Many legal departments set out to become more efficient at the beginning of the year, but how many of them actually follow through? While it’s easy to get caught up in touchscreens, mobile devices and customized features, legal technology is about finding ways for legal departments to work more efficiently so you can spend more time focusing on strategic business priorities instead of administration and repetitive tasks. Since the new year is a good place to start, here are 5 ways to work more efficiently:
Go paperless:
On top of costs for printing and copying, there are also costs for storing all that paper. Think of how much time you spent at the printer over the past few years printing out contracts, only to have to print it again when a new version was made. Even more time was spent organizing and filing it. How to do it: Legisway makes it possible for you to integrate an entirely paperless workflow in your legal management system. Many organizations choose to make the contract management lifecycle or an approval flow into an entirely paperless process.
Adopt cloud-based technology:
Unlike on-premise software, cloud-based technologies are often sold as an annual license fee that includes storage and free access to technical support. These solutions save money on installation and maintenance costs and time all that’s needed is an Internet connection. All documents are stored in one place and can be accessed by the necessary employees. How to do it: To make sure you get the most out of cloud-based technologies, you’ll probably want to consider reconfiguring your projects to allow continuous collaboration.
Security:
A recent survey among General Counsel revealed that data privacy/security was the top concern just behind compliance. They are certainly aware that this is an issue, but are often slow to address the challenge because they underestimate ability of their resources to address the problem. How to do it: In addition to a response plan, legal departments should look for legal software vendors that offer reliable security measures and meet requirements of compliance auditors.
Conduct meetings digitally:
Meetings are one of the biggest time-wasters in organizations because an agenda hasn’t been prepared or a participant arrives to the meeting without the proper documents. Conducting meetings on a digital platform allows for easier collaboration by leveraging participation and a single repository for all documents. How to do it: Legisway offers a free Boardroom App to help organizations conduct meetings more efficiently with features to help with document management, agenda setting and control of confidential information.
Monitor compliance:
A recent survey of more than 200 compliance professionals across global organizations concluded that the overwhelming majority felt that compliance had become more complex in the past two years. Compliance will continue to affect businesses and create risk. How to do it: Legisway offers a Compliance Management module to help legal departments adhere to the latest compliance standards as well as streamline their internal processes to increase efficiency.
Takeaway:
Although the legal profession has lagged behind on efficiency, technology can play a big role in helping to reverse that. As technology is expected to become more disruptive to the legal sector over the next few years, it’s better to place yourself in the category of early adopters or risk playing catch up over the next years.
