Every year technology and automation processes integrate in our lives. Self-driving cars, self-delivering mail, doors with app access. The list of things that became automated keeps expanding every day. And while on the consumer side we use technology to make our lives more comfortable, businesses need to reevaluate their attitude to technology adoption.
In the corporate world of today, the use of technology is a must. Competing for the customer, racing for the best supplier, planning a development strategy. Every process becomes more efficient and fast paced with technology. Without automation to take care of your routine things, it will be hard for your business to compete.
Today, manual processes became a distraction, and a risk.
Document automation software. How, why, and what for?
There are several goals that technology can help businesses achieve:
- simplify and speed up negotiations
- get ahead of the competition
- increase customer satisfaction
- plan better
- boost sales
- help your company grow
There are a multitude of routine tasks that consume time. Contract management and document drafting are among the leaders in that area. But you cannot neglect document management, because contracts govern most business operations.
In 2022, a lawyer is expected to be present at board meetings and provide legal advice to the management team.
Document automation solutions use the power of AI and machine learning to create a workflow that:
- minimizes routine
- speeds up and simplifies contract creation processes
- mitigates many risks a business may face.
Even the legal industry started appreciating the power of document automation. It increases lawyers’ job satisfaction by letting them focus on more important tasks, and shows that their job provides more value to the business aside from compliance control. In 2022, a lawyer is expected to be present at board meetings and provide legal advice to the management team. But how can this be possible, if your legal department is constantly drafting agreements and reviewing contracts?
Today, we talk about the value that document automation brings to business. Below are the reasons why your business needs document automation software.
Contract drafting made simple
With document automation businesses experience 80% faster contract workflow. This means that out of 5 hours that a lawyer spent drafting a document before document automation software, they now have 4 hours to spend on more impactful processes. According to ACC Benchmark Survey, an average company has 8.7 lawyers per $1 billion of revenue. This number jumps to 15 lawyers, when we talk about the Services industry.
The average hourly rate for lawyer’s services is $90/hour. Now think about the time it takes them to draft a simple contract, and you can easily calculate the price you company pays for routine legal work.
With document automation businesses experience 80% faster contract workflow.
Now that every lawyer has 80% time transferred from drafting routine paperwork to taking care of more important tasks, such as:
- Taking part in business strategy planning
- Advising the board of directors
- Ensuring the compliance of business operations
- Having a proper human lunch
More than that, with document automation tools, drafting a document becomes so simple that business teams can handle it without compromising contract compliance.
What does that mean for businesses?
Almost every process in business, including sales, procurement, staff management, vendor management, even office rental needs a document that governs the process (like a Master Service Agreement, for instance). Integrating document automation software into your workflow allows to:
- Draft any document type in minutes from pre-approved templates
- Implement changes to contracts with the help of a clause playbook
- Collaborate without friction
- Sign one contract type with a multitude of counteragents
This reduces the amount of routine in your legal ops, making your business processes structured and straightforward. Apart from coming off as liberating, document automation eases your current operations, and gives your business room to grow.
Contract language your children can comprehend
In 2022, legal function starts to play the role of the strategic business advisor, taking part in growth planning, and scaling of the company. This means more responsibility, an increased workload, and extra processes to take care of, all within that same 8-hour work window. To fit it all into a business day, cut the chance of legal burnout, and boost the value of legal services, legal teams can delegate routine tasks.
Modern solutions help businesses better navigate complex contracts. GPT-3 technology, an artificial intelligence engine, translates contracts into a simple language.
This technology increases contract visibility and allows managers that don’t have a law degree to actually understand what’s going on in the contract. With GPT-3, your business team does not have to look like children, and lawyers don’t need to waste time explaining to them every clause of the contract.
No more room for human error
Human error is one of the biggest risks in every process of every industry. Contract management is no different.
Every year, typos in contracts cost companies millions of dollars. An extra ‘?S’ cost the British government $14 million dollars, when they listed a Welsh engineering company as approaching liquidation. ‘Taylor and Sons’ lost all their clients and creditors, while Taylor and Son was the company that should have been on the list.
Document automation minimizes the room for human error. It also reminds us about deadlines we should not miss, clauses we have to include, and people that cause the delay in the document approval flow.
Less room for error, less things to keep in mind. More security, more space to take care of business.
Integration, integration, integration
Having a lot to keep under one roof is difficult. Organizing processes and managing communication between departments that use different software can be hard.
