Four Reasons You Might Need Document Automation/CLM software

Four Reasons You Might Need Document Automation/CLM software

At Legito, we often talk about the benefits of Document Automation and Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), especially our Smart Document Workspace. And who can blame us, there are a lot of benefits; from our use of structured data throughout the solution – which creates a more powerful, extensible solution that grows with your needs, to our frequent release schedule – so you know we’re actively working to get you the features you want (on the rare occasion we don’t have them). 

 

But what are the signs, internally at your organization, that you should be looking for a Document Automation solution – or to replace the one you already have? How do you tell when the time is “right?” Here are a four of our favorites: 

 

1. Your existing tools can’t keep up 

We’ve talked to enough customers to know that many of you have some form of existing Document Automation or CLM solution. It doesn’t have to be from one of our competitors, and often it’s actually an internal process or more likely a hard-coded tool that your IT team has created. The issue is that every time a standard contract needs to be updated, it needs to go to your IT team to make the change. There’s a strong chance that your IT folks have about 900 other things on their plate, from server maintenance, to security, to permissioning new employees, and trying to figure out why that printer on the sixth floor won’t work. Changes to an automation tool they likely see very infrequently are going to be very low on the list of fires they have resources to put out. This isn’t against your IT team, they just have a lot to do. This low priority means your Document Automation tool can’t keep up with the changes you need to make. The time for new Document Automation is now. 

 

2. You’re expanding

There are actually two issues in this one (we’ll get to the second one next week) – the first is an issue that plagues any company that grows quickly: Too many new people using processes that worked in a team of 20, but don’t work any more in a team of 200. Hypergrowth is a goal many companies shoot for, but brings hyper headaches as well. Often expansion – through sales or through acquisition – doesn’t mean that everything happens smoothly, or as it “should” – and oftentimes there is either no incumbent automation solution or several that are “competing.” This means contracts aren’t uniform, or managed/automated effectively. This leads to risk – and you need a new Document Automation solution here. 

 

3. You’re a bottleneck

This is a need specifically for inhouse legal teams. You know, as we do, that your demands are many, and you’re chronically understaffed. This is the nature of business. But this means that somewhere during all the risk policy analysis, large contract negotiation, due diligence, and negotiation with outside counsel, etc. that you do, you need to do deal review and maintain a database of approved contract terms/templates. This often creates a bottleneck with the legal team; either for the documents or for the rest of the work (most likely both). Document Automation can help you. It’s time to think about it. We covered this in more detail in our Industry Insights article. It’s worth a read. 

 

4. Your management asks for it

This one is fairly self explanatory. The only question is why? Often deploying Document Automation solutions can have a significant impact on the bottom line because it means that they don’t have to hire additional personnel to do work that would need to be done manually otherwise. After all, document automation solutions don’t call in sick, take vacation, or have to leave early for their kid’s soccer games. 

 

Is it time for a Document Automation/Contact Lifecycle Management system (or an upgrade to your existing tools) at your organization? Schedule a demo with us today using this form.

At Legito, we often talk about the benefits of Document Automation and Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), especially our Smart Document Workspace. And who can blame us, there are a lot of benefits; from our use of structured data throughout the solution – which creates a more powerful, extensible solution that grows with your needs, to our frequent release schedule – so you know we’re actively working to get you the features you want (on the rare occasion we don’t have them). 

 

But what are the signs, internally at your organization, that you should be looking for a Document Automation solution – or to replace the one you already have? How do you tell when the time is “right?” Here are a four of our favorites: 

 

1. Your existing tools can’t keep up 

We’ve talked to enough customers to know that many of you have some form of existing Document Automation or CLM solution. It doesn’t have to be from one of our competitors, and often it’s actually an internal process or more likely a hard-coded tool that your IT team has created. The issue is that every time a standard contract needs to be updated, it needs to go to your IT team to make the change. There’s a strong chance that your IT folks have about 900 other things on their plate, from server maintenance, to security, to permissioning new employees, and trying to figure out why that printer on the sixth floor won’t work. Changes to an automation tool they likely see very infrequently are going to be very low on the list of fires they have resources to put out. This isn’t against your IT team, they just have a lot to do. This low priority means your Document Automation tool can’t keep up with the changes you need to make. The time for new Document Automation is now. 

 

2. You’re expanding

There are actually two issues in this one (we’ll get to the second one next week) – the first is an issue that plagues any company that grows quickly: Too many new people using processes that worked in a team of 20, but don’t work any more in a team of 200. Hypergrowth is a goal many companies shoot for, but brings hyper headaches as well. Often expansion – through sales or through acquisition – doesn’t mean that everything happens smoothly, or as it “should” – and oftentimes there is either no incumbent automation solution or several that are “competing.” This means contracts aren’t uniform, or managed/automated effectively. This leads to risk – and you need a new Document Automation solution here. 

 

3. You’re a bottleneck

This is a need specifically for inhouse legal teams. You know, as we do, that your demands are many, and you’re chronically understaffed. This is the nature of business. But this means that somewhere during all the risk policy analysis, large contract negotiation, due diligence, and negotiation with outside counsel, etc. that you do, you need to do deal review and maintain a database of approved contract terms/templates. This often creates a bottleneck with the legal team; either for the documents or for the rest of the work (most likely both). Document Automation can help you. It’s time to think about it. We covered this in more detail in our Industry Insights article. It’s worth a read. 

 

4. Your management asks for it

This one is fairly self explanatory. The only question is why? Often deploying Document Automation solutions can have a significant impact on the bottom line because it means that they don’t have to hire additional personnel to do work that would need to be done manually otherwise. After all, document automation solutions don’t call in sick, take vacation, or have to leave early for their kid’s soccer games. 

 

Is it time for a Document Automation/Contact Lifecycle Management system (or an upgrade to your existing tools) at your organization? Schedule a demo with us today using this form.

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