Posted 29 April 2024

In today's fast-paced legal landscape, staying ahead requires more than just legal expertise—it demands that firms strategically leverage cutting-edge technology tools. One way that law firms can gain a competitive advantage is by combining the power of AI-driven technology tools with those designed by human experts. While AI tools like Microsoft Copilot excel in analyzing vast amounts of data and providing valuable insights, human-designed technology tools bring a nuanced understanding of legal processes, regulatory considerations, and client needs. 

By integrating these two types of technology, law firms can strike the right balance between the speed and convenience of AI with the contextual understanding and strategic decision-making of human experts. This allows for enhanced efficiency, improved decision-making, and the delivery of high-quality legal services that meet the evolving needs of clients.

Here, we look at how law firms can combine Microsoft Copilot with Sysero’s Knowledge Management and Workflow Automation features to drive enhanced efficiency and client service. 

What is Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft Copilot is “an AI companion designed to assist users by providing information, answering questions, and engaging in conversation” according to Bing.com’s free-to-use version of Copilot. Copilot is the result of Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, and provides users with a natural language Chatbot experience using the Internet as its source of data.  A second variant of Copilot, and the reason for Microsoft's investment, is the Pro version. 

Copilot Pro does everything Copilot does, but adds the ability to “build your own Copilot GPTs tailored to your individual needs and interests”. A GPT is a natural language interface for a software application and Copilot Pro allows firms to integrate their existing applications with Copilot.  

Copilot Pro can be programmed to complete tasks such as retrieve information from your ERP system, summarise your in-house expertise on a subject, or guide you through a process. In order to do this, firms need to either develop their own GPT’s, which requires advanced technical knowledge, or use a software platform that integrates with Copilot Pro.

Creating AI-Driven Workflows with Copilot and Sysero 

Sysero is a platform that enables firms to build knowledge libraries, automate processes and integrate with existing applications. By combining Copilot with Sysero, law firms can leverage natural language capabilities to provide a chatbot that guides users through the maze of in-house systems and processes.

To make this magic work, firms need to define key phrases that activate a specific GPT.  For example “Get me a client's account balance” could be a trigger phrase for a GPT that asks for the client’s account number and uses that to retrieve the balance from the accounts system.  “Create an employment contract for Mr Joe Bloggs” could respond with a series of questions that use a standard template to create a perfect contract. More advanced automations could summarise the status of a specific matter or guide users through a series of steps to complete a complex task.  

AI systems like Copilot can sometimes make mistakes or take guesses because they're not perfect. However, when you create a workflow using Sysero, a human expert designs the questions. This expert knows how to set rules about what kind of answer is needed and how it affects the next steps in the process. These questions make up a Metadata Model that can be matched with the data in internal systems and databases. For example, if a prompt asks a user to “Please enter your name,” Copilot understands the response as two separate metadata elements: first name and surname. Sysero then checks this information against the data in internal systems to make sure it's correct. 

With Sysero’s Knowledge libraries, firms can also build internal classification systems for proprietary knowledge. So, when a user requests an example of an internal document or a specific account record, Copilot can be directed to search a specific in-house data source, rather than the entire internet. 

Enhancing Efficiency & Accuracy with Legal Processes

Within the world of legal technology, there’s often a challenge in understanding how “fuzzy logic” systems like AI fit into the meticulous practice of law. Contrary to AI, Sysero workflows are built by human subject matter experts, ensuring that processes and outcomes rely on precise and reliable data sources. By integrating Copilot with Sysero, firms can gain access to a unified, natural language interface that effectively guides both in-house and client users through precise processes, resulting in consistently accurate deliverables. 

To learn more about bridging the gap between AI and workflow automation for your firm, get in touch with the experts at Sysero. 

Posted 27 November 2023

In the ever-evolving landscape of legal practice, efficiency and agility have become paramount. Law firms are increasingly turning to innovative solutions to streamline their operations and deliver enhanced services to clients. One such revolutionary tool is low-code platforms, offering a versatile and user-friendly approach to application development. In fact, Gartner predicts that low-code application development will account for more than 65% of application development activity across all sizes of companies before 2024. 

