In the current legal landscape, operational efficiency and cost management are top priorities. Legal operations technology, or “legal ops tech,” offers legal departments an opportunity to drive significant improvements in both areas. However, securing buy-in from leadership and other key stakeholders can be challenging, as with any technology investment. Building a strong business case is crucial, and it requires articulating the clear benefits, return on investment (ROI), and long-term value that legal ops tech can deliver.
This article delves into the steps required to build a compelling case for legal operations technology investment, offering practical advice for maximising cost efficiency and demonstrating the strategic value of legal tech tools.
Understanding the Value of Legal Ops Tech
Legal ops tech encompasses a broad spectrum of software and solutions designed to streamline the management of legal workflows, document handling, matter management, spend management, and reporting, among other functions. It serves as the backbone of a modern, efficient legal department, ensuring that tasks are automated where possible, data is tracked and analysed, and resources are deployed effectively.
At its core, legal ops tech addresses two key pain points for legal departments: cost control and efficiency. Traditional processes that rely on manual intervention can be slow, error-prone, and costly. Legal ops tools eliminate these inefficiencies and create an environment where data-driven decision-making can thrive. This enhances transparency and allows for better budget management, offering clear advantages for in-house legal teams and their law firms.
Crafting a Business Case: Key Considerations
When pitching for legal ops tech investment, it’s essential to create a business case grounded in hard data and aligned with the organisation’s strategic goals. Here are the key factors to consider:
- Demonstrating Operational Efficiency:
Begin by focusing on the operational improvements that legal ops tech will deliver. This might include faster document processing, reduced administrative tasks, or the ability to automate low-value tasks like invoicing or matter management. Highlight specific pain points that the technology will address. Where possible, provide data on current inefficiencies and identify how tech can resolve them.
For instance, many legal teams spend a disproportionate amount of time on administrative tasks that could be automated. Calculate how much time could be saved with the introduction of legal ops tools and what this would mean in terms of cost savings. Linking these savings directly to productivity improvements makes the business case much more compelling.
- Cost Reduction and Spend Management:
One of the core benefits of legal ops technology is the potential to reduce external legal spend and better manage in-house costs. Legal spend management solutions, for example, can streamline billing processes and create more transparency around budgets and fee estimates. Present potential savings using cost models and outline how legal ops tech can mitigate risks, prevent billing discrepancies, and ensure outside counsel adheres to agreed rate cards and approved fee earners.
Also, exploring the long-term cost reductions that can be achieved through legal tech investments is beneficial. Highlighting industry benchmarks and comparing legal spend pre- and post-adoption of similar technology in other departments can be a powerful way to communicate the return on investment.
- Data-Driven Decision Making:
The legal function is now being asked to do more, often within restricted budgets. As such, its approach needs to be more data-driven. Legal ops tech can empower legal departments with analytics and reporting capabilities that provide insights into operational performance, risks, and spend.
A well-implemented legal operations platform allows in-house teams to make strategic, informed decisions about resource allocation. This, in turn, ensures that the legal team operates as a more efficient part of the broader business, with data on hand to justify future decisions.
- Enhanced Compliance and Risk Management:
In today’s heightened regulatory environment, the ability to track and manage compliance obligations is a critical function. Legal ops technology offers tools to ensure regulatory deadlines are met, risks are identified, and compliance issues are promptly addressed. In your business case, highlight how tech investments can mitigate risks, reduce potential regulatory fines, and prevent compliance failures.
Additionally, legal operations tools can help track contracts, identify risk factors in supply chains or client engagements, and monitor any potential areas of legal exposure. These aspects add another layer of security and efficiency, making a solid argument for the initial investment.
Maximising ROI: Best Practices
Once you have made the case for investment, the next step is to ensure that the chosen legal ops tech is optimised for maximum return. Here are a few strategies for ensuring that the technology quickly pays for itself:
- Define Clear Objectives:
Start with a well-defined set of goals for implementing legal ops tech. Are you focused on reducing external legal spend, improving internal workflow efficiency, or ensuring compliance? Having clear objectives will allow you to measure the technology’s effectiveness and make adjustments as necessary.
- Measure KPIs:
Before implementing legal ops tech, establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor its impact. Examples of valuable KPIs include time savings, reduction in external legal spend, and improvements in responsiveness to business stakeholders. Regularly tracking these metrics will help you quantify the return on investment and make informed decisions about further tech adoption.
- Continuous Training and Adoption:
The success of legal ops tech depends on how well it is adopted by the team. Ensuring continuous training and creating champions within the legal department can help maintain enthusiasm and expertise with the new tools. Encourage feedback from users to improve processes and refine the use of technology.
- Scalability:
Legal ops tech should grow with the department. When selecting solutions, consider their scalability and how easily they can be integrated with existing systems. Avoid choosing platforms that may become obsolete or require significant upgrades in the short term. The focus should be on long-term value and adaptability to future needs.
Conclusion
Making a compelling case for legal ops tech investment starts with focusing on data-driven insights, operational efficiency, cost management, and risk mitigation. By outlining the clear benefits to your legal department and aligning the proposal with broader business goals, you can help leadership understand the value and necessity of this technology. With careful planning and strategic implementation, legal ops tech can drive measurable improvements that deliver short-term cost savings and long-term operational gains.
When maximised properly, the return on investment for legal ops technology can be substantial—offering a win-win for legal teams and the organisations they support.
This article was originally published on our sister site lawcadia.com.
