Part One of the Five-Part Series “Top 5 ELM Benefits” – Increased Efficiency
How Proven ELM Benefits Improve Your Purchase Case Through Increased Efficiency
Corporate purchases require some form of due diligence that proves the benefits will outweigh the costs. Evaluating LegalTech solution benefits can prove challenging, but Legal teams aren’t the only business unit that can improve with ELM systems. For this reason, it’s essential to include other business units in the discussion since decision-makers are more confident if the evidence shows the benefits can lead to positive changes for the entire business.
Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) solutions may provide both efficiency and cost-saving improvements for Legal, Finance, and Human Resources to Procurement, Operations, and more. But the real question decision-makers want to have answered is, “Which tangible benefits can my organization expect after implementing an ELM solution?” Over the next installments in this blog series, we’ll explore the answer together.
In this series of blogs, we will take a deep dive into the Top 5 benefits of ELM and what each offers to modern business teams. Our goal is to give your team the data to build your case for adopting advanced capabilities to improve Legal performance, increase the business data transparency, and lower overall costs.
We will present real-world client success stories and show their process for defining their challenges, identifying potential solutions, and choosing their ELM system. The resulting benefits will also demonstrate how ELM systems provide insights that aid the entire business ecosystem.
Satisfied doeLEGAL clients report that ELM offers a holistic, transparent view of their business data, empowering other business units to excel along with Legal. We’ll showcase these client success stories that illustrate additional benefits and demonstrate the strong value LegalTech brings to the corporate table.
ELM Solution Benefit #1: Increased Efficiency
Increase efficiency through process automation and expert support
1. How process automation benefits efficiency
Legal teams want to focus on their core strength – practicing law – but increased workloads can overwhelm their staff. ELM solutions provide automation opportunities to reduce repetitive tasks, increase efficiency, and minimize human input errors. Not only does automation offer time savings, but it can also identify areas of the workflow in need of efficiency optimization.
An example would be the ELM Automated Rules Engine which checks submitted invoices against standard billing codes and corporate rules. This automated check occurs before any human reviewers get involved. Any invoice line violations or discrepancies may be automatically adjusted by the system, rejected and sent back to the outside counsel/billing party, or accepted through custom approval rules. Eliminating any human coding errors or missed line item issues removes the wasted time associated with costly invoice reviews. With Automated checks, reviewers are only brought into the workflow when an invoice passes all system checks.
Legal is a prime example of where redundant and repetitive tasks take time away from higher-value initiatives. Processes automated within an ELM system let you repurpose staff on more fulfilling, revenue-generating tasks, directly impacting corporate profitability and job satisfaction.
With the system analyzing and managing the business integrated data flows, the real-time data becomes real-time information. The analyzed data, or smart data, provides intelligently delivered insights throughout the company – where they will have the most impact. To make informed and timely decisions, legal teams rely on their data. Trusting that the automated capabilities of ELM systems are working behind the scenes empowers corporate legal departments to take more confident and timely action. Ascent ELM clients report that the efficiency benefit alone has proven its value time and again. They have seen performance increases of as much as 65% after implementing the ELM System.
2. How does expert support increased efficiency?
A few select providers include expert client and vendor support at no charge. ELM clients get answers when they need them, and legal teams enjoy training and support, ensuring top performance and satisfaction – at no extra charge. Providing this same ongoing training and support to the client’s outside vendors ensures the system will sustain top performance on both sides of the relationship.
Studies have shown that clients want a responsive ELM solution provider that partners with their in-house team. Clients wish to contact an expert on the first call when answers are required. A renewed focus on business performance and cost savings, including client support in the ELM workflow, allows for a predictable cost of ownership well suitable for the entire organization.
NINJA TIP: Outside LegalTech providers that function as a partner – not just as service providers – act as an extension of your own business. Use their profound experience and resources to help shift the workload off your staff so they can focus on practicing law.
Proven client success stories demonstrate ELM’s increased efficiency benefit
Why not use the triumphs of your legal colleagues to build a success story of your own? Look at the challenges they faced, why they chose ELM LegalTech to help overcome them, and their documented efficiency results.
NINJA TIP: Increasing efficiency is a process that pays dividends over time. Benefits build over weeks, months, and years, creating significant savings as a positive ripple effect touching every aspect of the business. Adjust the success lessons of others to create your own win.
Case Study #1: Global HealthCare Leader
Situation: The US-based leader in healthcare and well-being products started a global initiative to improve efficiency, reduce legal expenditures, and support critical business needs.
Efficiency Problems Faced: How to structure, manage, and track time against Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFAs).
Solution: A system with integrated automation processes to track and manage IT costs, minimize system complexity, and improve efficiency in processing invoice appeals and tracking AFAs.
ELM Results: Team was empowered to cut time in managing the appeals process and track and report on AFA progress in real-time. IT support costs dropped 10% due to automated processes.
“The whole project came in on time and on budget, which is unusual around here, so that was a big win.”
– Director Legal Ops, Fortune 100 Healthcare Manufacturer
Case Study #2: Global Chemical Manufacturing Leader
Situation: One of the largest global chemical-related product producers saw immediate opportunities to improve Legal Operations effectiveness and efficiency.
Efficiency Problems Faced: Finding data on legal spending, streamlining labor-intensive reports, reducing time delays due to system complexity.
Solution: Analytic dashboards showing data in one place. The flexible, user-configured platform lets the legal team focus on practicing law, not overseeing technology.
ELM Results: Efficiently managed outside counsel rates. They reported a savings of 2hrs/week/attorney with process automation. Enhanced reporting capabilities let leaders get trusted answers in minutes, not hours.
“If we want real-time reporting and full transparency on what we’re spending, along with controls over approving rate increases and timekeepers, then we need this system.”– Deputy General Counsel, Litigation, Fortune 100 Chemical Manufacturer
How do you unlock the ELM increased efficiency benefits?
Unlocking these ELM benefits is the easy part. Providers like doeLEGAL and Questel are ready to help legal teams configure the ELM system to take full advantage of the process automation capabilities. they also include customer support experts at no extra charge along with many functions that others typically charge fees to manage:
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- Set up data integrations from other business units quickly
- Rely on a dedicated team of ELM experts at no extra charge
- Set up the automated rules engine with the standard UTBMS and LEDES codes
- Allow you to create customized corporate guidelines
- Onboard all in-house and outside legal vendor team members
- Configure automated reports to inform key members on matter invoice statuses
It’s easy to configure, so you don’t need a super tech-savvy in-house team, tech experts in your IT department, or an expensive outside consultant to implement ELM.
NINJA TIP: Ascent ELM is designed to be efficient and user-friendly from day #1. And the predictable cost of ownership means you’ll know your monthly fee remains constant while your team performance continues to improve.
What’s next?
In our next post, we’ll explore the second benefit of the top five that comes from implementing ELM systems in year #1 – Greater transparency using one location
to find answers.
Visit doeLEGAL.com to explore more about the Ascent ELM™, the award-winning Enterprise Legal Management solution from doeLEGAL, A Questel Company.
If you’re ready to move forward; you can also request a demo now.
