Category: Enterprise Legal Management

What is a Request for Proposal (RFP)?

Posted on August 8, 2022 by - Enterprise Legal Management

A Request for Proposal (RFP) is a query with which in-house legal departments can outsource their work to external law firms. Especially nowadays, when legal departments must do more for less, the RFP is becoming an increasingly important tool.

A typical use case is when a business unit needs legal advice and turns to their in-house lawyers for it – this could be a request for an answer to a simple query or, at the other extreme, the organization is contemplating a merger with another company or is facing some severe litigation. Ideally, the in-house team has an internal knowledge management or transaction information system containing a record of previous advice or work undertaken for the business. The legal team then needs to ask themselves, can the request be handled internally?

If the work carries high risk, needs significant resources, and has areas needing specialist expertise, involve the organization’s external legal advisors from the start. If this is the case, we need to begin selecting an external law firm to instruct. The in-house department will send a Request for Proposal (RFP) to decide on the law firm to undertake the work.

An RFP for legal services involves a client corporation requesting law firms or legal service providers to submit proposals to do work on behalf of the client’s internal legal team. This can range from a basic fee estimate to a full RFP for significant legal work. Clients create and share RFPs with their legal service providers; they can set vendor selection criteria, track responses, and monitor submission rounds before selecting the preferred firm and inviting that firm to begin the work. RFPs can also go to legal service providers, including those that provide law firm services and not just legal advice, for example, eDiscovery, document review, secondees, or other managed services.

WHICH INFORMATION IS TYPICALLY IN AN RFP?

If an RFP is going to one or more law firms that are new to the client and have not previously been asked to provide their background and work experience information or are not on a client’s panel of firms, then more information of the following nature will be required:

  • A firm’s overview will require an introduction to the firm, office locations, lawyers, and jurisdictions.
  • Information about diversity, legal industry awards, and other firm accomplishments is also essential.
  • A description of experience by practice area, including supporting detail in terms of example cases to help to highlight the firm’s depth of expertise.
  • References – ideally of the type applicable to the law firm proposal or RFP.
  • IT capability, including data privacy and security policies, and good 24/7 communications demonstrate the law firm’s robust in-house technical ability.
  • Law firms should demonstrate their capability to provide invoices consistent with any format specified in the client’s billing guidelines.

However, suppose we discount the RFP to establish the suitability of a new law firm to work for a client. In that case, we should look at the contents of the more “run of the mill” RFP when a client is looking for a proposal/quotation for a new matter but from a controlled list of panel firms, for example. While every law firm proposal differs, several central sections will appear in most RFPs.

Basic sections of an RFP include:

  • Timeline: The RFP will have dates for the submission and, possibly, the work itself.
  • Contact persons and responsibilities: The vital contacts of the client and responsible lawyers in the firm. The client can select the lawyers the RFP should go to and who should respond.
  • Staffing plans: The client will expect the law firm to detail the staffing plans for the matter, including the time estimated for each timekeeper classification and the ratio between them.
  • Rates and pricing: The client will require the law firm to quote the rates they will charge for each timekeeper classification, the total fee estimate and any expenses, what discounts might be available, and suggest any alternative pricing arrangements they could offer.
  • Scope of work: The client will specify the content of the work, giving as much information as possible. A good RFP will have templates for different matter types to assist the law firm in defining how much work is required and the success criteria. This will also include which jurisdictions are covered by the RFP, and it may also allow the matter to be broken down by phase, to get a more granular estimate of the expected costs.
  • Representative Cases: A law firm might need to provide a list of comparable matters it has completed (suitably anonymized) to reinforce its experience.

The time is ripe to get more out of your legal department with simple means. In our “What Legal Ops Teams Should Know About RFPs” blog, we examine the RFP process and explain how our legal spend management solution helps streamline it.

Request a demo to see our powerful legal spend management solution tool for yourself.

WAS IST EIN „REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL“ (RFP)? 

Posted on August 8, 2022 by - Enterprise Legal Management

Ein Request for Proposal (RFP) ist eine Anfrage, mit der Inhouse Rechtsabteilungen ihre Arbeit an externe Anwaltskanzleien auslagern können. Vor allem heutzutage, wo Rechtsabteilungen immer mehr Arbeit in immer kürzeren Zeiträumen und für weniger Geld leisten müssen, werden diese Ausschreibungen zu einem zunehmend wichtigen Instrument. Ein typischer Use-Case ist, wenn eine Abteilung Rechtsberatung benötigt und sich an ihre internen Anwälte wendet – dies kann eine Anfrage zur Beantwortung einer einfachen Frage sein oder, im Extremfall, wenn das Unternehmen eine Fusion mit einem anderen Unternehmen in Erwägung zieht oder mit einem ernsthaften Rechtsstreit konfrontiert ist. Im Idealfall verfügt das Inhouse-Team über ein internes Wissensmanagement- oder Transaktionsinformationssystem, das Aufzeichnungen über frühere Beratungen oder Arbeiten für das Unternehmen enthält. Das Rechtsteam muss sich dann fragen, ob die Anfrage intern bearbeitet werden kann.

Wenn die Arbeit als risikoreich eingestuft wird, beträchtliche Ressourcen benötigt werden und es Bereiche gibt, in denen spezielles Fachwissen erforderlich sein könnte, dann sollten die externen Rechtsberater der Organisation von Anfang an einbezogen werden. Ist dies in der Tat der Fall, muss mit der Auswahl einer externen Anwaltskanzlei begonnen werden. Um zu entscheiden, welche Anwaltskanzlei mit der Arbeit beauftragt werden soll, verschickt die interne Abteilung eine Ausschreibung (Request for Proposal, RFP). 