Low-code solutions enable non-technical users to create applications quickly by leveraging visual design tools and a drag-and-drop interface. With these features, lawyers can easily create workflows by mapping out a flowchart, rather than writing line after line of code. Depending on the need, there are a variety of ways you can leverage low-code platforms to create custom workflows and solve a number of operational challenges. Here, we look at some of the most common use cases for low-code platforms within law firms. 

1. Client Onboarding

Client onboarding is a critical process for law firms, often involving a myriad of paperwork, data collection, and communication. Low-code platforms simplify and expedite this process by enabling firms to create custom onboarding applications without extensive coding. These applications can automate the collection of client information via a web interface, facilitate electronic document signing, and integrate with existing databases to ensure a seamless onboarding experience. By reducing manual tasks, law firms can enhance the client experience and accelerate the onboarding timeline.

2. Document Automation & Template Management 

The legal profession is synonymous with copious amounts of documentation. Drafting, reviewing, and managing legal documents can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Low-code platforms empower law firms to automate document creation and template management without the need for any technical expertise. By using intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces, like Sysero’s Visual Designer, legal professionals can design templates for contracts, agreements, and other legal documents. These templates can then be dynamically populated with client-specific data, minimising errors, and significantly reducing the time spent on routine document generation. This not only enhances accuracy but also frees up valuable time for attorneys to focus on more complex legal matters.

3. Compliance Monitoring

Staying compliant with ever-changing regulations is a constant challenge for law firms. Low-code platforms provide a flexible solution for building applications that monitor and manage compliance. Firms can create custom applications to track regulatory changes, manage compliance checklists, and automate internal auditing processes. By centralising compliance monitoring through low-code applications, law firms can proactively address potential issues, reduce the risk of non-compliance, and demonstrate a commitment to legal and ethical standards.

4. Workflow Optimization

Beyond the specific use cases mentioned, low-code platforms allow law firms to optimise various workflows across their operations. Whether it's case management, time tracking, or collaboration, low-code applications can be tailored to suit the unique needs of a law firm. This adaptability enables firms to respond rapidly to changing requirements, improving overall operational efficiency.

Take for example, how Spoor & Fisher Jersey leveraged Sysero’s low-code platform to create a new Sysero Trademark Enquiry Handling Workflow to help the firm’s trademark formalities team manage and respond to trademark enquiries. With the new low-code workflow, all of the firm’s case information is easily accessible from a single platform, helping its trademark formalities team realise significant productivity gains. Additionally, the flexibility of the low-code platform enabled the firm to easily customise the workflow to suit its needs, as well as successfully manage edge cases. 

5. Data Security 

Data security is a key concern for today’s law firms, and low-code platforms can play a crucial role in keeping law firm data safe and compliant. Low-code platforms provide a structured and controlled environment for application development, and often come equipped with built-in security features, such as encryption, secure authentication, and pseudonymisation, ensuring that sensitive  legal information is safeguarded throughout the application lifecycle. 

The ability to create custom applications with security best practices embedded directly into the development process empowers legal professionals to proactively address potential vulnerabilities. By offering a centralised and standardised approach to application security, low-code platforms contribute significantly to the overall data protection strategy of law firms, allowing them to navigate the digital landscape with confidence and trust.

Unlocking the Power of Low-Code Platforms within your Firm

In an era where technology is reshaping the legal landscape, low-code platforms have emerged as a game-changer for law firms. By leveraging these platforms, legal professionals can transform their processes, enhancing efficiency, reducing manual errors, and ultimately delivering higher-quality services to clients. As the legal industry continues to embrace innovation, the adoption of low-code platforms is poised to become a defining factor in the success and competitiveness of law firms.

However, not all low-code platforms are created equal. At Sysero, we’ve worked with leading law firms around the world to develop customised low-code solutions to drive efficiency and innovation. With an intuitive visual designer, integrated web forms, built-in compliance, and embedded data security, Sysero’s low-code platform offers law firms the optimal solution for workflow optimisation. To learn more or book a demo, please visit sysero.com.

