the huge clock work. Every hour, doors would open automatically to reveal a figurine, and two gold falcon automata would drop balls into vases waiting below. Automata were a highlight of this wonder. Three times a day, five robotic, mechanical musicians would automatically perform musical pieces when activated by a water-driven camshaft. They would be activated by a system of pulleys, water trough and a water-powered “scoop” wheel. The clock also featured several displays, including the lunar and solar orbits and the zodiac. A crescent moon-shaped disc would move across the frieze indicating minutes.

Al-Jazari’s Castle Clock

In 1804 an inventor in France had developed several types of looms; including one with a treadle for power and another for weaving fishing nets. But Joseph Jacquard’s most famous invention was an automatic mechanical loom that used pasteboard cards with punched holes to control the process of weaving complex patterns. Prior to this invention, weaving intricate, figured designs was a slow and very laborious process. It required two operators: the skilled weaver and the draw boy to operate the loom. Jacquard felt there had to be a way to simplify the process for weaving complex patterns, and that a mechanism could be developed to make this happen. After much experimentation and trial and error, Jacquard succeeded in making the first programmable loom. Many hundreds or even thousands of these cards would be strung together, each card representing one row of the woven design. Jacquard’s invention was a landmark in computing history and not a fly-by-night fad by any means, since punched cards for computing were in use until the 1980s.

Jacquard’s Loom, showing coded punched cards

Onit would like to pay homage to these and all inventors whose ideas were guiding lights and blazed the path to the modern process automation. Every business process automation platform, including Apptitude, truly has a deep heritage going back many centuries.

The time inevitably comes when most legal departments need to enhance their process automation, while others may be looking for their first automation solution. There are many things to keep in mind when researching providers and doing due diligence, but we don’t want to overwhelm you with a long list right now. For the purpose of this blog, there are three critical things we wanted to share with you — three of the most basic things you should be looking for in a solution provider:

1. Enterprise Solutions – The provider should be capitalizing on the broad applicability of workflow-based task management, and eager to expand into functional areas outside of legal and aggressively solicit customer needs to write custom applications for other corporate-wide departments. Whether it’s an off-the-shelf solution or a platform on which the client can create their own applications, a provider that is well-versed in developing solutions for both legal and non-legal applications could be the way to go.
2. Process Automation –  A workflow-centric approach that seeks to deconstruct matter management into independent, collaborative functional lifecycles that lawyers and operations managers use on a regular basis is critical. An a la carte model can empower users to add capabilities and components as needed. The ability to scale your enterprise legal management system in a manner consistent with operational requirements is your key to success.
3. System Architecture – The providers that are on top of their game offer a modern architecture that showcases class-leading technology and a decidedly Saas-based approach to legal business application management. It needs to be flexible and agile, and designed for rapid deployment, flexibility and agility. Last but not least, it needs to work the way your team works.

If these three things are at the top of your list when you begin your search for a solution provider you’ll be a huge step ahead of the game.