Bei einem RFP für juristische Dienstleistungen sendet die Rechtsabteilung eine Anfrage an Kanzleien oder Rechtsdienstleister, um Angebote für die Arbeit zu erhalten. Dies kann von einem einfachen Kostenvoranschlag bis hin zu einer umfassenden Ausschreibung für ein größeres juristisches Projekt reichen. Kunden erstellen also RFPs und geben sie an ihre Rechtsdienstleister weiter. Sie können Kriterien für die Auswahl der Anbieter festlegen, die Antworten verfolgen und die Einreichungsrunden monitoren, bevor sie die bevorzugte Kanzlei auswählen und beauftragen. RFPs können auch an Rechtsdienstleister geschickt werden, einschließlich solcher, die nicht nur Rechtsberatung, sondern auch andere Dienstleistungen anbieten, z. B. eDiscovery, Dokumentenprüfung oder andere Verwaltungsdienstleistungen. 

WELCHE INFORMATIONEN SIND TYPISCHERWEISE IN EINEM RFP ENTHALTEN? 

Wenn eine Ausschreibung an eine oder mehrere Kanzleien geschickt wird, die für den Kunden neu sind und bisher noch nicht ihren beruflichen Hintergrund und ihre Berufserfahrung angeben haben oder die nicht in der Liste der Kanzleien des Kunden aufgeführt sind, werden Informationen der folgenden Art benötigt: 

  • Eine Vorstellung der Kanzlei, der Standorte, der Anwälte und der Gerichtsbarkeiten ist für einen Überblick über die Kanzlei erforderlich. Wichtig sind auch Angaben zur Diversität, zu Auszeichnungen in der Rechtsbranche und zu anderen Errungenschaften. 
  • Eine Beschreibung der Erfahrung in den einzelnen Tätigkeitsbereichen, einschließlich detaillierter Fallbeispiele, um die Kompetenz der Kanzlei zu verdeutlichen. 
  • Referenzen – idealerweise von der Art, die auf das Angebot oder die Ausschreibung der Kanzlei zutrifft. 
  • IT-Fähigkeiten, einschließlich Datenschutz- und Sicherheitsrichtlinien, sowie eine gute Erreichbarkeit, die zeigt, dass die Kanzlei über solide interne technische Fähigkeiten verfügt. 
  • eBilling-Kanzleien sollten nachweisen, dass sie in der Lage sind, Rechnungen in einem Format zu erstellen, das den Billing Guidelines des Kunden entspricht. 

Wenn die Rechtsabteilung aber bereits mit der Kanzlei zusammengearbeitet hat, kann mit einer „normalen“ Ausschreibung gearbeitet werden. Dies ist der Fall, wenn der Mandant ein Angebot für eine neue Angelegenheit einholen möchte, aber aus der bereits bestehenden Liste von Kanzleien auswählt. Obwohl jedes Angebot einer Anwaltskanzlei anders ist, gibt es einige zentrale Abschnitte, die in den meisten RFPs vorkommen. 

DIE WICHTIGSTEN ABSCHNITTE EINES RFPS UMFASSEN: 

  • Zeitplan – die Ausschreibung enthält Termine sowohl für die Einreichung des RFPs als auch für die eigentliche Arbeit, wenn die Kanzlei beauftragt wird. 
  • Ansprechpartner und Zuständigkeiten – die Ansprechpartner beim Kunden und die zuständigen Anwälte der Kanzlei werden genannt. Der Kunde kann auswählen, an welche einzelnen Anwälte in der Kanzlei die Ausschreibung geschickt werden soll und von wem eine Antwort erwartet wird. 
  • Personalplan – der Mandant erwartet von der Kanzlei, dass sie den Personalplan für die Matter detailliert darlegt, einschließlich der geschätzten Zeit für jede Zeitnehmerkategorie und das Verhältnis zwischen ihnen. 
  • Tarife und Preisgestaltung – der Mandant wird von der Anwaltskanzlei verlangen, dass sie die Tarife für die einzelnen Zeitnehmerkategorien, die geschätzten Gesamthonorare und etwaige Spesen angibt, welche Rabatte möglich sind und welche alternativen Preisvereinbarungen sie anbieten könnte. 
  • Umfang der Arbeit – der Kunde gibt den Umfang der auszuführenden Arbeit an und macht dabei so viele Angaben wie möglich. Eine gute Ausschreibung enthält Vorlagen für verschiedene Matter-Arten, die der Kanzlei dabei helfen, den erforderlichen Arbeitsumfang und die Erfolgskriterien zu definieren. Darin wird auch angegeben, welche Gerichtsbarkeiten von der Ausschreibung abgedeckt werden, und es kann auch möglich sein, die Matter nach Phasen aufzuschlüsseln, um eine detailliertere Schätzung der erwarteten Kosten zu erhalten. 
  • Repräsentative Fälle – eine Kanzlei könnte gebeten werden, eine Liste vergleichbarer Fälle vorzulegen, die sie abgeschlossen hat (in geeigneter Weise anonymisiert), um ihre Erfahrung zu untermauern. 

Die Zeit ist reif, um mit simplen Mitteln mehr aus Ihrer Rechtsabteilung herauszuholen. In unserem Blog „Was Rechtsabteilungen über RFPs wissen sollten“ werfen wir einen genaueren Blick auf den Ausschreibungsprozess und erläutern, wie Onit‘s Legal Spend Management-Lösung BusyLamp eBilling.Space den Prozess noch effektiver macht. Lesen Sie den vollständigen Blog hier oder fordern Sie eine Demo an, um sich selbst von unserer leistungsstarken Software zu überzeugen. 

Aus dem englischen Original-Blog übersetzt. 

Choosing the Right Software to Achieve Your Legal Operations Goals

Posted on July 22, 2022 by - Enterprise Legal Management

In today’s business world, achieving universal goals such as transparency, efficiency gains, and data analysis comes through the combination of skilled personnel and software. The discipline of legal operations is no exception; just glance at the world’s leading legal operations teams. They all rely on tailor-made legal operations tools in their daily work.

