Taking Some Time Out to Help Others

Usually we use this blog to bring you the latest information about document assembly and contract management. But today we would like to share with you a recent experience shared by our team. We feel that it's important for us as a company to build a corporate culture of innovation and to give back to our community.

As Exari continues to grow and add customers and employees around the world, we make a point of bringing members of our team to the Boston Headquarters at least once a year. Last week we held our Annual Sales Kickoff 2012. The entire sales team from offices in Europe, Australia and the US gathered in Boston.

In addition to all of the corporate events and innovation sessions - aimed at further enhancing Exari’s industry leading document and contract automation solutions – the entire team spent a half - day volunteering at the Boston food pantry. Run by the Red Cross, the pantry provides a 3-day emergency supply of food to approximately 4,500 low-income families every month, making it the largest emergency food pantry in the city of Boston.

Everyone, including the president, management team and members of the sales and delivery organizations participated in this event together. Some formed an assembly line bagging fruit, milk, vegetables and chicken, while others assisted families in packing these bagged supplies into their vehicles. By the end of the day, working together, the team had packed and distributed more than 600 bags of supplies!

The event was meaningful to all of us and helped foster an employee community and culture reflective of our core ideals.

Top Issues Facing General Counsel in 2012

A recent survey of more than 100 general counsel at American companies conducted by Corporate Counsel, in partnership with ALM Legal Intelligence, revealed that compliance and cost are the primary issues concerning general counsel in 2012.

According to the survey, 61% of respondents identified the increasing number of regulations and their growing complexity as their biggest issue. At the same time, legal departments have suffered budget cuts. And despite those shrinking budgets, 68% of respondents anticipated an increased workload. In fact, “53 % said the second-biggest issue they face, after regulations, was the pressure to do more with fewer resources.”

Traditionally, legal departments have used manual, labor intensive processes for creating their contracts. Legal staff would copy and paste existing material and then modify the content to meet specific needs or to accommodate customer requirements. To minimize risk, especially when faced with increased regulation, this approach demands the close attention of the general counsel and senior members of the legal team. Plus, the need to manage risk—to ensure the accuracy of the documents and to support regulatory compliance—dictates that organizations rely on subject matter experts at every step of the process.

Confirmation that too much time and resources are spent on each contract, comes from the recent Corporate Counsel Survey Report which found that over 30% of respondents spent more than an entire day to review a single contract. Assuming 8 working hours a day, and 125 contracts per month – these companies are spending 12,000 hours annually on contract review.

If contract creation was automated and contracts were created using pre-approved, compliant templates, much of these review costs could be eliminated while maintaining compliance with increased regulations. The cost savings in review time alone is just one element that helps an investment in contract automation software have a high return on investment.

If you’d like to learn how contract automation software can help you manage compliance and cost this year, please contact us.

Just Released: Corporate Counsel Contracts Report

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that we recently conducted our second Corporate Counsel Contracts Survey at the Association of Corporate Counsel Annual Meeting. The results have been tabulated and the report is now available. You can request your complimentary copy here.

This survey was a follow-up to one we conducted in 2009, and explores a variety of issues affecting the contracts process, the level of adoption of document assembly software and the most common methods of contract management.

Contract management has long been important to the overall success, profitability and risk management of organizations. Now, with business increasing, law departments are finding they need to be more efficient in order to keep up with the heavy demand for new contracts, often with no increase in headcount. And once the contracts are created, the information or data they contain must be accessible to help management make informed decisions about the business.

General Counsel are not only tasked with reducing the organization's risk, they also need to be mindful of legal spend. This is leading some law departments to adopt more automation. In a recent post on Prism Legal, Ron Friedman suggests to general counsel that they," Get More For Less."

He goes on to say that, "The best way to lower cost is to work smarter. For all work - inside or outside - make sure you apply process improvement techniques, legal project management, the appropriate technology, and knowledge management."

For more information on contract automation technology, contact your local Exari office. The survey results are also available in webinar format. To request a copy of the webinar, click here.