Posted 24 May 2023

In today’s digital world, many organisations are transforming once tedious and manual-based processes into digitally-driven optimised workflows. Cloud-based workflows have long powered processes across the corporate sector, and in recent years, law firms and other professional services organisations have begun to unlock the potential of cloud-based workflows. 

Faced with the ‘great resignation’, the rise of hybrid work, and the increased need for agility and flexibility, law firms are embracing cloud-based workflows to help drive efficiency, enhance client experience, and boost productivity. A recent survey reports that more than half of UK law firms are prioritising investment in process automation technologies in hopes that it will help its lawyers and staff manage ever-increasing workloads. While the benefits of cloud-based workflows are plentiful, here we highlight five key benefits that your firm should be aware of.

Enhanced Efficiency

Today’s clients have come to expect always-on service and value-based pricing, and cloud-based workflows can help law firms deliver. By bringing traditional processes to the cloud, your firm can help liberate lawyers and legal operations from the burden of time-intensive processes, such as client intake and onboarding, document generation, and contract execution. For example, your firm could use workflow automation to streamline the contract lifecycle - from automating contract creation and review to securing e-signatures and executing contracts. 

Reduced Risk

Automated cloud-based workflows can reduce risk in a number of ways. Not only does automation help reduce the risk of human error, but it also enables you to build best practices and compliance into everyday operations. Take for example, how top-tier rated international law firm Wikborg Rein launched a digital client intake solution that provides users with an intuitive web interface where they can quickly register new clients and cases, ensure the required information is captured, and verify client data in accordance with current regulations. 

Lower IT Cost

With technologies like low-code and no-code workflows, cloud-based workflows can actually help reduce ongoing internal IT costs. Low-code platforms empower lawyers and staff to quickly and easily build custom workflows on the fly, without significant support from IT. A Deloitte study even estimates that workflow automation can reduce general business costs by 30 percent, which takes into account staff and time savings, as well as accuracy improvements. 

These flexible and agile platforms deliver greater flexibility, agility, and productivity across teams, while also enabling firms to overcome a growing digital skills shortage. Furthermore, these platforms can be used for a variety of different use cases, from streamlining client acceptance and business processes to generating documents.

Improved Scalability

Using cloud-based low-code/no-code workflows, law firms can also greatly increase scalability. By putting the power of automation into the hands of lawyers and staff, firms can make it easier to create an effective, customised, and consistent process - both internally and externally. For example, Spoor & Fisher Jersey recently launched a robust low-code solution that streamlines the entire status updates process for its trademark and formalities. The result: achieved client response times and elevated internal morale. 

Bolstered Security

Security is a key responsibility for the modern law firm, and cloud-based workflows can help ensure your client data is properly protected, even in the case of a data breach. Legal workflows can be used to enforce data security across your firm and ensure data is being obtained, managed, and retained in accordance with data protection and retention policies, such as the UK Data Protection Act. 

Cloud-based workflows can also be combined with on-premise storage, providing both the flexibility and accessibility of the cloud and the enhanced security of an in-house system. These hybrid workflows allow clients to share information with firms via cloud-based workflows and then pull that information directly to an in-house server, where it can be stored safely and securely behind your firm’s firewall. 

Cloud-Based Workflows Are Crucial for Today’s Law Firms

As pressure mounts on law firms to become more digitally-minded and efficient, cloud-based workflows provide the opportunity to deliver greater productivity and profitability. The sooner you bring workflow automation to your firm, the sooner you can start reaping the benefits. To learn more about workflow automation solutions for law firms, please visit sysero.com. 

Compliance is a key, yet complex issue for the modern law firm. Today’s firms have an obligation to stay in compliance with a host of regulatory requirements, including Know Your Client and Anti-Money Laundering regulations. While compliance for law firms is a standard part of everyday operations, the processes and protocols in maintaining compliance can pose unique challenges. 

