A WHITE PAPER FROM THINKSMART

AUTOMATING WORKFLOW FOR LEGAL OPERATIONS Taking Business Processes Digital for High ROI via Compliance, Process Success, Efficiency, and Scalability

Def.

Work * flow [wurk-floh] automation 1. A series of “If-This, Then-That” steps, recorded in software, that guide people successfully through a business process. 2. Use of software technology to increase the efficiency of a workflow by improving the coordination of the activities of the people involved. 3. The enemy of mistakes and inefficiencies in a process.

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A WHITE PAPER FROM THINKSMART AUTOMATING WORKFLOW FOR LEGAL OPERATIONS

Workflow Automation: A Leap Forward in Handling Processes Across the enterprise, business processes are ripe for automation via workflow. This situation is particularly evident in corporate legal departments where, every day, Legal Operations confronts: • Risk exposure, liability and the need to reduce both • Compliance and high stakes, with penalties for mistakes and delays • High frequency, repeatable processes with numerous steps; vulnerable to frequent errors • The need to scale up, i.e. make high-volume processes consume less time and attention Human resources (HR) recruitment and onboarding are an example of a high-frequency, relatively high-complexity workflow. Wherever one encounters documents signed by hand, emails chasing approvals or meetings held to nail down signoffs, and paper forms that easily go astray, the management of workflow can provide a high ROI and significant process improvement. Workflow can ensure that all participants perform as required from the job interview process, to the offer, immigration status inquiry, and getting the new employee integrated into current systems and directories, and properly equipped with a desk and office on the first day.

are confusing to the uninitiated, or are paper-based or Excel-based, have a high failure or incompletion rate, are non-standard and lack control. Workflow automation is the enemy of mistakes and failure in business processes. It applies standards to processes, hides complexity from users, brings transparency, greatly lowers risk, and combines centralization with self-service. Process-driven workflow is a key element of the broader field of digital transaction management, or DTM, which has received growing attention from industry analysts and companies in nearly every industry. Workflow automation is a ‘when, not if’ issue for any enterprise that aims to keep up as digitization sweeps through the business landscape. Workflow automation is cost-effective and high-ROI, with Legal Operations being among the highest-ROI application areas.

Often, the processes that Legal Operations addresses

A Quick Explanation of Workflow Automation Software Workflow automation, from a software standpoint, needs to encompass these elements: a secure yet collaborative workspace / environment to build workflows, self-service forms for users to access the workflows, a central repository of existing workflows and documents, as well as data on their utilization, and performance/auditing data on these processes, and integration as needed with electronic signatures. In some companies, workflow is handled largely on Excel or other manual processes. Dashboards are a good fit with the users’ front end, granting visibility and easier tracking of processes.

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A WHITE PAPER FROM THINKSMART AUTOMATING WORKFLOW FOR LEGAL OPERATIONS

What Legal Operations Worries About Companies strive continuously to leverage technology to replace outdated manual processes with more efficient cost-effective systems. Many existing systems – Excel being the most prevalent – work in silos dealing with specific problems in closed-off environments. This increases cost and overhead as business users work independently without a cohesive structure. For Legal Operations, that situation combined with potential liability is immediate cause for concern. Legal Operations has responsibility for setting up and managing processes for a wide range of departments. Among the typical daily concerns for Legal Operations:

Digital Transaction Management (DTM)

$30

billion Currently a $500-700 million market, DTM will grow to $30 billion by 2021.

• Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs): In many companies, different locations often require different NDAs for different situations and different classes of contractors/ employees. It’s important to use the right template for each jurisdiction, in the right language. • Document signing, including electronic signatures. • Matter management): any sizable company is likely to be involved in dozens of lawsuits or potential litigations at any given time. Each matter has its own filing deadlines and complex workflows. • Other high-stakes workflows: IP licensing and patent applications, e-vendor billing onboarding, project management, Board of Directors approval, contract management, loan agreements for product evaluations. • Disclosures and comments contained in mandated financial reporting. • High stakes: penalties for sending the wrong form in any legal process can be draconian. • The mistakes that can come when relying on fallible memory and confusing paper forms. • Completing all aspects of each process while remaining in compliance, especially when executed by personnel who don’t know the implications and consequences of an error, or simply aren’t familiar with the required steps and paperwork.

70% 70% of large enterprises will have a DTM initiative underway or fully implemented by the end of 2016. Source: Aragon Research

Non-disclosure agreements are a useful illustration of workflow automation and why it can be extremely helpful. NDAs, in a medium- or larger-sized company, are usually high-frequency and relatively low-risk. Most users probably perceive them as simple: “I sign the form and hand it in. What’s complicated?” However, as the workflow on the following page shows, there may be multiple steps and approvals behind the scenes, and tracking even one NDA along its route can be tedious and time-consuming.