The scope of legal technology an organization deploys strongly correlates with the level of maturity of legal operations. Companies with more mature legal operations tend to utilize legal technology more extensively, resulting in greater success in achieving business goals. Utilizing technology can lead to the growth of legal operations departments and the establishment of more advanced goals and capabilities.

With business priorities for legal operations, there are four universal areas that are significant:

  • Reducing external legal spend.
  • Automating and streamlining manual processes.
  • Improving legal work prioritization.
  • Increasing the quality of legal advice.

Overarching these is the additional priority to evaluate and introduce legal technology. Although it may seem like a separate priority ranked alongside the others, it underpins all other legal operations priorities. As demonstrated by legal operations leaders using technology to enhance performance, the introduction of legal technology enables the achievement of other goals.

HOW LEGAL OPERATIONS LEADERS USE TECHNOLOGY TO ACHIEVE GOALS

Mature and advanced legal operations teams use technology. Smaller, less mature teams also need software tools to enhance their performance. Some of the benefits that technology delivers include:

  • Legal e-Billing ensures law firms adhere to billing guidelines which save money.
  • Workflows automate repetitive, manual processes, saving time and reducing manual errors, and freeing up lawyers to do more high-value work.
  • Real-time dashboards on matter or contract statuses give visibility to stakeholders.
  • Comparing law firm price and performance for more transparent and fair reviews and negotiations.
  • Knowledge and document management tools make it easier to collaborate, search, and find information and documents.
  • Consistent data creates reports and analytical capabilities to enable decision-making.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT LEGAL SOFTWARE FOR YOUR NEEDS

A common failing seen repeatedly is when legal operations teams get dazzled by features and buy technology they don’t need and won’t use. Not only is this a waste of investment, but it creates a skepticism that affects future projects. Some teams may need more than one highly customized solution with multiple integrations; others require a simple out-of-the-box tool to automate key processes.

Before you talk to any vendor, you need to know your challenges and goals and document your current process and workflows. Good vendors will not try to sell you all the bells and whistles that result in you buying an underused solution; we want your project to succeed just as much as you do.

Here are the recommended legal technology project steps:

  1. Identify your key challenges, needs, and requirements.
  2. Define the project team; include future users, stakeholders, and don’t forget members from other crucial teams.
  3. Document your current people, processes, and technology for your challenges. Look at how you might change this and your priorities; what is ideal and the acceptable and unacceptable outcomes.
  4. The vendor or consultant can help you refine this further down the line.
  5. Research the market, possible solutions, vendors, and consultants. Consider “build-or-buy” options.
  6. Only now should you approach vendors and consultants. If you do this any sooner, you will be overwhelmed with all the potential opportunities for improvement and lose focus on what is most important for your business right now.
  7. Calculate the business case, including any ROI. (Download our guide to building a business case for legal spend management).
  8. Consider and plan for the impact of change management, stakeholder management, and corporate culture.
  9. Choose the right solution for your team!

DATA-DRIVEN DECISION MAKING

The introduction of legal technology will achieve “quick wins” in the cost and efficiency goals mentioned above. Where mature legal operations departments excel is in the integration of multiple legal technology tools. This creates centralized, consistent data that, in turn, enables advanced data analytics across numerous legal practice areas and work types.

Due to their data analysis capabilities, mature legal operations functions can address more challenging legal department problems and make data-driven, strategic decisions around department staffing, matter resourcing, risk management, negotiations, panel reviews, and more. From your first legal technology project, you have started to create data that will take your cost and efficiency savings to the next level and position legal as a strategic value-generator for the business.

Request a demo of eBilling.Space today and see our RFP functionality for yourself.

WIE SIE DIE RICHTIGE SOFTWARE ZUR ERREICHUNG IHRER LEGAL OPERATIONS ZIELE AUSWÄHLEN 

Posted on July 22, 2022 by - Enterprise Legal Management

In der heutigen Geschäftswelt werden universelle Ziele wie Transparenz- und Effizienzsteigerung sowie die Datenanalyse durch die Kombination von qualifiziertem Personal und Software erreicht. Legal Operations bilden da keine Ausnahme, wie ein Blick auf die weltweit führenden Legal Operations-Teams beweist: Es gibt kein einziges unter ihnen, welches nicht auf maßgeschneiderte Legal Ops Tools zurückgreift. 

Der Umfang der von einer Organisation eingesetzten Rechtstechnologie steht in engem Zusammenhang mit dem Entwicklungsstand der Legal Operations. Unabhängig davon, ob man die Ergebnisse nach Land, Branche oder Unternehmensgröße vergleicht, ist das Resultat dasselbe: Ausgereifte Legal Operations und der Einsatz von Legal Tech korrelieren. Setzt man Technologie also zum Erreichen der Ziele ein, so maximiert sich der Erfolg, was zu wachsenden Rechtsabteilungen sowie fortschrittlicheren Fähigkeiten und Zielen führt. 

Bei den geschäftlichen Prioritäten für Legal Operations gibt es vier universelle Bereiche, die von Bedeutung sind:  

  1. Reduzierung der externen Rechtsausgaben 
  2. Automatisierung und Rationalisierung von manuellen Prozessen 
  3. Verbesserung der Priorisierung der juristischen Arbeit 
  4. Steigerung der Qualität der Rechtsberatung 

Übergeordnet lässt sich eine zusätzliche Priorisierung in der Evaluierung und Einführung von Rechtstechnologie erkennen. Dieses Ziel untermauert alle anderen Prioritäten der Rechtsabteilung. Durch Legal Tech werden verschiedene Ziele erreicht – das zeigen nicht zuletzt auch die Leiter:innen von Rechtsabteilungen, welche bereits Technologie zur Leistungssteigerung einsetzen. 