Many firms still rely on manual and time-consuming processes to onboard their clients and assess risk. Yet, this opens firms up to the risk of human error and significantly slows down the time it takes to accept new clients and start delivering service. To stay competitive in today’s market, firms ultimately need to strike the right balance between fast, efficient client intake and strong compliance policies and processes to protect their firms while providing value to clients. 

Fortunately, workflow automation provides firms with a faster, easier, and more reliable way to assess risk and onboard clients. According to the most recent Legal Briefings survey, more than 50% of law firm leaders say that process automation tools, such as business intake solutions, are amongst their top investment priorities. Streamlining the client intake process with workflow automation can not only help you better know your clients, but also deliver a more efficient client experience. 

What is Know Your Client (KYC)?

Know your Client (KYC) is a standard regulation in the legal industry that ensures legal providers have verified a client’s identity and assessed the client’s risk for money laundering activities. As part of KYC checks, firms must obtain sufficient information about the client before accepting payment or providing advice. 

In the context of anti-money laundering, KYC is the collection of client information beyond basic identity verification. The amount and type of information collected will depend on the individual client and the nature of work, however, it might include verifying the source of the client’s funding and continually monitoring the client’s financial activities. 

While there are many ways a firm can validate a client’s identity using a variety of resources, it tends to be a complex and time consuming process. That’s why more firms are turning to digital technologies to help them develop a speedy, efficient, and scalable approach to completing KYC checks.

Streamlining Risk Assessment with Legal Workflow Automation

Using workflow automation to power KYC processes improves the experience for lawyers and clients, while also providing a verified audit trail for compliance. Client onboarding and risk assessment starts by gathering the client’s information. With a forms-driven workflow approach, you can quickly and securely capture client data via web-based forms. By enabling clients to directly provide their own information, you not only improve accuracy, but also reduce the risks that arise from data duplication. 

Workflow automation can then be employed to accurately calculate risk based on your firm’s desired factors. What constitutes risk will vary from firm to firm, and platforms like Sysero enable you to build custom risk-based assessments based on your firm’s unique requirements. For example, Sysero teamed up with PSA Consulting to create a digital onboarding solution for Arntzen de Besch, which uses a built-in risk matrix to assess the risk of new clients based on a predefined set of rules determined by the firm’s priorities, including professional risk, terms alignment and GDPR compliance. 

As part of the risk assessment, an automated solution can easily identify potential risks by creating a risk profile for each new client. Low-risk clients can easily progress to the next stage of the client onboarding process, while high-risk clients are flagged and automatically routed to an escalation pathway, where risk experts can confirm the best approach forward. For example, Wikborg Rein’s digital client onboarding solution automatically routes any client or case that falls outside the firm’s risk requirements to a simplified workflow for further assessment and review. Once approved, the new client or case is automatically created in the firm’s integrated internal systems. 

The Importance of an Audit Trail

One of the most important issues with compliance is being able to tell the who, why and when for each case. To achieve this, each data change needs to be recorded. By recording the date and time of each change, any issues can be cleared up by contacting the individual who made the change.  

This is particularly important if an investigation is raised when things go wrong on a matter, especially if the authorities are involved. By maintaining a record of when data was entered, firms can prove what information they had at a specific point of time. This could be vital to proving that the correct level of checking was carried out if information comes out after the fact.

With an automatic audit trail, firms can prove to regulatory bodies that they have quality and control over their compliance procedures and avoid potential litigation and prosecution.

Improving the KYC Compliance Process with Sysero

To stay atop today’s changing regulatory landscape and client demands, a more modern approach to client intake is needed. By employing workflow automation as part of your client onboarding process, you can easily capture data and verification documentation, accurately assess risk, and get to work quicker for your clients. An automated process also provides an extra layer of compliance accountability by creating an audit trail detailing when the information was entered, which verifications were completed, who made decisions and reasons for those decisions.

As the need for KYC compliance, auditing, data security and greater efficiency continues to mount, workflow automation technology offers firms a way to transform the client onboarding process and ensure complete compliance protection. 

