With AI fueling a seismic technological shift, business leaders are now pursuing a new goal: the exponential enterprise.
As ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott said at the company’s recent user conference, “We have a great reprioritization of enterprise systems. We are in the midst of a workflow revolution.” To compete in this fast-paced business environment, reducing the friction surrounding critical internal processes is gaining importance.
In legal operations, for example, corporate leaders are increasingly turning to enterprise-grade contracts and workflow solutions to streamline legal service delivery. The goal? Increase their ability to win by cutting complexity, increasing productivity, and accelerating business impact. As legal workflows impact nearly every part of the business, this area is ripe with opportunity.
Chief Legal Officer or “Chief Horizon Scanner”?
More organizations are proactively identifying how global political, environmental, and economic events present unique business challenges. This ever-growing risk profile has made the expectations for legal departments higher than ever. Business leaders across IT, procurement, finance, sales, and compliance teams must be able to rely on legal teams as strategic advisors for an evolving range of needs.
Mark Gregory, General Counsel and Corporate Affairs Director at UK engineering group Rolls-Royce, points out: “With key business risks now falling under the remit of the legal function—such as trade sanctions, ESG, cyber security, and data privacy to name just a few—Chief Legal Officers are increasingly called to be the ‘Chief Horizon Scanner’.”
Consider, for example, the role legal service delivery plays in improving business operations when new regulations pass, such as the new bans on non-compete agreements. Legal professionals in applicable states will now have to partner with their human resources stakeholders to determine which employee contract templates contain non-compete language and update these agreements to remain compliant.
To do so manually would take too much time and prevent in-house counsel from focusing on other initiatives that can protect and future-proof the business. Artificial intelligence–combined with best-in-class legal delivery services–empowers legal professionals to analyze contract data and streamline workflows to quickly identify key data points and automate contract processes. This frees up time for more strategic activities that support the growth of the entire organization.
From the “Department of No” to the Organization of “Yes”
Of all the responsibilities legal teams hold within their organizations, which are the most important? They assist in contract drafting and negotiation, prioritizing and safeguarding the interests of the business, and ensuring clear and enforceable agreements with partners, suppliers, and clients. They aid in intellectual property protection, patent filings, and trademark registrations, protecting a business's innovative ideas and creations.
These are not “either-or” tradeoffs; they are “yes, and” conversations. Legal teams must be able to say yes to both driving growth and reducing costs and managing risk.
Since legal teams offer valuable assistance in nearly every aspect of business, it’s crucial to have efficient processes in place to engage internal legal professionals effectively. Frictionless legal service delivery plays a pivotal role in enabling businesses to operate more effectively and tactically, especially as many legal departments still battle the outdated stigma as the “Department of ‘No.’”
By better engaging legal professionals, business stakeholders gain access to legal advice and guidance that helps them navigate complex regulatory frameworks, ensure compliance with the law, mitigate legal risks, and protect the business from potential disputes and liabilities. This enables legal teams to shift into an organization that empowers other teams to make impactful, positive changes across the enterprise.
In a perfect world, everything would go according to plan, but legal professionals know that is not reality. When the unexpected happens, legal departments with reduced operational friction and digitally-sound processes are better prepared to tackle new challenges.
“Legal departments that have developed a high-efficiency approach for handling disruptive events are essentially making one tradeoff for every three in a low-efficiency department,” said Raashi Rastogi, Director of Research in the Gartner Legal Risk & Compliance Practice. “With disruption now being the norm rather than the exception, very few legal departments can afford the volume of tradeoffs that comes with an inefficient response to disruption.”
As Jerry Ting, Founder and CEO of Evisort, puts it, “Intelligent, seamless legal service delivery is a critical aspect of any organization’s success–especially one on a trajectory for exponential growth. By partnering with leading legal technology providers and implementing cutting-edge solutions, your organization can streamline its legal operations, reduce costs, and increase productivity.”
If you're looking to stay ahead of the curve and optimize your legal service delivery, consider an enterprise-grade solution that includes contract lifecycle management, integrations, and artificial intelligence.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Other Topics
Technology Innovation
Evisort
Evisort offers the next generation of AI-powered contract intelligence. Evisort’s AI platform for contract lifecycle management and analysis connects contract data, unlocks productivity, and delivers digital workflows that create great experiences across the enterprise.
Read Evisort's Bio