Erfahrene Legal Operations-Teams setzen bereits Technologie ein. Kleinere, weniger erprobte Teams benötigen jedoch ebenfalls Software-Tools, um ihre Leistung zu verbessern. Einige der Vorteile, die Legal Tech bietet, sind: 

  • Legal eBilling stellt sicher, dass Kanzleien Ihre Billing Guidelines einhalten, was zu monetären Einsparungen führt. 
  • Workflows automatisieren sich wiederholende, manuelle Prozesse. Das spart nicht nur Zeit, sondern kann auch manuelle Fehler reduzieren und den Anwält:innen mehr Zeit für hochwertige juristische Arbeit verschaffen. 
  • Echtzeit-Dashboards zum Status von Matter oder Verträgen geben allen Beteiligten einen Überblick. 
  • Preise und Leistungen von Kanzleien können für transparente und faire Verhandlungen verglichen werden. 
  • Wissens- und Dokumentenmanagement-Tools erleichtern die Zusammenarbeit sowie das Suchen und Finden von Informationen und Dokumenten. 
  • Konsistente Daten schaffen Reports und Analysemöglichkeiten für die Entscheidungsfindung. 

DIE AUF IHRE BEDÜRFNISSE ZUGESCHNITTENE SOFTWARE AUSWÄHLEN 

Häufig lassen sich Rechtsteams von den Funktionen der Software blenden und kaufen deshalb am Ende Technologien, die sie eigentlich nicht benötigen und somit auch nicht nutzen werden. So werden nicht nur Investitionen verschwendet, sondern es wird auch eine Skepsis, die sich auch auf zukünftige Projekte auswirkt, gefördert. Einige Teams benötigen vielleicht mehr als eine hochgradig angepasste Lösung mit verschiedenen Integrationen; andere brauchen ein einfaches, sofort einsatzbereites Tool, um wichtige Prozesse zu automatisieren. Bevor Sie mit einem Anbieter sprechen, müssen Sie sich über ihre Herausforderungen und Ziele bewusstwerden und Ihre aktuellen Prozesse und Arbeitsabläufe dokumentieren. Gute Anbieter werden nicht versuchen, Sie zum Kauf von überflüssigen Features zu drängen, sondern gemeinsam mit Ihnen den maximalen Wert für Ihre Rechtsabteilung generieren. In unserer dreiteiligen Blogserie „Implementieren eines erfolgreichen Technologieprojekts“ behandeln wir das Thema ausführlicher. Als Überblick dienen aber die folgenden 9 Schritte als Teil von juristischen Technologieprojekten. 

  1. Identifizieren Sie Ihre wichtigsten Herausforderungen, Bedürfnisse und Anforderungen. 
  2. Benennen Sie das Projektteam sowie die zukünftigen Benutzer:innen und Stakeholder, bedenken Sie dabei auch andere Abteilungen. 
  3. Dokumentieren Sie Ihre aktuellen Mitarbeiter:innen, Prozesse und Technologien für die Herausforderungen, denen Sie gegenüberstehen. Überlegen Sie was Ihre Prioritäten sind; Wie sehen ideale, akzeptable oder inakzeptable Ergebnisse aus? 
  4. Anbieter oder Berater:innen können Ihnen helfen, dies im weiteren Verlauf zu verfeinern. 
  5. Recherchieren Sie über den Markt, mögliche Lösungen, Anbieter und Berater:innen. Erwägen Sie „Build-or-Buy“-Optionen. 
  6. Erst jetzt sollten Sie mit Anbietern Kontakt aufnehmen. Wenn das zu früh geschieht, werden Sie von all den potenziellen Verbesserungsmöglichkeiten überwältigt und verlieren den Fokus auf das, was für Ihr Unternehmen im Moment am wichtigsten ist. 
  7. Erstellen Sie einen Business Case, inklusive Berechnung des ROIs. Downloaden Sie dafür unsere Case Study „Ein Business Case für legal eBilling“. 
  8. Berücksichtigen Sie die Auswirkungen von Changemanagement, Stakeholder-Management und Unternehmenskultur und planen Sie diese ein. 
  9. Wählen Sie die richtige Lösung für Ihr Team! 

DATENGESTEUERTE ENTSCHEIDUNGSFINDUNG 

Mit der Einführung von Rechtstechnologie lassen sich „Quick-Wins“ bei den oben genannten Kosten- und Effizienzzielen realisieren. Erfahrene Rechtsabteilungen können mehrere juristische Technologie-Tools integrieren. Das schafft zentralisierte, konsistente Daten, die wiederum fortschrittliche Datenanalysen über mehrere juristische Praxisbereiche und Arbeitsarten hinweg ermöglichen. Dank ihrer Datenanalysefähigkeiten können ausgereifte Rechtsabteilungen anspruchsvollere Herausforderungen angehen. So werden datengetriebene und strategische Entscheidungen in Bezug auf die Personalbesetzung der Abteilung, das Resourcing von Matter, das Risikomanagement, Verhandlungen, Gremienprüfungen und mehr ermöglicht. Bereits mit Ihrem ersten Legal Technology-Projekt haben Sie begonnen, Daten zu generieren, die Ihre Kosten- und Effizienzeinsparungen fördern und die Rechtsabteilung als strategischen, wertschöpfenden Faktor für das Unternehmen positionieren. 

Aus dem englischen Original-Blog übersetzt. 

9 Advantages of a Matter Management Cloud Solution

Posted on June 14, 2022 by - Enterprise Legal Management

In our Matter Management blog series, we have already addressed the fact that in-house counsel are under enormous pressure in today’s demanding business environment to serve their internal clients effectively and professionally while keeping costs low and minimizing potential risks. In this article, Carina Smolik-Fischer, director of product at BusyLamp (an Onit company), summarizes the top 9 benefits of a matter management cloud solution and how it can benefit your legal team.

In-house counsel are challenged to find innovative legal tech solutions for their legal departments that enable them to increase productivity and speed without sacrificing the quality and value of their work. At first, these may appear to be competing goals, but with the help of a matter management solution, you will make the first step towards reconciling these seemingly conflicting goals. With matter management, you have a centralized solution that allows you to create matters, centrally view files easily, and access related documents and emails.

