It’s critical for firms to adapt to the changing business environment as the world changes. Because today’s consumers are tech-savvy and accustomed to quicker and innovative ways of performing the same tasks, many firms are undergoing a digital transformation to stay competitive. This is done in order to align themselves with the changing market dynamics.
If generalised and (over)simplified, business transformation entails making fundamental, operational, and strategic changes to how a business is run. The need for a business to transform may be prompted by a variety of factors, including the need to resolve underlying issues, adapt to shifting market conditions, change the company’s vision and direction, or a combination of these.
Such transformation may entail planned and coordinated adjustments to legal as well as other corporate processes, systems, teams, or departments.
Why does the law matter in this change?
A firm must obey by multiple laws, follow numerous rules, and conduct its operations in line with the numerous agreements negotiated with its internal and external stakeholders for it to operate without any impediments. Additionally, each company must establish and uphold its own set of values and norms that are intended to foster an honest, secure, and healthy workplace. However, as laws, rules, procedures, and standards evolve over time, a legal department’s job becomes increasingly important for any company’s expansion.
Additionally, a lot of general counsels participate actively in the company’s strategic decision-making, which helps the company thrive because they have a thorough awareness of the intricate business rules, regulations, and legal processes. Therefore, firms must spend in modernising and empowering their legal departments if they want to stay effective, competitive, and sustainable.
What is legal transformation, then?
Technology adoption in legal departments helps the firm as a whole by assuring business continuity, adhering to regulations, enhancing the working environment, concluding contracts, safeguarding corporate interests, etc. As a result, several legal departments have changed in order to enhance their own operations. Legal Transformation brings together people, procedures, and data under one roof to support legal operations and radically enhance the efficiency of legal departments.
By combining all of the legal department’s many subfunctions and connecting them with the rest of the organisation, it also enables the organisation to operate with ease in the modern external environment. Three steps are commonly involved in legal transformation:
- shifting every aspect of the legal function from manual to digital processes
- cross-functional and external cooperation through digitization and automation
- putting in place a centralised system for document management, data storage, and workflows
