Streamlined legal operations are non-negotiable, especially in the wake of tremendous economic uncertainty. Between high inflation and a potential looming recession, corporate legal departments (CLDs) have no choice but to control spend in a bid for greater economic resilience.
Of course, wanting or needing to control spend is one thing; actually doing it is another. Some CLDs may find themselves married to outdated processes—but now is the time to break free. In fact, adopting a new and better approach to spend management is a must-have for CLDs that wish to remain competitive.
Traditional spend management
Change can be hard. That helps explain why some CLDs are still wedded to older spend management technologies and policies—even if they’re no longer effective.
For example, while traditional e-billing technology has many benefits, some solutions struggle to handle increasingly complex or non-standardized billing guidelines. The result: spend leakage that can cost CLDs millions of dollars per year.
Many CLDs also have law firms that continue to use paper invoices. While paper invoices tend to represent a small portion of overall spend, they prevent CLDs from gaining complete visibility into how much they are spending. Additionally, processing these invoices is highly inefficient and prevents staff from focusing on higher-value tasks.
Complete visibility is also a precursor to the use of advanced analytics. To weather economic storms, CLDs must be able to crunch numbers quickly and easily regarding their performance. Industry benchmarks and internal data must be accessible in an intuitive, secure manner to ensure all decisions around legal spend are data-driven.
The right technology for the job
To improve legal operations and, in turn, economic resilience, CLDs should take a holistic and balanced approach that we call total spend management. Total spend management entails combining core e-billing tools with advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
Some of the core tenets of total spend management include:
- AI-powered bill review that can quickly flag compliance violations, minimizing spend leakage
- AI-powered conversion of paper invoices to LEDES format that supports complete visibility and, in turn, cost savings
- Advanced analytics that support benchmarking and data-driven decision-making
Altogether, these technologies offer a way to control costs that is far more sustainable than reactionary rate freezes. AI-powered bill review, for one, has been shown to improve billing compliance by 20% and increase cost savings by 10%. That’s a significant improvement, particularly in the current environment.
Get started today
To fully detail the challenges with traditional spend management and the benefits of a more holistic approach, we have put together a whitepaper titled A better approach to spend management.
In this whitepaper, readers will glean:
- A deeper understanding of the challenges currently facing CLDs
- A breakdown of the solutions that power total spend management
- Tips on how to determine which capabilities are right for you
The bottom line
Every penny counts. CLDs simply cannot afford to leave any money on the table.
Powerful e-billing tools combined with AI and ML have the potential to offer significant cost savings, improved economic efficiency, increased compliance, and greater overall resilience. They also offer a complete view into the entirety of the CLD’s expenditures, including the impact those expenditures have on legal outcomes and business objectives.
To learn more, download the whitepaper now.