Matter Management from Onit offers all the modules and features modern legal departments need for daily and efficient work. Legal market experts have developed Onit’s Matter Management solution with a strong understanding of the complex requirements of in-house counsel and the regional specifics of the DACH legal market.

And now to the good news: implementing such a matter management software does not have to be complicated. Using cloud software is the fastest way. Furthermore, cloud-based software programs offer you nine key advantages that can significantly benefit your business:

1. General Benefits

Any cloud-based application – including matter management – opens up new ways of collaboration, flexibility, innovation, and mobility. Users can access applications quickly and easily from anywhere via the internet, extend them as needed, and share their data with authorized third parties within seconds. New functions and innovations are immediately available in high quality, thus offering users more agility and flexibility. But that’s not all: cloud technology for matter management provides numerous benefits that would be difficult or impossible to achieve with local on-premise software.

2. Costs

With cloud software, there are no unique investment costs for purchasing and running hardware and operating system software. Also, there is no need for internal know-how about the software application besides the monthly license fee. With Onit, there are only one-time onboarding costs for the software’s individual configuration, including users, authorizations, master data, templates, and more. In addition, there is a short training session to get you started quickly and comprehensively. This allows you to calculate reliably, minimize financial risk and avoid surprises.

3. Direct Availability

Cloud software is always ready. No technical installation is required, so your IT deployment is limited to testing security-related issues. With Onit, for example, you are using software hosted in the EU that complies with the latest security standards, e.g., certifications such as ISO 27001 and ISO 9001.

4. State-of-the-Art Security Standards

There are often concerns that cloud technologies are unsafe and exposed to attacks. However, this is not the case. Our Matter Management solution runs on Microsoft Azure. Large providers like Microsoft are constantly investing in the security of their data centers, using the latest software, and having specialized employees.

5. Automated updates and upgrades

Cloud applications have automated upgrades and updates that keep your matter management solution up to date. This has the advantage of always providing you with innovative features and constantly guaranteeing the security of your software.

6. Collaboration

Cloud software is accessible via the internet – all you need is your normal browser like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. As an end user, you benefit from this, especially with matter management software. For example: once a digital file is created in our Matter Management solution, you can easily share or assign its content, such as documents, emails, appointments, tasks, etc., with authorized third parties (departments such as HR, procurement, or external law firms). Use the platform itself or MS Teams for this purpose – all required contents of the digital file are under your control 24/7. Legal services such as the internal Legal Service Request are also provided via the Internet browser and therefore do not require technical installation. Sharing on the intranet or using an MS Teams APP makes access easier and saves time. It gives you the flexibility to focus on your higher value-added work.

7. Apps and Plug-Ins

Easily extend your matter management software using APPs and plug-ins. These integrate directly into the application, extending your cloud software with just a few clicks. Matter Management offers integrations with MS Office, MS Outlook, and MS Teams so that you can communicate directly within the solution.

8. Data Security

We are very aware of the fact that your legal department manages extremely sensitive data. A loss of data could have serious consequences. As mentioned at the outset, established cloud providers such as Microsoft have significantly more capabilities to provide data in a highly available, stable, and secure manner. Furthermore, data communication between the local computer and the Internet service is always encrypted to prevent access by unauthorized persons and to protect your data using state-of-the-art technologies.

9. Scalability

Cloud software is flexible and dynamically scalable. Onboarding additional users, sites, or departments is possible anytime and immediately without any lead time or spare capacity in your IT department. This also applies to the use of more storage. Cloud-based software allows you to grow according to the unique needs of your legal department.

Summary

Cloud-based matter management provides legal departments with the tools and applications to make their processes more efficient, streamline their legal operations, and efficiently deliver value to their organization. Add value through smart technologies and improve the visibility of your contribution to the company’s success. Use Matter Management to optimize the spending of your costs. Use your valuable time to focus on high-quality legal advice and put aside the time-consuming management of your legal mandates.

Request a demo of BusyLamp eBilling.space.

How to Choose the Right Legal Tech Vendor for Your In-House Legal Team

Posted on March 30, 2022 by - Enterprise Legal Management

Technology is increasingly vital in helping in-house legal teams optimize their time and resources. The transformation of working practices over recent years, with the continued trend for remote working, means IT tools are more important than ever for communication, administration, data management, and knowledge sharing at work. In addition, legal teams require specific legal tech software to manage and automate everything from spend management and billing to matter management, reporting, and administration.

In-house legal teams face an array of vendors to choose from. With so much choice, how should in-house legal teams choose the right technology vendor for their needs?

To help you, we’ve compiled a checklist of key considerations:

YOUR LEGAL TECH VENDOR CHECKLIST

1. DOES THE TECHNOLOGY MEET DATA SECURITY REQUIREMENTS?

The data handled by legal teams are too sensitive to take any risks. You need to be confident the technology you choose meets every security requirement of your IT department. Look for solutions that offer data security assurances, such as banking-grade encryption, single-jurisdiction hosting, and compliance with regulatory standards, such as ISO 27001 and GDPR.

2. DOES THE TECH VENDOR MEET COUNTRY-SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS?

Define your requirements by thinking through your daily work and identifying what is missing. How can technology help? Ask vendors how their technology can address your specific challenges. For example, when your company is based in Europe, can the technology meet European country-specific requirements, such as taxation and invoicing?

3. WHAT LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SUPPORT IS ON OFFER?

Does the vendor have a professional customer service team? Will you be assigned a dedicated customer success manager? Does the vendor have dedicated European support capabilities? How many languages are supported? Do they have the resources to provide the support you need?

