Case Study: Strategic Process Innovation Improve Client Service and Operational Effectiveness with Onit App Builder

1

Table of ConTenTS

The QuAliTy And PrOcess-FOcused legAl dePArTmenT ........................................... 2

PrOcess gAP AnAlysis And esTABlishing The BAseline ............................................ 2

redesigning And rATiOnAlizing PrOcesses ............................................................... 3

APP Builder — PrOcess innOvATiOn in reAl-Time ..................................................... 4

cOnTrAcT review And APPrOvAl And QuOTATiOn APPs ........................................... 5

hOw iT wOrks ...................................................................................................................... 5

ABOuT OniT ............................................................................................................................ 7

2

The QualITy and ProCeSS-foCuSed legal deParTmenT

At most companies, the legal department holds itself out as “different” and uses its own processes, technologies and definition of success. At a major technology and industrial company, the legal department decided to adopt the same type of quality program as its business units. They created a comprehensive quality program focused on process outcomes and customer deliverables with outstanding results.

ProCeSS gaP analySIS and eSTablIShIng The baSelIne

The company believes a process-oriented approach delivers better service and products to their customers and is a competitive advantage. They wanted to instill the same discipline in the legal department — given that much of their work is related to customer transactions and helping business units be more successful. They believed their attorneys were doing some unnecessary work and not always being fully responsive to the needs of their customers. They suspected a gap between what they believed was acceptable and important and what their customers believed existed. So their initial focus was to try to identify that gap.

legal Quality Plan

The team interviewed in-house counsel to understand what they do on behalf of internal customers and how they do it. Then they met with customers throughout the company to understand what was most important to them. Here is what they learned from their customers:

» Big differences in service levels depending on which member of the legal department was involved

» Turnaround times were typically far outside of customers’ expectations

» Customers did not have a clear understanding when (and when not) to engage the legal department

» A lack of visibility into progress once legal was engaged, customers could only call or email when requesting an update

On the legal department, they asked all in-house counsel to define the business(es) they support, what they do for those businesses, and the processes for getting that work done. Among the findings were that businesses were often avoiding the legal department as much as possible, or bringing legal in so

Implementation Strategy1. Document processes

2. Show systematic behavior

3. Improve systematic behavior through workflow technologies

4. Quantify what is acceptable using KPI’s

5. Kaizen through stakeholders (Continuous Improvement)

WhaT IS aCCePTable To The CuSTomer?

WhaT are The reSulTS We are ProduCIng?

Plan

aCT

Ch

eCKdo

grasp the

Situationunderstand The gap

1

Continuous Improvement (CI)

2

3

late that they couldn’t impact the transaction very much. Also, customers were often making requests without providing enough information for legal to act, causing further back-and-forth and delays. The team created Visio diagrams of all processes and then went back to both customers and counsel to find out what could be improved in each one.

redeSIgnIng and raTIonalIzIng ProCeSSeS

The team learned that, while legal work may not always lend itself to a typical business process management approach, customer interaction does benefit from a lightweight process that provides transparency and predictability for the participants. The team defined a mission and developed new processes to deliver for customers. The new processes were put in place as part of a “Quality Operating System,” which included regular audits and a biannual release of new processes. Key Performance Indicators were created to measure success against and “Kaizens,” or closing meetings, that took place at the end of every project to internalize lessons learned.

This organization adopted and applied four foundational principles:

» Work smart, be as effective and efficient as possible

» Improved operational capabilities are key to improving performance and customer service

» Listen to the customer; both internal and external

» Process innovation is strategic and a core competency

These principles were key in that they fully recognized processes that were essential to drive individual and organizational effectiveness and efficiency.

Among the lessons learned were that, while the people were responsive, these new processes were too reliant on individual initiative and the results were therefore highly variable. Projects were still being tracked by email and too many documents were moving through too many people. The processes were sound, but better technology was required.

At first the team tried to leverage the companies’ enterprise-level business process management software, but they found that it was too expensive and too time consuming to deploy. They also found that customization was difficult to accommodate the flexibility required for most legal work. The team needed technology that could be easily and inexpensively customized without requiring months of complicated support from IT or consultants.

QualITy Plan ImPlemenTaTIon

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Year End Kickoff:

Mission, vision, core and support processes, quality operating system

Quality Operating

System:

Bi-annual release of processes

Verifying System:

Quarterly audits begun

Workflow Technology Diligence:

Evaluating alternative workflow

technologies

Onit App Builder:

To date, have piloted,

tested or are in development on 25 Apps

4

1 Power, Brad (2012, October 30). The Next Wave of Process Strategy. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/10/when_it_comes_to_operational.html

aPP buIlder — ProCeSS InnovaTIon In real-TIme

The team found a solution in Onit’s App Builder technology, which enabled them to build simple “Apps” to manage their processes. After spending a few months working with business units to identify opportunities to apply App Builder, they were able to build and implement more than 25 Apps in 6 months, all with impressive adoption rates. Sample Apps include:

