Part two. The importance of stakeholder engagement is vital, both during technology project definition and the implementation. So how can you identify key project stakeholders and get the buy-in required?

As you read in part one, the collection and analysis of stakeholder and end users’ requirements is a key enabler of success when designing and implementing a new system. It is of course (and unfortunately, frequently) possible to outline solution requirements without taking into account stakeholder needs but to do so presents a real but avoidable risk of project failure.

Some of these stakeholder groups or individuals may be fully on-board, giving it full support, and will require very little management in terms of expectations. However, there are likely to be key stakeholders who will have other priorities or may be resistant to the change that a new software tool brings.

The benefits of eBilling for corporate legal departments are well documented. With digitally created billing files and automated processing and checking of invoices, eBilling saves a huge amount of administrative resource and tracks external legal spend in almost real time, ensuring adherence to guidelines and budgets. Less talked about is how the legal procurement function […]

Even many otherwise highly sophisticated CFOs and financial departments have a hard time estimating expenses and doing the fundamental accounting and bookkeeping they need to control costs and keep outside counsel appropriately reined in.

Whether you task outside counsel with predictable ongoing requirements, or you and your team send work out on an ad hoc basis, you need metrics to track performance as well as processes to keep your budget in line and deliverables appropriate.

As much as they may not want to admit it, some general counsel find themselves in a position at times where monitoring and controlling outside counsel activity begins to resemble the proverbial difficult task of herding cats.

With an eye toward budget predictability and managing risk, more and more legal departments are looking for opportunities to implement alternative fee arrangements (AFAs) with outside counsel as an element of legal spend management.

Law firms and legal departments may not typically have a reputation for being early adopters of technological advances. But to play in the game in 2017, it’s important by now to be taking advantage of the time-saving, performance-enhancing software that’s readily available.

In today’s legal world, there are so many compelling reasons for incorporating e-billing technology that it’s not so much a question anymore of whether a company should implement it but rather, simply, when — or why it hasn’t already been done.

It’s a new world out there, and if you’re a General Counsel, you’d better be brave.

More and more, the GC is becoming a key, proactive player not just in legal matters – ensuring that the company operates legally and dealing out legal advice (personally or through staff and outside counsel) – but also in strategic business decisions and issues involving risk management, finance, marketing, human resources, production, sales, and more.

In today’s business world, where analytics plays such a key role in performance management and the strategic distribution of resources, it’s not a matter of “if” key performance indicators (KPIs) should be instituted, but “when,” “what,” “how,” and “why.”