Ready to modernise and streamline your risk assessment? Get in touch with our team to learn more about Sysero’s automated Know Your Client solution. 

In the past couple of years, low-code and no-code applications have slowly moved into the legal work space and are now rapidly shifting the way that lawyers work. Chances are, you’re already using a low-code or no-code platform of some sort within your firm. These applications allow lawyers to automate tasks and build custom workflows, without the need for additional IT support. By lifting the complexity from technology, these applications enable lawyers to simply and quickly automate high-volume, repetitive tasks to streamline processes.

In a time when efficiency, transparency, and consistency are key, low-code and no-code platforms are providing law firms and lawyers with a significant competitive edge. Firms that have already adopted these applications are emerging as tech-savvy market leaders and discovering that the benefits extend far beyond their office walls.

While low-code and no-code technology has the potential to reshape the world of legal work, there’s still some confusion about what it is - and more importantly, how legal professionals can use it to improve their day-to-day work. 

What is No-Code?

No-code platforms allow non-technical users to build and deploy their own applications, without writing a single line of code. Instead, users leverage a visual designer with drag and drop functionality to easily build modern applications. Essentially, these tools allow lawyers without any technical knowledge to create custom automated processes to meet their needs, without requiring the assistance of a developer. A simple example would be a lawyer using a visual designer to automatically save finalised documents into a DMS system.

What is Low-Code?

While no-code tools require zero coding from the end user, low-code programming removes up to 90% of the coding process. Using low-code tools, lawyers can create applications through a graphical user interface, but may require additional coding for specific situations. They work similarly to no-code applications, however, providing end users with the ability to customise certain processes and tasks to meet their unique requirements. For example, your firm might use a low-code platform to build a process for client intake, but require additional coding to include a identity check based on specific criteria. 

How No-Code/Low-Code Benefits Law Firms

When it comes to legal technology, law firms typically have two choices: buy a solution or build a solution. The route of buying a solution often requires months of internal research, review, and tenders - and still results in an less-than-ideal solution. By purchasing a solution, you’re also bound by the limits of the technology.

On the other hand, building a solution allows for a fully custom design, but requires significant time and investment. More importantly - it’s also become extremely difficult to find and retain the right staff to build, manage, and maintain a successful in-house solution. Currently, more than 70% of technology employers in the UK are experiencing skills shortages, and more than half of employers say that candidates lack the right technical skills for the jobs required. 

With low-code solutions, law firms can put the task of application development into the hands of their internal IT support staff and lawyers. Lawyers can quickly, easily and accurately construct custom applications to fit their unique requirements, without relying on outside IT expertise. This approach allows law firms to benefit from the usability and scalability of off-the-shelf software, as well as the customisation afforded by in-house solutions. It’s the best of both worlds, without any of the high costs, complexity, or risk associated with traditional solutions. 

Given the many advantages of no-code and low-code solutions, it’s no surprise that it’s adoption is expected to increase significantly over the next few years. Gartner predicts that “by 2023, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity across all sizes of companies.”

No-Code/Low-Code Legal Solutions from Sysero

Sysero is already helping leading law firms around the world optimise processes through no-code/low-code solutions. Low-code solutions can be leveraged to streamline a number of complex processes, such as client intake, compliance tracking, document creation, and contract management. They can also be used to ease day-to-day operations by automating high-value activities such as: providing timely alerts on contract expirations; creating and centralising tasks via email requests; and automating content review policies. 

Is your firm ready for the no-code/low-code revolution? Get in touch with Sysero today to learn how we can help your firm thrive in the no-code/low-code era. 

Acquiring new clients is the lifeblood of any law firm. However, onboarding new clients can often prove cumbersome, time-consuming, and ineffective. A poorly designed process driven by manual input can result in disorganisation, lost productivity, and more importantly, noncompliance. 

The EU and UK GDPR and Money Laundering directives have made it imperative for law firms to ensure they are following the appropriate compliance procedures, which includes sufficiently verifying the identity of your clients. However, this often requires a considerable amount of internal (and nonbillable) time and manual input within disparate systems, which leads to a greater amount of risk. At the same, firms are also tasked with driving greater efficiency in the client onboarding process. 

