Fans of Legito’s “Weekly Automation Corner” as well as those who have spent the time to seriously investigate implementing a document automation or Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution knows the typical benefits of these tools – reduced drafting time, elimination of clerical errors/risk for the organization, less review time, etc. And these continue to be the major reasons to adopt automation/CLM tools. But did you know that there are other, hidden benefits you might not be aware of? 

There are, and they actually have real-world implications rather than just being the office hero for finding a great new tool. Here are a few: 

1. Employee retention

How can a document automation/CLM tool improve employee retention? It’s pretty simple actually: Our employees, be they junior, senior, partner, associate, or administrator live in a digital world, where they are used to working from mobile devices, having connected apps, and having the ability to seamlessly complete tasks. These employees demand the same functionalities from their work environments. When they don’t get them, they leave. Of course, other factors can have an effect as well, but Automation/CLM tools give them the functionality they want and prevent laborious drudgery in manual document assembly. Happy employees mean less turnover, more productivity, less institutional knowledge leaving the company, and less time and money spent finding new ones. 

2. Ease of Use

Another hidden benefit is ease of use. We already know our employees are digitally savvy, and are used to having easy-to-use apps available at their fingertips. Gone are the days when they were willing to go through every standard contract and update the language of (for example) the personal data section of each version. Now they want the ability to make that change across all documents, at one time, from one place and have them carry forward across all templates, and all documents. This helps retain employees by freeing them from tedious tasks, but also reduces hassle of making sure all documents are updated – and yes; risk to the company. 

3. “Human” errors protection (alternative version)

As any junior legal associate will tell you, there is a constant fear of missing something that needs to be updated when a contract’s terms change, and an equal sense of euphoria that comes from finding that the “other side” missed something. Document Automation/CLM is the junior associate’s secret weapon against being caught having missed something – no matter how hard they try. 

4. Data Analytics 

Data isn’t just for the accounting, marketing, or product departments anymore. As businesses grow, there is a renewed reliance on data across teams means those who deal with document assembly will need to be ready as well – from lawyers to accountants to procurement teams. Need to know the most frequently used documents? Frequently used clauses? Documents that present the most institutional risk from outdated or missing language? Most common bottlenecks in workflows? Here again automation/CLM solutions are up to the task. 

Document automation or Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions bring well-known, as well as hidden benefits that are no less important. What benefits will you see when you implement an automation/CLM solution?

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