4. IS THE VENDOR TRUSTED BY CLIENTS AND INDEPENDENT COMMENTATORS?

Check out client testimonials, read case studies and ask to speak to clients. Find out if the vendor and its solutions are trusted and valued. Look for independent approvals or verifications from respected organizations, such as Hyperion Global Partners. Does the vendor have a network of trusted partners to support and champion its solutions?

5. DOES THE TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATE WITH EVERYDAY IT SYSTEMS?

We all use various software and IT systems to support efficient collaboration and communication. You need to find legal technology that integrates fully with common software from Microsoft, Google, and others. Choose interoperable legal technology tools that meet you where you work.

6. CAN YOU REQUEST A FREE DEMO?

Ask all shortlisted vendors for a demonstration of their software and its application to a practical example. Before committing to new software, take it for a test drive. Most vendors offer a free trial to test features, benefits, and usability.

MEET LOCALLY

If you need help choosing a vendor, you can meet many leading legal tech providers at conferences across the United States and Europe throughout the year. These provide an excellent opportunity to learn more about your region’s legal tech landscape, meet some of the people you could work with, ask questions, and sample the technology.

Request a demo of BusyLamp eBilling.Space today.

How to Improve Legal Spend with Technology

Posted on March 10, 2022 by - Business Process Management, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Legal Management

If you work as part of a legal operations team, chances are you spend plenty of time thinking about how to improve legal spend – specifically, how to manage and reduce it. Under ever-increasing pressures to do more with less, the spotlight on legal spend is brighter than ever.

The following are just a few examples of enterprise legal management software can go a long way toward reducing legal spend.

1.   Improve Legal Spend by Moving to Electronic Invoices

You can’t improve legal spend without understanding what your baseline is. If your law department and its law firms are working with paper invoices, you limit the chances of understanding what your spend truly is and where you may be overcharged. Plus, paper invoices limit insight into vendor management, evaluations and comparisons.

Why? Because for most corporate legal departments, manual invoice review is time-consuming, tedious and can lead to human error. There are simply too many invoices and not enough time or resources to vet line items. Plus, it’s hard to compare and analyze costs when all information is on paper.

E-billing enables a corporate legal department to adopt industry standards for formats and billing codes. From there, legal ops can begin to capture and “digest” precious data for reporting and analysis – valuable indicators such as overall spending, trends and more – and compare them to industry benchmarks (more on that below). It also minimizes the time spent inputting invoices into billing systems for review and payment processing.

2.   Use a Specialized Legal E-Billing System Rather Than a General Tool

There are a lot of e-billing systems on the market, but many of the most popular ones aren’t designed to handle legal billing. Too many corporate legal departments fall back on general e-billing tools when a legal e-billing system can better deal with legal-specific billing problems and improve legal spend.

Among other things, the right legal e-billing system will offer the following functionalities, which are traditionally not available in general e-billing tools: supporting electronic timekeeper rates from outside counsel, preventing law firms from billing to matters without approval, receiving invoices in the industry-standard Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES) format or comparing LEDES invoices against company billing guidelines, permitting write-offs or rejections of individual invoice line items, allowing for comparison of invoices against budget, supporting the automatic allocation of invoices to specified cost centers or codes, and allowing for reporting on spend by relevant factors such as time, activity, matter, firm and more. All of these capabilities are critical to accurate and efficient legal invoicing.

3.   Automate Billing Guidelines that Comport with Outside Counsel Guidelines

Compliance with outside counsel billing guidelines is one of the most important goals of reviewing invoices. Manual review is not up to the task. Technology is, so make sure you have a tool that allows you to input your specific billing guidelines so they can automatically and consistently be applied across all your invoices to identify areas of improper charges and prevent overpaying.

The billing rules often come as part of legal spend management systems. They automatically scour incoming invoices from law firms and legal vendors for discrepancies and fix or flag the invoice for further review. This relieves reviewers from manually combing through each line item, often resulting in immediate savings.

4.   Implement AI that Looks Between the Billing Rules

Legal invoice review has long been rules-based. While billing rules represent an excellent first step for reducing legal spend, it’s only the beginning. Invoices may still slip through the cracks with a purely rules-based approach or be incorrectly approved for payment.

How does this happen?

Billing rules, while valuable, rely on specific descriptions or words to identify potentially improper charges. If by some chance, an invoice employs different keywords or descriptions not included in billing rules to describe a line item, billing rules may not flag the charge. It may, instead, not identify the noncompliant charge and approve it for payment. After all, you can’t program billing rules to consider every potential variable in word choices.

If you want to further improve legal spend, consider an AI-powered invoice review tool that looks between the rules to find hidden legal invoice review errors and even more savings. These technologiesdf work in conjunction with enterprise legal management systems. They are trained on millions of legal invoice charges to look for areas where overpayment is common, or correction is typically needed – things like block billing, vague descriptions, work done by the wrong class of staff or non-work travel.

When these issues are identified, InvoiceAI can either automatically adjust the charge to comply with outside counsel guidelines or it can bring the problem to reviewers’ attention, significantly reducing the likelihood of improper payment and lowering overall legal spend in the process.

5.   Leverage Benchmarking Technologies

Knowing how much you spend on a particular law firm is great. Even better, though, is knowing how much you should spend based on what everyone else is spending – even down to a law firm in a specific location for a particular task. This is where benchmarking comes in.

Benchmarking is a critical part of any sound legal spend management system. But the benchmarking technology you select needs to provide attributes such as practice area, timekeeper level, work type and discounts, which will provide you with the negotiation leverage you need during conversations with your law firms.

For example, a top private equity firm saved 17% on its rates, realizing more than $27M in savings in the first year by leveraging smart benchmarking data.

Also, to ensure that you always understand the going rate for upcoming matters, make sure your benchmarking solution also has proprietary competitive cohorts of law firms based on at least 100 factors, including general firm expertise, rates and even individual partner expertise.