The good news is that technology can play a crucial role in helping your firm conquer some of the most common client onboarding challenges. From time-intensive processes to client data security, here we look at the five most common client onboarding challenges that today’s law firms face - and how technology can help you overcome them. 

1) The client onboarding process takes too long

Perhaps one of the biggest hurdles to efficient client onboarding is a poorly designed process, which can result in too many process steps, an inefficient allocation of resources, and huge communication gaps. 

More often than not, law firms rely on manual processes and disparate technology solutions to accept new business. This can result in inconsistencies in client intake questionnaires and engagement letters, lead to the omission of crucial information and create risk management gaps. For these reasons, just over half (56%) of law leaders in the UK report that business intake and compliance process automation technologies are amongst the highest-priority technology projects within their firms. 

Digital onboarding solutions can help your firm streamline risk analysis, automate business acceptance processes, and also improve firm-wide risk management by ensuring consistent and comprehensive intake questionnaires and engagement letter templates. 

These solutions leverage workflow automation tools, like Sysero, to enable you to customise your onboarding process and integrate with your firm’s existing business systems, such as accounting and document management, to speed up processes, reduce errors from data duplication, and get to work faster for your clients.

2) There’s missing or incorrect client information

Another common challenge in client onboarding is obtaining the right information. When client information gathering is done manually, key data is often omitted or misentered. Inaccurate data entry, human error, and poor data quality is one of the top issues law firms face in compliance screening.

Instead, opt for a technology solution that allows you to gather information directly from clients. Imagine simply sending a potential client a link to a secure web-based form, where they are guided through a questionnaire to gather the required information. By having clients confirm and update their own data through user-friendly web-based forms, your firm can ensure the correct data is collected and held within the firm’s other internal systems.

Top-tier rated international law firm Wikborg Rein offers a prime example of how digital forms can be used as part of an efficient client onboarding solution. Using its digital client intake solution, which is based on Sysero’s workflow automation technology,  Wikborg Rein uses an intuitive web interface to register new clients and confirm the necessary information is collected and verified by clients and other data sources in accordance with current regulations. 

3) Poor record keeping puts compliance at risk

Siloed systems and manual data management can prove to be a major challenge if your firm is called upon by regulators. In today’s world, it’s not enough to simply just monitor your clients on an ongoing basis; you must be able to demonstrate compliance activity with a clear audit trail as evidence. 

By automating your client onboarding, you can create a controlled process and be confident that every step, action and approval is documented automatically. For example, Arntzen de Besche, one of Norway’s most sought-after firms, uses a digital client onboarding solution that uses a built-in risk matrix to automatically assess a new client against Money Laundering Act requirements. Any client that falls outside the requirements is automatically routed to a simplified workflow for further assessment to ensure compliance and once approved, automatically created in the firm’s integrated ERP system. Every step of the process is recorded, providing a complete audit trail. 

4) Client data needs to be kept secure

In today’s compliance environment, law firms must ensure that data is captured, stored, and maintained in a highly secure manner. With technology like Sysero, data security best practices like encryption, pseudonymisation, and data retention policies can be automatically built into your client onboarding solution. 

Opting for a hybrid cloud solution is another way that your firm can reap the benefits of cloud-based technology, whilst ensuring your data stays secure on-premise. Using a solution like Sysero’s Hybrid Cloud Workflow, you can easily capture data from external parties using web-based forms, and then share, manage, and use that information via a secure in-house system. Once the information is migrated in-house, it’s stored behind the safety of the firm’s firewall and can be integrated with any and all internal systems as required.

5) Technology doesn’t align with the firm’s requirements

Before you make the leap into digital client onboarding, it’s essential to understand your requirements and evaluate potential technologies. Ultimately, the success of your digital onboarding solution depends on the technology that powers it. 

When deciding on a technology solution for your firm, there are few things you should consider:

• Ease of use: How easy is it for staff to use? Will it require a significant amount of training? Opting for a low-code or no-code solution with a visual designer tool can help boost adoption.
  
