In the first blog post of this three-part series on process efficiency and collaboration during COVID-19, we addressed the types of tools and tactics that legal departments are considering when building their solutions. In the second blog post, we explored how automation supports remote working and efficiencies. In this final blog post of the series, we focus on ROIs for tools such as enterprise legal management and contract lifecycle management.
Cost containment is urgently becoming a top priority for many companies during these challenging times. The technology that enables it will transform the ever-evolving business landscape and provide a lasting impact. General counsel, in-house counsel and other corporate legal professionals have a viable path to support their companies through the strategic adoption of technology.
An essential component of containing costs is addressing efficiency. An IDC survey found that businesses can lose 20-30 percent of revenue each year based on inefficiencies such as redundant processes, outdated or siloed technologies and bottlenecks. Addressing that deficiency alone will streamline operations for a corporate legal department and curb expenses.
The legal department can contribute to containing costs for their corporations through the adoption of technologies that offer automation and process efficiency.
Operational Efficiencies with Enterprise Legal Management (ELM)
ELM solutions provide valuable automation to corporate legal departments looking to examine their spend. A McKinsey research report cited that business automation can save up to 60% of occupations almost one-third of their time – allowing employees to focus on more impactful contributions in support of their company.
ELM solutions offer wide-spread control of all the facets of a legal function through process streamlining and accessible metrics. They’re exceptionally agile and cover a wide range of tasks that often fall under corporate counsel’s purview including contract management, NDA creation and distribution, legal holds and legal service requests. In terms of hard cost reduction, ELM solutions have multi-year savings potential meaning your legal team can perpetually maintain lower spend.
ELM savings: The International Association for Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM) estimates that ELM can deliver 5-12% in savings each year. Onit customers have said they save between 10-50% on legal spend alone.
Agreement Automation with Contract Lifecycle Management
Contract review and assembly can chip away at your day – primarily if it relies on ineffective technologies or processes. CLM solutions provide the basis for standardized processes that allow legal departments to capture and analyze related data, as well as a centralized location for all documents and files. They offer an intuitive dashboard that allows counsel to easily create or review contracts and mitigate risks by having fewer contractual exceptions.
CLM savings: Onit clients report that CLM solutions have helped their legal departments reduce their time spent in the contracting process by nearly 20%. Likewise, IACCM reports that CLM systems can save more than 9% annually.
Data-Driven Departments Set Themselves Up for Success
Lawyers everywhere know spend is tricky regardless of how the economy is doing. However, more than ever, legal departments must drive efficiencies with their spend data. For corporate counsel and legal ops professionals trying their best to exert more control over their departmental spend, we think you’ll find our whitepaper titled Driving Savings, Process Efficiency and Collaboration in the Legal Department in a Post-COVID-19 Environment quite helpful.
Determine your Potential Savings
Ready to explore your ELM and CLM ROI potential? Onit offers a suite of savings calculators built to help justify technology spend amid the recent market uncertainty from the global crisis. They use a combination of metrics and industry data to give insight into what these solutions can do for your business, including quantifying potential benefits and analyzing long-term effects of potential investments.
You can request a savings analysis here.