Conclusion

The pressure to do more with less likely won’t end any time soon, but there are ways of meeting that demand by implementing the right technology. Contact us today to learn more about how InvoiceAI and Onit’s enterprise legal management system can help you reduce your legal spend. And if you’re interested in leveraging the power of legal services benchmarking and market intelligence, reach out to our subsidiary Bodhala.

Corporate Legal News Updates for Corporate Counsel (March 2022 Edition)

Posted on March 3, 2022 by - Business Process Management, Enterprise Legal Management

Welcome to the March issue of leading news and resources for in-house counsel and legal operations professionals. In this edition, you’ll read about the return of in-person Legalweek NY, GC’s and CLO’s increased involvement in technology and business decisions, the future of human-in-the-loop technologies and a new legal tech-buying directory from industry expert Bob Ambrogi.

1. The GC’s Role in Tech Decisions

We all know that general counsel are increasingly helping their companies make technology-related decisions, but just how prevalent is this new role? According to the recent General Counsel Report from FTI Consulting, which surveyed 30 top in-house lawyers, 97% reported playing a role in their organization’s technology ecosystem, with 87% saying they were “heavily involved” in tech planning and purchases. Nonetheless, only 33% of respondents believed that lawyers have adequate knowledge of technology. This leaves significant room for technology education, which will be crucial as lawyers will only be expected to be more involved with new technology for law firms going forward.

Source: Law.com

2. “Human-in-the-Loop” Solutions Will Comprise 30% of New Legal Tech Automation Offerings by 2025

AI has taken the legal industry by storm, but human lawyers aren’t going anywhere any time soon. Gartner recently predicted that, by 2025, 30% of new legal automation solutions will combine technology and human input – also known as “human-in-the-loop” offerings. This hybrid approach to technology blends staff and software, with high-level technical expertise coming from the technology supplier rather than an in-house team. As the volume of legal work has grown faster than legal headcounts in most organizations, the human-in-the-loop model frees in-house lawyers from having to devote already-limited time and resources to developing domain expertise.

Source: Gartner

3. Here’s What’s On the Mind of Chief Legal Officers (Survey)

The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) and Exterro recently released the 2022 Chief Legal Officers Survey, with results from 861 chief legal officers and general counsel representing organizations across 20 industries and 38 countries. The survey found that CLOs are increasingly playing a vital role in business and taking on more responsibilities. Legal ops pros are pivotal right now, and investment is accelerating accordingly, with 70% of CLOs listing legal ops as an area of focus for their department’s top strategic initiatives. Finally, delivering value to customers was cited as a top priority, so, not surprisingly,  contract management is the top tech area in which CLOs plan to invest going forward. CLM helps companies accelerate revenue, streamline processes and manage legal obligations – which can have a huge impact on your bottom line.

Source: Association of Corporate Counsel

4. Industry Leaders Launch Information Hub for Legal Tech Buyers

Robert (Bob) Ambrogi has been a leading voice in the legal tech industry for nearly two decades. His latest venture, along with his son Ben Ambrogi, a media specialist and producer, is the release of the LawNext Legal Technology Directory. The directory is designed to provide readers with the information they need to make legal tech buying decisions, including intel on product features, pricing, independent reviews and more. “Our goal is to continue to develop this into a comprehensive directory of products, reviews, learning resources, and more, where buyers can find trusted information to guide their purchases, and where vendors can help their products be discovered and distinguished,” Bob explained.

Source: Law.com

5. Connect With Onit at Legalweek NY!

Legalweek returns in person this year! From March 9-11, Onit will be joining the legal tech community in New York to engage with our customers, share our products and discuss the growth of our company in the last two years. Our Legalweek session, Building Stronger Connections to the Enterprise (Thursday, March 10, from 1:30 – 2:30 pm ET), will feature panelists from Hearst, Corteva and MassMutual sharing their vision for why it’s imperative for legal to “connect” to the broader enterprise and how they’re implementing processes and technology to make these connections. On Wednesday, March 9, we’re co-hosting a happy hour with PwC, and on Thursday, March 10, we’re co-hosting an exclusive dinner for in-house legal leaders with Consilio. The Onit family of companies will be at the Cyber Café on the 3rd floor of the Hilton, offering demos of Onit products built on our workflow and AI platforms and offering fun giveaways. Of course, you can always schedule time in our private demo room away from the exhibit hall floor to take a deeper dive into how Onit products can help your legal department better manage legal work, costs and risks. Register for any or all of these activities now. We hope to see you in NY!

Source: Onit

We look forward to bringing you more news and insights as the new year progresses. As always, if you want to learn more about our legal business solutions, including enterprise legal management, contract lifecycle management, AI and more, schedule a demo today or email [email protected].

In House Legal Software: Aligning Growing Legal Tech Budgets with Roadmaps

Posted on February 24, 2022 by - Business Process Management, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Legal Management

There’s no question that in house legal software has significantly changed the way law departments conduct the business of law. From the predecessors of enterprise legal management more than 40 years ago to today’s AI-driven contract lifecycle management systems, technology has done its part to drive efficiency, promote transparency and capture valuable analytics.

Yet, legal operations professionals have confessed that their law departments have sometimes struggled in this area. In Gartner’s 2021 Legal Planning & Budgeting report, legal operations participants cited “technology solutions and level of adoption” as one of the top-four weaknesses revealed during COVID-19. The report notes the following two challenges as “knowledge management and coordination” and “effectively balancing routine and unplanned workloads.”

A lot has changed in the short time between then and now. More and more corporate legal departments have evolved their legal operations and pivoted to embrace or update in house legal software.

The proof is in legal technology budgets, which are growing. Gartner predicts that legal technology budgets will increase threefold by 2025.

In House Legal Software Adoption – Technology Roadmaps On the Rise

How will corporate legal departments allocate these bigger legal technology budgets?

Almost 90% of surveyed general counsel and CLOs in organizations earning $1B or more cited efficiency as the number one factor in deciding when to purchase technology (far outweighing cost reduction, which was cited by only 8%). This is great news for busy legal professionals, who, according to this survey, often find themselves handling more than five distinct business areas.

