How did a Contracting company in UAE achieve Contract Automation in their Legal Department?

Today we’ll discuss about hoaw an organization (name withheld on request) that’s into contracting assignments, increase both its business and revenues exponentially just by automating its contract handling procedures.

This company handles a lot of contracts and contract-related tasks daily. In fact, as per their legal staff, nearly 70% of this company’s legal matters are all related to contract work. The company’s main portfolio is dealing with the following types of contracts:

• Purchase Contracts

• Contracts related to lease and Lease Agreements

• Contracts drawn up for new Projects and project activities

• Contracts for hiring labor, staff etc…

Using Legacy tools and procedures

When we surveyed the software and other work-related apps being used for daily workflows, we found that this organization’s in-house legal department primarily used MS-Excel and other such desktop software for its daily routine workflow activities. This is widely prevalent in the legal sector, as multiple surveys have already pointed out.

Now, just because spreadsheets are widely used doesn’t mean they’re the best option — especially for complex tasks like legal department reporting. Solely relying on spreadsheets and word-processing software to create your reports actually comes with more problems than benefits, like:

▪ Inaccurate data-entry

▪ Outdated data that needs regular manual updating

▪ Difficulties in collaboration

▪ Unnecessary work-load of manual updating, that could have been easily avoided. ▪ Delays in routine workflows, because of all the manual labour required in drafting and updating contracts, and

▪ Due to the above issues, complaints and grievances from existing clients had started increasing exponentially.

These issues were slowly but surely decreasing the quality of reports being generated by the legal department, thus making it more difficult to prove their value as a strategic partner in this organization. In other words, the in-house legal department was floundering!

So, what was the way ahead?

Because of the desperation of losing existing and potential invaluable customers and clients, the organization had a board meeting wherein it was decided that automating the contracting process was the only way ahead for survival in the coming times. The organization conducted detailed surveys and found out that there was a solution in sight – the Smart Legal Counsel automation platform for corporate legal departments, from Beveron Technologies LLC, a Dubai-based LegalTech solutions provider.

The organization did not waste time in contacting Beveron Technologies, and soon enough, after a detailed presentation, along with the Implementation Plan for Smart Legal Counsel, the software was finally installed in the organization’s Legal Department.

What was the immediate impact / change after implementing automation?

Now that the contracting process workflow was automated, slowly but certainly, the legal department started noticing differences in the way workflow logjams started easing up and getting more streamlined with each passing day. They also noticed that designing contracts now became way easier due to the following features baked into Smart Legal Counsel:

▪ Automated contract drafts based on pre-defined templates

▪ Detailed and software-based reviews of existing contracts

▪ Contract execution powered by software automation, and

▪ Automated alerts and customizable reminders for upcoming contract renewals

And what’s the status now?

After implementing Beveron’s Smart Legal Counsel in their legal department, the contracting process has now become leaner and much more streamlined than they could ever imagine!

As per the feedback given by the organization, it now enjoys the following benefits after introducing automation:

❖ The in-house legal department is now able to track contracts end-to-end, systematically, and comprehensively, thus reducing manual work required in tracing and tracking contract details. ❖ The legal department there is now able to meet (and often surpass!) deadlines, both internal and organization wide.

❖ End-to-end monitoring and alerting about upcoming contract expiry dates. These alerts are fully customizable too.

❖ All completed and executed contracts go into archive automatically, thus preserving manual labor and space needed in physically storing completed contracts.

Thus, from the above case-study, it can be conclusively proven that the most effective corporate legal departments avoid complications like the ones mentioned above, by using a modern legal ops platform like Beveron’s Smart Legal Counsel. This technological tool streamlines the reporting process and boosts your ability to craft strategic, data-backed recommendations that automatically movesthe organization’s business forward.

- Company’s 70% of legal matters are of contract handling

- Different type of contracts handled ; purchase contract, lease contract, project contract, hiring contract etc.

- It was managed with Excel and Email was the main collaboration tools

- Lot of issues in managing requests, meeting deadline, work load, delays, complaints from stake holders

- Implemented SLC

- Contract management automation implemented – template driven contract drafting, reviews, execution, renewal

- Current status – systematic tracking of contracts, able to meet deadlines, tracking of contract expiries. Archive of executed contracts