This is why automation tools easily integrate with your other applications:
- CRM system
- Collaboration tools
- e-billing
- contract management
To even better fit your needs, some legal document automation software already includes features like e-signature, notifications, billing, and others. This way you need less apps, spend less budget on subscriptions, and waste less time on integration.
Use a secure cloud, leave the safe for money
We love to keep things that are important for us secure. Managing your pile of contracts locked up in a drawer is not comfortable. And a drawer won’t save the papers from, let’s say, fire. Or from a fire extinguisher.
Only you can determine who should get access to the documents, and how much they can do with them.
According to PWC’s report, although legal departments are typically the smallest in the company, they are usually way above their weight in terms of material responsibility for their functions.
Document automation solutions ensure the protection of your documents. AXDRAFT uses bank level encryption and cloud storage to keep all your files secure, and easily accessible. Only you can determine who should get access to the documents, and how much they can do with them.
Make your business more cost effective
It’s not always about the money, but it always is. That’s the paradox we have to live with. Optimizing costs and processes is one of the key aspects of running a successful business.
In the article about contract lifecycle management, we brought up the following numbers from a Goldman Sachs research. They show how automating contract management processes impact our business:
- Accelerate negotiation cycles by 50%
- Reduce erroneous payments by 75 to 90%
- Cut operating and processing costs related to to contract management by 10-30%
Let alone the fact that you don’t have to stack up piles of needless paper in your desk.
By getting rid of paper documentation you don’t only help your business go green. Because now you don’t need a printer, regular ink supply for a printer, extra storage space for all the papers. Record Nations estimated the costs of having 24 cabinets to store paper and 100 employees. The total annual costs was around $600,000.
Handling paper documentation does not go on any of the job descriptions you post. This makes your employees more cost effective as well.
AXDRAFT offers value-based pricing to fit your budget and your needs. You either pay for contracts you create, or for people you collaborate with. No extra costs, no hidden features. You only add extra when you are ready.
Draft contracts on the go, access them from anywhere
The Internet made our work accessible from anywhere. Smarter phones, watches, tablets, and laptops provide us with a variety of devices to work from. Adaptive software does not let us say ‘wait ‘?till I get to my laptop’?.
With document automation software you can access, manage, approve, and draft all your contracts from anywhere, from any device. Well, besides maybe a dial up phone. That just won’t be comfortable.
Now you can just jump in and solve any problem with speed, and avoid unnecessary consequences of not having access to the document.
Accessibility makes it easier for you to draft new agreements for a manager when they’re at an expo and new clients come in. Or maybe some redlines need to be urgently made to the document before it goes out to the client, and you’re stuck in traffic. Drafting an agreement or addressing new fixes will take mere minutes. Now formalizing any business relationships has become easier.
Unfortunately, that means work is everywhere. Fortunately, that means profit is, too.
All hands on deck, all eyes on contract management
There are two things that have not been easy without document automation software–collaboration and control. With document automation legal departments forgot what it is to lose a document. They don’t spend hours on finding an old contract. They don’t forget about Ted, who also had to approve the ‘?Deliverables’ clause. Now you don’t have to send the secretary around and gather signatures until the end of the day.
You can have easy control and overlook of all your contracts, their stages, and people responsible for them, from the dashboard.
You can invite people for contract collaboration, easily poke them (virtually, of course) to approve a clause, and see when everyone has signed the agreement, and now it’s your turn. Metadata-based search and reports allow you to manage and analyze even the oldest manuscripts your company has signed.
You’ll also be able to know if someone is having a long lunch instead of working on that NDA. A non-disclosure agreement can be drafted in 57 seconds with AXDRAFT, what’s taking them so long?
The evidence speaks for itself
It is always hard to embrace change. It is the nature of the human brain. The neurons travel the path that they have travelled for years. And even though there is a better, more effective way for them to travel now, it is up to you to break the old habit and start using the new path.
2022 is building a new trend in operations, both business and legal. It is time to create a synergy between law and business. This synergy boosts the value of a lawyer for the company, and ensures the security and compliance of the operations, creating a brand that grows and scales without friction. To give your legal department this opportunity, you need to give them free time, appreciate their experience and practice, and rid them of the tasks that any employee can do, given the tech that is easy to use.
Visit AXDRAFT to try our instant demo. Witness the magic of document automation.