But, most legal operations teams are focused on a bigger picture. They’re proactive about their in house legal software implementations and planning out thoughtful, long-term technology roadmaps.

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 required to support the needs of legal departments of all sizes. One of CLOC’s 12 core competencies addresses technology and specifically addresses technology roadmaps:

“Create a clear technology vision that spans all the needs of your organization. Automate manual processes, digitize physical tasks and improve speed and quality through the strategic deployment of technology solutions.”

CLOC further describes this process by suggesting legal operations create and implement long-term technology roadmaps, evaluate new vendors, assess emerging technology capabilities, determine where to buy and when to buy and structure partnerships with corporate IT teams.

Aligning Budgets with Legal Technology Roadmaps

Rolling out a technology roadmap for in house legal software is the best way to figure out where your organization wants to go in terms of technology and how your budget can align with those goals. Technology roadmaps can account for budgets of all sizes, making it easier for legal operations professionals to stay on top of technology implementation even as budgets for technology continue to grow.

Fifty-four percent of respondents in Deloitte’s 2021 State of Legal Operations Survey said they now have “a defined and actionable legal systems roadmap.” That number is up from just 39% in 2020. This shows that companies understand that knowing where you want to go and how you’re going to get there is the only way to improve and grow systematically and intentionally.

Among the most popular technologies making up those roadmaps, according to CLOC, are solutions that automate and streamline critical workflows, reduce risk, and enhance data collection and transparency, including tools for e-signature, e-billing/matter management, contract management and document management.

With the sheer number of in house legal software options available on the market today, choosing the right one can feel overwhelming. The upside of all this innovation, though, is that you can find the right technology solution for nearly any budget. One helpful approach is to find an experienced partner who can help you identify recurring pain points and wish lists and turn those into a technology roadmap that can realistically be implemented to help your organization.

You can also lean on resources the explore the capabilities of technology and how they support law departments:

To read more about building legal technology roadmaps and other trends defining legal operations today, download our latest white paper: Six Leading Corporate Legal Operations Trends for 2022.

2021: A Year in Review

Posted on February 22, 2022 by - Company News and Events, Contract Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Legal Management

2021 was a notable year for Onit. We not only celebrated our 10th anniversary, but we also saw accelerated growth and significant accomplishments. These included:

In this blog post, we will run through the highlights of 2021 for Onit and its family of companies.

First, though, we want to thank our customers, employees and partners. We couldn’t have reach these milestones without you. Thank you.

We also invite you to connect with Onit during Legalweek. From demos to cocktails to dinner, we’re offering many ways to celebrate Legalweek and learn more about us. Find out more here.

New Products for Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)

Onit has continued its tradition of disrupting the CLM market, expanding our reach on a global scale in 2021. Last year we launched new AI technologies for contract management, including Automate NDA, which uses AI to streamline and automate the entire non-disclosure agreement (NDA) process, reducing the time spent on NDAs by 70%. We also introduced Smart Checklists, offered as part of the ReviewAI Microsoft Word Add-In, which turns playbook checks into intelligent, actionable and collaborative tasks.

Last year also saw Onit extending its contract management market reach to midsize and smaller companies. An essential move in this area was Onit’s acquisition of SecureDocs, which closed in 2021 and was announced last month. SecureDocs is a global software company for contract management, virtual deal rooms and electronic signatures. By acquiring SecureDocs, Onit expanded its product portfolio from enterprise-level CLM to include quickly deployable contract management software for new and growing legal operations teams. SecureDocs will integrate with SimpleLegal, Onit’s legal operations technology subsidiary, to empower greater efficiencies, transparency and intelligence for legal operations teams.

With the addition of SecureDocs, Onit now offers its customers technologies for all stages of legal operations – from newly established companies to global enterprises.

Continued Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) Leadership

In 2021, Onit became one of the world’s largest enterprise legal management conglomerates with the acquisition of BusyLamp, a premier provider of legal spend and matter management software for European corporate legal departments. The acquisition creates one of the largest global enterprise legal management conglomerates, with more than 600 implementations completed worldwide and $8.3 billion in legal invoices processed by Onit and its subsidiaries SimpleLegal and BusyLamp in 2021. It also augments Onit’s formidable global reach into 140+ countries with European domain expertise and a solution well-equipped for unique considerations such as VAT, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and regional tax policies.

BusyLamp wasn’t Onit’s only acquisition in the ELM space in 2021. We also acquired Bodhala, a legal spend analytics, benchmarking and market intelligence leader. Bodhala applies machine learning and AI to help companies source outside counsel at competitive and market-driven rates, with proven results for optimizing spend and the procurement of legal services. Onit’s acquisition of Bodhala creates the most complete enterprise legal management solution on the market, allowing corporate legal departments to evolve analytics into actionable intelligence to optimize outside counsel spend.

Our subsidiaries also reached several milestones and earned awards in their own right. You can read about them in our press release.

Looking Ahead

This past year’s accomplishments marked even more significant growth and expansion than Onit saw in 2020, which is no small feat. In 2020, we launched an artificial intelligence-powered business intelligence platform and AI contract review, closed two acquisitions in 30 days (McCarthyFinch and AXDRAFT), established our AI Center of Excellence and achieved a market-leading NPS score – all despite COVID-related complications.

In addition to our successful acquisitions and product launches, Onit grew its global workforce by 30% in 2021. We expect to hire at an even faster pace in the coming year to continue focusing on growth and innovation. If you’re interested in learning more about the positions we’re hiring for, please visit our careers page.

We’ve also already started to bring in the awards this year, being named to the 2022 Vet 100 list and Houston Inno’s first-ever Fire Awards.

You can expect even more great things to come as the year goes on. Whether you’re looking to revolutionize ELM and CLM for your organization or are interested in joining our team, contact Onit today.