ZS Associates Wins ACC Value Challenge; Onit Apps a Key Part of Their Strategy

Onit would like to congratulate ZS Associates for being recognized as a 2014 ACC Value Champion. With the objective of sharing industry best practices and “reconnecting the value and cost of legal services,” The ACC Value Challenge recognizes “value leaders” who have successfully facilitated changes in order to better meet corporate growth objectives.

Jennifer Billingsley, former chief legal counsel at ZS Associates, used a multi-faceted approach to transform her department, from smart outsourcing to specialization to technology. A key factor in the transformation was working with Onit to deploy Smart Process Apps.

The implementation of a new customer service portal and a legal work request submission and tracking tool:

• Introduced automation to built greater efficiency
• Increased collaboration between internal clients and counsel
• Facilitated more project visibility for internal clients

“The result?”
“Doing more with less, while increasing quality and results.”
— Association of Corporate Counsel, 2014

Here is an excerpt from ACC’s profile of ZS Associates’ award-winning strategy:

Like so many in-house legal departments at successful companies, the one at ZS Associates saw requests for legal work increasing as the company grew, while departmental headcount remained static. Yet, the department was a victim of its own success: “We definitely had that ‘free legal services’ problem,” says Jennifer Billingsley, former chief legal counsel at the company. To begin the value journey, the department devised a new mission statement that emphasized the expertise its six attorneys and two paralegals could bring to appropriate legal work—”to provide pragmatic, responsive, value-added and cost-effective legal solutions, while balancing risks and rewards”—then set about finding efficient solutions for everything else. The ZS team took several steps to transform the way they work, including utilizing RFPs to source outside, less-expensive resources on major matters; implementing new technology to track matters, automate workflow and link to electronic contracts; and using a legal process outsourcer to do first-line markups, research and administrative tasks.  

Click here to read the entire article.

How do you transform your in-house practice to meet the growth needs of your company?  Onit Apps can help!

Contact us today to see how our Legal Apps can transform your legal department and “possibly” make your team an ACC Value Challenge winner in 2015.

Sources:

“Small Department Stretches to Meet Demand Growth.” by Jennifer J. Salopek

http://www.acc.com/valuechallenge/valuechamps/2014champ_profilezsassociates.cfm

About The ACC Value Challenge: http://www.acc.com/valuechallenge/about/index.cfm