A Platform-Based Approach to Operational Efficiency

Corporate law departments face demands to reduce costs and demonstrate digital readiness and innovation. Technology will be a key enabler, but the mere conviction that technology is the answer to operational challenges has yet to deliver meaningful results for many law departments. According to a recent survey, only half of CLOs say that their use of technology has resulted in significant improvement in efficiency of legal service delivery; and fewer still say that collection and analysis of management metrics has resulted in significant improvement in service delivery.

Agents of change within the legal function should look for operational areas where there are repeatable processes and ample evidence of inefficiency. Resist the temptation to try to change everything at once. Instead, identify pain points and look for areas where technology can make a significant difference without massive impacts on day-to-day operations.

It is now possible to have easy-to-use, customized technology that doesn’t require a large IT team or expensive vendor interventions to maintain and upgrade. You can have visibility into all matters you are currently overseeing, with detailed information about who is working on what and the current status of every project. You can communicate performance metrics to other departments, C-suite executives and board members to demonstrate alignment with your organization’s business objectives. Technology is the enabler, but GCs and CLOs will have to provide the leadership.