In the world of legal departments, small legal departments have to fight the toughest battles. While legal departments of all sizes have to stretch their resources and wear different hats, the fragmented focus of small legal departments can elevate the risk that an unacceptable risk is overlooked. Technology helps to minimize risks by getting rid of manual processes that increase the chance of errors so small legal departments can focus on their strategic priorities.
Here are the top manual processes Legisway eliminates:
Automate alerts
Ever wonder what the status is with a contract or claim? Instead of entering all the due dates into an Excel spreadsheet, or worse, writing them down in your agenda, users can receive an automatic e-mail alert when a contract renewal date is supposed to occur. The calendar provides an additional way to monitor any upcoming important due dates, as well as view the responsible party.
Report generation
Do you know the employees responsible for all contracts expiring before the end of the year? Can you determine the number of contracts you have with related entities, group companies, and external parties? Legisway reduces the time it takes to gather information because it is stored all in one place and is easily searchable. The extensive reporting capabilities let legal departments generate relevant reports for any business unit.
Workflow management
A lot of small legal departments rely on sticky notes, e-mails, or worse, their memory to manage workflow. Simplifying the most frequently occurring tasks can boost productivity, and all users can see who is responsible for which stage of the workflow. As soon as a step in the workflow is completed, it is forwarded to the next person in the chain. Since Legisway is web-based, it offers an additional advantage of better collaboration with colleagues by eliminating much of the waiting game associated with traditional paper workflows.
Manage your intellectual property
In a fast-growing startup, the company may be large enough to hire a lawyer, but their needs tend to gravitate towards managing intellectual property. The IP management module from Legisway allows small legal departments to track the legal status and changes of their intellectual property and see where and by which authority the organization’s trademarks are registered.
Contract and document management
Every in-house lawyer has had the experience of rifling through endless filing cabinets. The legal department is often flooded with requests to look over contracts within their own department and other business units, which can add up to a lot of lost time in productivity. The contract management module from Legisway increases the response time by allowing you to search within documents. It also includes an alert system so that expiration, renewal, and cancellation dates are not missed. With the DocuSign integration, legal departments can collect a legal enforceable e-signature, without ever having to touch a printer or fax machine.
Takeaway
Working in a small legal department means that you have to be able to monitor several legal issues and risks at any given time. Leveraging web-based legal management software brings simplicity, efficiency and control with tools such so you can focus on the important items on your paperless to-do list.
