How can automating your recurring workflows helps your organization?
In today’s legal market, where new technologies are making it easier for the general public to access legal information, law firms wishing to remain competitive must work on automating their business processes.
While process automation is not new, it is for many in the legal industry, which is initially reluctant to LegalTech. However, this market is booming today. More and more legal and financial firms are choosing to automate tasks.
We will first define what is meant by “business process automation” before looking at the benefits and specific applications in the legal sector. If you want to become a pioneer in the legal field, read this article carefully!
Definition of business process automation
Performing a number of tasks manually for a law or financial firm is challenging. These tasks are generally very time consuming, reducing the productivity of the firm’s employees and limiting the number of hours of high value-added work available to end clients.
Some actions such as contract drafting, contract validation, legal research or document management are extremely time consuming and generate a risk of human error.
Business process automation can reduce the time spent by your teams on these time-consuming tasks.
Business process automation can be defined as the act of automating a current business process using repeatable, multi-step business automation legal software. It can be used as a stand-alone strategy to improve the efficiency of your organization, or it can be combined with overall business process management initiatives.
Business process automation solutions are typically complex and built specifically to meet the needs of an organization.
The use of automation software will replicate certain human-machine interactions in an automated manner. The software can search, interpret, communicate and process information, thus mimicking a human but faster and more efficiently.
Using such a solution also avoids some of the risks of error in performing trivial and tedious tasks. It requires no additional hardware and can be compatible with your company’s existing technology, which reduces the cost of investment while allowing for a significant increase in productivity. Automation allows you to copy and paste data, move files, fill out forms, send emails, notify people when they need to validate a document, perform calculations…
Let’s see what advantages your firm can get from this mode of organization:
The benefits of business process automation for your firm
All industries are gradually moving towards business process automation, recognizing its value. It is a technology that is becoming highly sought after because of its potential to significantly transform and improve the way we work. Having successfully demonstrated this in the human resources, customer service and insurance sectors, it’s time for the legal and financial sectors to realize the opportunity that business process automation represents. Here are just a few of the many benefits this technology can have for your business or firm:
Limit legal risks
The costs associated with legal risks can add up to a lot for companies working in the legal field.
Automating business processes can help you reduce the number of human interventions on a set of tasks and therefore reduce errors.
For example, such a system can greatly simplify the drafting of contracts by automatically creating them after filling out a form that includes all the elements of the contract to be modified by personal information.
Moreover, such solutions can help you store your files in a secured space and protect the files filed with the authorities.
Finally, if you have a deadline to file a claim, process automation can help you speed up the process by alerting all stakeholders when they need to act on a claim. Again, you limit the risk of penalties and/or errors if you didn’t have time to have a contract checked, for example.
Thus, the automation of business processes allows you to limit human errors, facilitate the securing of documents and better manage delays and deadlines.
Increase in productivity
Of course, as we have seen before, automating business processes will help you save many hours of work in administrative and time-consuming tasks.
For example, you can increase the amount of time you spend writing contracts or approving them. Moreover, implementing such procedures can limit the number of redundant contacts by email or phone when you need to request information or validate a document for example.
Imagine setting up an automated workflow platform (or scenario) that helps you automatically draft a contract using a template and a form, that notifies other parties involved in the file when they need to interact with you, that automatically sends an email when necessary, or that helps you gather all the resources for the firm in one place.
On average, it is estimated that the implementation of such practices can save up to the equivalent of one working day per week per employee.
Facilitating exchanges
Another great advantage that a business process automation software can provide you with is the exchange between collaborators. The sharing of knowledge and the exchange of information can be facilitated thanks to this mode of operation.
For example, it is possible to group all internal inquiries in one place and to facilitate the distribution between employees by an alert system as soon as a partner completes certain documents with additional research.
Improve client satisfaction
Naturally, increasing productivity is an opportunity for you to improve client satisfaction.
It will allow you to focus on your core business and the missions where you can bring the most value to your customers.
Moreover, the automation of business processes will also be an opportunity to bring more transparency in the follow-up of files, to better respond to new needs that clients may express and to build long-term loyalty.
But implementing such an organization will also help you better prepare for the future in the long term. Let’s see why.
Start preparing for the future of the legal profession today
As we know, the legal and accounting professions will undergo major transformations in their missions in the years to come.
First of all, legaltech will increase productivity and efficiency. They impact the organization of law firms, accountants and notaries’ offices. But in the long term, these new technologies will transform the very missions of these professions. Artificial intelligence combined with robotization and automation will totally change the needs of clients. For example, they will have much easier access to legal information that they can only use properly with the help of a legal professional.
Thus, future assignments will certainly be more and more oriented towards consulting and support services. Improving your firm’s productivity today by implementing a business process automation system will help your firm prepare for the future.
With the time saved through productivity enhancements, you can start thinking about and developing new engagements for your firm today.
How far along are you in automating your firm’s business processes?
Alf, a no-code legal workflow creation and automation solution
Imagine being able to implement everything we have seen in this article without any technical knowledge.
Alf allows you to build intelligent workflows by combining different automated tasks (such as automated documents or sending automatic emails for example) and by integrating many services (such as docusign for electronic signature, Stripe for payment or IDcheck.io for identity verification…)
You want to know more and discover how to move your practice to version 2.0? Ask for a full demonstration of Alf to better understand how this solution can help you to digitalize your practice!
Lawyer for 20 years with international law firms and worldwide companies (Canal+, PwC legal, Nomos, Amazon) I had experienced this observation from the inside: too much useful time wasted to regularly monitor on recurring tasks and time-consuming linked to files, with low added value.
It is to respond to this critical problem that Alf, the first platform for the automation of legal files, was designed and developed.
Customizable, collaborative and accessible in all languages, Alf is also part of a GreenTech approach that encourages responsible innovation by reducing your carbon emissions.
Sabine Zylberbogen
Registered lawyer and Founder
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