» ehold

» Power of Attorney Review and Control

» SME Sign-Off

» Contract Matrix Variation Approval

» Self-Generated NDA

» eDiscovery Litigation

» corporate iT Procurement contract review

» Producers Master Services Agreement

» Materials Purchase Agreement

» Submit New Legal Process for Review and Release

» Legal Department Audits

» Legal Department Onboarding

» Legal Approval of Advertisements

» Legal Survey Request

App Builder allowed the team to engage stakeholders directly and deliver solutions in hours and days. Simple interfaces facilitated high adoption rates and better visibility, allowing work to get done much faster. Projects that used to take weeks now took days; projects that used to take months took weeks. Furthermore, all information is tracked and easily accessible, the legal and business team is able to instantly know how and when business decisions are made without studying email streams or relying on memory.

By supporting processes with Onit Apps, lawyers and customers can focus on outcomes. Rather than having projects delayed due to IT constraints or technology considerations, Onit Apps makes it easy for the legal department to implement and make improvements by leveraging a standard toolkit. Projects built on Onit Apps enable a higher level of accountability, without sacrificing the flexibility that is so important to knowledge workers. Lawyers and non-lawyers are more engaged in predictable processes, which supports the original objective of improving customer service. The legal department is working more efficiently, customers are more satisfied, and the company is getting more value from its legal function.

“Companies today must be able to make process changes in days or

weeks, not months or years. In another post, I shared the stories of ING,

a leading bank based in the Netherlands, and Nationwide Insurance,

the$20billionfinancialservicesprovider.Bothareusingmethods

(“agile scrum”) that enable quick, small changes to systems.”

—BradPower,HarvardBusinessReview1

5

ConTraCT revIeW and aPProval and QuoTaTIon aPPS

The first Onit Apps the team built were designed to simplify the company’s contract and quotation approval processes. Because of the size of the projects, there are many layers of approval required before a sales representative can deliver a quote to a customer — typically seven people may be involved, including representatives from legal, finance and engineering. Before Onit, this process was handled by email, with all participants commenting and then commenting again on others’ comments. Coordination of this was difficult and time-consuming, to the point where the company risked missing bid deadlines and losing potential business.

With the company’s Contract Review and Approval and Quotation Apps, built-in Onit’s App Builder, all project details and comments are collected in a single place. Stakeholders are notified by email when a project is initiated, when their input is required, or when others have added comments, but the work itself is tracked in the App.

hoW IT WorKS

1. The business stakeholder creates the proposal spreadsheet and creates an approval request from a simple web form.

2. All participants get an email notification informing them that a new request has been submitted.

3. Participants view the request through a link provided in the notification which enables them to view the proposal, add comments and review others’ comments.

4. Right from the screen, participants can:

a. Upload revised or supporting documents as necessary

b. Make comments

c. Review (and comment upon) comments made by others

d. Approve the proposal

e. Approve it with changes

5. A record of all comments and approvals is kept so participants or others, including the compliance organization, can later understand exactly what happened and when. As a result, the team will have an accurate and complete record of the team’s discussion and deliberations throughout the process.

These Apps took the team only weeks to build and deploy and have improved productivity where it counts — right at the desktop — resulting in faster, more accurate execution. After only a few months, the company was using the Apps to process hundreds of contracts and quotations representing over $1 billion. The Apps have become a critical part of its mission critical processes around the globe. In addition to decreased cycle times, they have increased visibility into transaction status, enhanced risk assessment capabilities and improved compliance with business policies. Furthermore, the engagement of knowledge workers across the business has improved, driving significant advancements in the execution of critical legal and business processes.

6

Total amount of Transactions (in millions)

Transaction volumes

1,600 MM

1,400 MM

1,200 MM

1,000 MM

800 MM

600 MM

400 MM

200 MM

$

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

April May June July August September October November December

April May June July August September October November December

802 Lovett BLvD., HouSton, tX 77006 P: 1-800-281-1330

abouT onIT

Onit was formed by legal software industry experts Eric M. Elfman and Eric A. Smith, co-founders of Datacert, a leading provider of enterprise spend management software. Launched in early 2010, Onit deploys Onit Apps to simplify business process automation and improve business productivity across all departments and industries. The Onit App Builder allows business users to drive efficiency and productivity by combining business process management, project management and information management into one easy-to-use tool so the user can create their own Onit Apps without having to rely on IT for support.

Businesses have processes for everything — whether it’s hiring a vendor or law firm, terminating an employee, submitting a contract for review, requesting a trademark request, obtaining an NDA, etc. Most of these processes are manual, paper intensive and cumbersome. With Onit Apps, processes are automated in a few clicks, responsible parties are notified immediately, and data collection is centralized. Onit doesn’t require any software to download or resources from IT. For more information, visit www.onit.com or contact 1-800-281-1330.