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A WHITE PAPER FROM THINKSMART AUTOMATING WORKFLOW FOR LEGAL OPERATIONS

Self-service NDA as an Example of Workflow Request Initiated

Approvals and Signatures

Smart Form Select Geography

Package Created

Document Archival & Management Final Document Signed & Sealed

Select Country Select Business Unit Select Team

Package Review

Document repositories updated

E-Signature Form Signer Name

Signers receive signed copies via email

Package Sent

Signer Email

What Workflow Automation Brings to the Enterprise • Centralization and standardization go hand in hand, providing the framework for control and tracking. • Verifiable correct execution of the process, with nearcomplete transparency into any workflow. • Higher completion rates (process success) for even simpler workflows. • Clarity, visibility, and reportability for every process. • Scalability – with workflow automation, if the process is correctly established in workflow, it can run as well one thousand times as it does one time. • Efficiency; having the process always execute in the correct sequence is a major efficiency aid. • Self-service; removing [from corporate life] the job of chasing colleagues to sign off or provide information

could be the unsung productivity booster of the decade. In addition, for data inputs, the most accurate source is often the individual served by the workflow, or the employee closest to the process, whose performance is judged by its outcome. • Compliance rates increase. A simple example: workflow doesn’t forget the deadline, and late penalties can be driven considerably lower. • Auditing at a level sufficient for evidentiary purposes. • End-to-end support of a process with workflow; this is an excellent replacement for the limited process knowledge that each individual participant along the chain may possess. • With the right software system: the ability to build workflow around, and automate, any business process without need for programming – i.e. without a need for developers.

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A WHITE PAPER FROM THINKSMART AUTOMATING WORKFLOW FOR LEGAL OPERATIONS

Each of these factors has a significant ROI. ThinkSmart estimates, based on its customers’ observations and external estimates, that the average cost of completing a business process in a typical corporate setting is $31. Obviously the range varies widely depending on complexity and the number of steps, participants, and documents. Completing a process with consumption of just 15 minutes of employee time versus 60 minutes is a cost savings that can be quantified. It is more difficult to calculate the ROI of avoiding a compliance penalty that might have been incurred with manual workflow; one doesn’t know if that negative outcome would have happened, but the downside could be extreme.

How Workflow Automation Benefits Legal Operations In addition to the points covered below, workflow automation – from a more strategic viewpoint – gives Legal Operations a cohesive framework to see and control risk. Centralized workflow is an upgrade to corporate governance of real consequence. Here are some key benefits that workflow automation delivers: • Given the proper integration or functionality: a safe way to handle electronic signatures on key documents. • Reduces risk of process incompletion, incorrect paperwork, legal exposure. • Safer handling of highly visible processes. • Visibility into previously hard-to-track processes; for example, knowledge of who signed what in a new vendor contract request that might have bounced between purchasing, contract management, and clinicians at a healthcare provider. • Helps ensure compliance and cut liability exposure. • Self-service is key to reducing time-consuming ad hoc involvement of power users and IT

• Centralization and tracking of process frequency, progress, completion, and success. • Scalability for organizations to build workflow independent of IT, and expand the use or frequency of a business process.

Workflow Requirements for Legal Operations Workflow automation software should provide the ability to map workflow, apply controls, and convert it to a largely self-service transaction, in a totally digitized environment, including processes that require electronic signatures. The “best practice” set of qualities and features will include:

• Highly cost-effective, high ROI.

• The automation platform is integrated with widely used electronic signature solutions such as Adobe Document Cloud eSign services and DocuSign.

• Both processes and procedures can be standardized and automated.

• The environment for mapping processes and producing workflows is graphics-based.

• Requires users to follow a predefined work path.

• Simplicity of operation for administrators and end users.

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A WHITE PAPER FROM THINKSMART AUTOMATING WORKFLOW FOR LEGAL OPERATIONS

• Cloud-based architecture for ease of access and mobility. • Transparency across multiple platforms, and the ability to pull in data from a range of ERP, CRM, and electronic signature software applications. • Centralization with all information on workflows held in a single data repository. • High visibility into each individual workflow, as well as groupings and aggregates of workflows, for authorized users; this can be provided through reports and dashboard. • Auditing, with secure tracking of changes.

scaling growth up more rapidly. The enterprise that does not embrace DTM and workflow automation in particular is at risk of becoming non-competitive.

About ThinkSmart ThinkSmart LLC, a leader in Digital Transaction Management, provides the Transaction Automation Platform (TAP), an elegant, high-ROI, simple-to-use solution for management, automation and control of business processes in seamless, intuitive, compliancebased online environments. For more information, go to www.thinksmart.com.

• Security to protect existing processes, preventing them from being hijacked or inadvertently damaged.

Conclusions and Takeaways Legal Operations has an ever-more critical job on its hands, as more workflows with legal implications scale up, and as compliance issues grow in impact, along with the consequences of errors in any legal procedure. The need – driven by business growth targets – to scale and speed up, yet protect business processes, is as important as the need to complete them with higher frequency and fewer errors. Workflow via a well-designed, cloud-based automation solution is a high-ROI, widely beneficial way to centralize, standardize, automate, and scale up work processes, while strengthening compliance and gaining self-service efficiencies. Along with electronic signature management, workflow automation makes up an important part of digital transaction management, and has the potential to help organizations become more efficient and lower risk, while

FOR MORE INFORMATION www.thinksmart.com 888-489-4284

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