  
• Customisation: Can the technology be customised to fit your unique onboarding? requirements? Is it able to integrate with key external verification sites or partners?
  
  
• Configurability & Flexibility: Will the technology integrate with your core existing systems? How easily can you adjust your compliance and data management rules and requirements?
  
  
• Security: How will the system keep your client data secure? What security features come built-in? 

At Sysero, we’ve helped top-tier law firms from around the world streamline, automate, and secure their client onboarding processes. If your firm is looking to conquer the common challenges of client onboarding, now is the time to transition to a digital onboarding solution. Get in touch with our team to learn more. 

Over the past several years, legal workflow automation has emerged at the forefront of digital transformation within law firms and legal departments. As tech-savvy and budget-minded clients demand more efficient, cost-effective, and transparent services, an increasing number of legal providers have adopted workflow automation to meet client expectations. 

Legal workflow automation adoption empowers providers to deliver higher efficiency and quality at a reduced cost, driving a better return on investment. By streamlining core business processes, workflow automation significantly reduces the costs and risks associated with non-automated workflows. Automating everyday legal tasks, such as NDA processing or client onboarding, also helps ensure compliance and quality.

According to the latest Briefing report, UK law firms saw process automation technologies as the third-most important priority in 2021; not far behind the top priority of agile working solutions. With the rise of hybrid working and constantly evolving client expectations, legal workflow automation has become a cornerstone of the legal IT stack. 

Why Automate Legal Processes?

Processes are essential to operating any law firm - from client onboarding and contract negotiations to service delivery and transactional work. However, manual processes tend to be subject to human error, time-consuming hours, redundancy of effort, and an inability to scale. On the other hand, automated processes reduce complexity, streamline efforts, and ensure the right information is presented to the right people quickly and efficiently. 

A recent EY Law Survey found that 59% of legal professionals believe that technology offers significant or very significant potential for cost-savings, far ahead of any other opportunities. This is especially true when it comes to process inefficiencies; 57% of survey respondents reported that inefficiency in the contract process slows revenue recognition, and in some cases results in loss of business.

Legal workflow automation enables legal providers to optimise their processes and maximise growth opportunities amongst new and existing clients. The right technology will also help identify compliance concerns, reduce redundancies, and integrate seamlessly with other tools to create a process that’s truly transformational. 

An added bonus to workflow automation is its ability to be accessed nearly anywhere. Cloud-based workflow automation tools like Sysero empower legal professionals to access critical workflows from outside the office - a key element to ensuring efficiency gains in the era of hybrid work. 

Choosing the Right Workflow Technology

Tackling the process challenges within a firm requires the right technology solution. So how can you choose the best solution for your firm? A robust workflow automation tool offers an array of benefits and features that are customisable to suit the needs of your firm. 

Ease of Use: 

Adoption is critical to the success of any internal technology solution, so be sure to opt for a solution that lawyers and staff will actually use. Tools like Sysero offer a non-code environment and an intuitive Visual Workflow Designer to enable non-technical users to quickly and easily build workflows in real time. 

Security and Compliance:

When evaluating solutions, look for those with built-in enterprise grade security protocols to protect your firm and client data. Some modern technology tools, like Sysero, also have built-in features to make it easier to embed compliance into everyday business processes. 

Flexibility and Scalability:

To adapt in today’s agile environment, firms must be able to quickly adapt to remote working conditions, update processes, or scale their efforts. A cloud-based workflow automation tool can help you provide a more flexible and scalable way of managing processes. 

Automating your Firm for Improved Efficiency

To keep pace with today’s evolving legal sector, firms must embrace workflow automation technologies. By creating repeatable, compliant, and quality processes, workflow automation can help boost profits, maximise productivity, and enhance service. 

Ready to learn more? Get in touch with our team to find out how Sysero can transform your firm. 

Thriving in today’s legal landscape requires legal providers to think strategically and digitally. The pandemic has unsurfaced many of the shortcomings of more traditional ways of doing business and has pushed legal professionals to embrace new and evolving technologies. 

