How can an in-house legal team cut costs and simultaneously decrease business risk? A proven way to do this is to optimise a process that is essential and a cornerstone of the value the in-house legal team brings to the business: contracting.
To learn how this can be done in a realistic but fictional scenario, read our series by Alistair Maiden, previous Head of Contracts at ASDA, about Fred the Legal Director. Fred’s story is essentially a step-by-step guide to making your contracting process more efficient, safer and future proofed through automation technology.
Fred is a Legal Director at Cordoba, a listed company that sells software-as-service products. Fred is responsible for the contracts function at Cordoba and is under pressure to deliver cost savings.
The problem is that Fred’s team takes too long to complete a routine contract, and even longer for a complex contract. There is pressure from the CIO and CPO to improve this and service delivery.
In Part 1 Fred lays out his strategy and tactics for establishing the current position. It involves creating a database of existing contracts, prioritising those that have the most impact and conducting interviews with relevant external and internal stakeholders. This highlights their least effective contracts, which helps them establish a core set of contracts worth developing further.
