We will hardly be exaggerating if we say 2020 did everything to kick us all in the gut.
And yet, despite all the bottlenecks we’ve faced, it was a very eventful year and we’re stepping into 2021 on a very happy note (take that, COVID-19!).
While our team was forced to work remotely, we still managed to achieve even more than we initially planned. This proved that we’re perfectly capable of functioning as a streamlined, productive, and creative unit regardless of our location.
And also, that we really, REALLY care about AXDRAFT and our users, and do everything we can to move forward, no matter the crisis.
So the only thing we’ve failed terribly on this year is having team lunches. The tanks of our jokes and office pranks are shamefully full, but we will definitely work on that in 2021.
A few things we’ve achieved in 2020, which we’re exceptionally proud of:
- We managed to make AXDRAFT a faster, better, stronger document automation platform
- We released several fundamental updates to AXDRAFT (including the new Projects and Metadata)
- Avodocs, our free document automation platform for startups, took #1 Product of the Day, #2 Product of the Week, and #3 Product of the Month on ProductHunt. And we also made it to the list of 25 Most Upvoted Products in 2020
- We ran a hackathon on the use of GPT-3, implemented our first GPT-3 feature, and our blog reflecting on the topic went viral
- In the first 5 months of 2020, more documents were generated with AXDRAFT than over the entire year of 2019
- In October, we’ve hit the peak monthly number of documents generated with AXDRAFT (so far)
- In December, we’ve got the absolute highest number of documents generated daily
- We got SOC-2 Type 1 certification, which means that all client data is even better protected
- And last but not least, we were acquired by Onit, an amazing legal technology company. So technically, we stopped being a startup and now set off on a totally different adventure.
All of this is but the tip of the iceberg, and we’ve done a lot more to make AXDRAFT the most comfortable home for your documents.
But there is a lot more we intend to do.
So here’s what’s in store for all our users in 2020
As we are now part of the Onit legal tech ecosystem, this gives us access to the best AI technology that exists in the legal industry, and also the insights they built up over the years. So we will be capitalizing on the development of our product, on the way to making AXDRAFT an absolute leader in the document automation industry.
1. CRM integrations
Many of our users have been requesting it over the last year, and we understand why. Pulling client data right from and to your CRM is a huge timesaver, let alone the fact that it helps look at the bigger picture when evaluating the business relationship with each client.
So in 2021, we will start building in more integrations to AXDRAFT, and will focus on CRM integrations first and foremost.
As to the choice of CRMs that we’ll focus on, we’re still considering the priorities between the most frequently used ones (like Salesforce, Hubspot, etc.), and you can always help us define them by sharing your requests with our team. Your feedback is vital to us, and will help them shape our 2021 roadmap.
2. Improved search and reporting.
In 2020 we have released enhanced document metadata that allows mapping the fields in the documents to make them searchable. At the same time, this allowed for building custom reports to measure your contract performance based on any dynamic data (such as geography, date ranges, counterparties, document types, etc.).
Next year, our goal is to make your work with these features more simple and intuitive.
This means that we will be:
- Adding more flexibility to the workflows based on metadata
- Making the search faster and more thorough across the text of your documents
- Improving the possibility to drill down into data in analytics, to let you build more viable and informative reports
- Automating the bits that we feel still require too much of your manual effort
We all know that data is king to making any kind of business decisions, and we will be working towards making your contract performance more obvious and transparent for both legal and business teams.
3. Improved document drafting performance.
The main thing that AXDRAFT can do and most document automation software can’t is the speed and under-the-hood power of the document drafting process.
It really takes the same amount of time to process a one-page NDA and a 100-page SoW.
And yet, we still feel that a lot more can be done to improve your user experience, to not only make sure that your documents are delivered to you fast, but also to shorten the time it takes for you to draft these documents.
So next year, our goal is to provide even more shortcuts in document drafting automation and increase your comfort level as a user. As a result, you can expect more synergy between AXDRAFT features, your databases, and company flows.
As we are growing our team starting January, this will give us extra momentum to deliver these updates to all of you. This way, not only you can be sure that you will get all of these, but also that you’ll get them fast.
At that, we’re looking forward to 2021 and all the amazing things that are ahead of all of us.
Happy holidays, and may 2021 be full of joy and luck!