More importantly, it’s also forced legal providers to rethink their business processes. As firms embrace new digital solutions, they’re quickly realising that without the right processes in place, technology can only accomplish so much. This sentiment is reflected in the responses to the 2021 EY Law Survey, which suggest gaps in process management and underuse of technology are limiting organisation's visibility into risk and creating a ripple effect across the firm. Nearly 70% of legal professionals report their contract creation process isn’t standardised, with 50% saying inefficiencies in the contracting process have resulted in lost business. 

To excel in the modern legal environment, firms and legal departments need to not only embrace digital transformation, but also define the correct business processes for their organisations. So, how exactly can you organise and streamline your business processes to realise greater efficiencies?

Step 1: Map Out Internal Processes

The first step in simplifying your firm’s business processes is to look inward. By mapping out the processes associated with your internal operations, you’ll gain a better understanding of how you can improve your current processes, as well as where new ones may be required. Start by considering your most business-critical processes, such as internal knowledge, contracting, and document generation and ask yourself the following:

• What has to happen at every stage of the process?
• Who needs to be involved in the process and at what stage?
• Where will this work take place? 
• How will I keep client information secure? 

Once you’ve determined the answers to these questions, you’ll be able to map out your workflows. Legal workflow solutions like Sysero allow you to visualise business process flows with a simple, easy-to-use workflow designer, and include built-in data security features such as pseudonymisation and encryption. In the wake of the pandemic, many firms and their clients are working away from the office, so you may also want to consider cloud-based solutions to enable improved business agility

Step 2: Create Effective Client Processes

Once you’ve built your internal workflows, it’s time to consider the client experience. Streamlining workflows for client-facing processes, such as client intake, contract negotiation, and transactional work are crucial for delivering a good client experience. 

Today’s clients expect greater transparency, efficiency and cost-effectiveness from their legal providers. By tapping into workflow automation, you can digitise once-manual processes and improve visibility, speed up intake, and ensure compliance. 

Take for example, Wikborg Rein’s innovative digital onboarding solution for clients. Launched in collaboration with PSA Consulting, Wikborg Rein’s digital onboarding solution leverages Sysero’s cloud-based workflow automation to easily capture client information online, automatically check it against various public registers and information databases, and authenticate clients through their Bank Identifier Code. 

By streamlining the client intake and acceptance process and bringing it online, Wikborg Rein has been able to improve quality, ensure compliance, and get to work faster for their clients.

Step 3: Choose the Right Technology

Once you understand the needs of your firm and the processes that you need to streamline, it’s time to find the right technology. A great place to start is with your internal IT team. Oftentimes, firms have an arsenal of technology that’s underutilised, so it’s worth understanding what technology currently exists within the firm and is at your disposal. 

The next step is to evaluate potential technology partners. Fortunately, selecting the right legal tech supplier isn’t so different from choosing any other business partner with which to work. The ideal legal tech partner should have the technology, knowledge and flexibility to create a solution that aligns with your firm’s business objectives and processes.

Be sure to consider the following:

• Is it cloud-based or on-premise? Is there a hybrid option?
• Can it be customised to your requirements?
• How committed is the vendor to data security?
• How can you ensure you follow compliance best practises? 

At Sysero, we can help you build a custom workflow solution either on-premise, in the cloud, or as a hybrid solution. As an ISO 27001 certified company, we take data security very seriously and have built-in common data protection best practises into our technology, making it easier for your firm to comply with compliance requirements.

In the light of the recent Schrems II decision, Sysero also makes it easier to comply with UK and EU GDPR by providing the option of hosting your data in a firm’s UK data centre, rather than relying on US-based servers such as AWS, Google and Microsoft. The recent judgement ruled that provisions of US laws do not satisfy data privacy requirements that are essentially equivalent to those required under EU law. That means hosting your firm’s data on popular US-based services may be putting your firm at risk. 

Ready to simplify your business workflows? Get in touch with us to schedule a demo and see how Sysero can help you modernise your processes.