The legal sector has been impacted by technology for a decade now. That new technologies at the service of the law, also known as Legaltech, are helping lawyers and businesses in general to "do more with less". Finding legal information more easily, automating a number of time-consuming tasks, tracking key indicators to optimize contractual processes, all these actions are simplified with legaltech!
What can and should we expect in legaltech for the next few years? We tell you everything in this article!
Legaltech trends to watch in 2021
The health crisis is accelerating this digital transformation of the law. Work habits are being shaken up with remote work, which has generated a stronger need for technology support. Technology is becoming more important every day, but what does it have in store for us?
1) Greater attention to the customer experience
Any legaltech that makes the customer experience simpler, smoother and more transparent will increase both the quantity and quality of business for companies.
At a time when consumers are choosing seamless experiences with mobile apps like Deliveroo, Uber or Spotify... And when businesses are turning to solutions like Spendesk, Alan, Swile, the question of customer experience and the ease of use of a solution is more crucial than ever.
In this sense, the recruitment of Product Managers, whose general objective is to develop and improve a digital product, is more necessary than ever for a legaltech. We will also think about integrating legal profiles, able to understand the business needs, within the teams.
👉 Also read: interview with Silvana de Santis, Head of Product 💖
2) Easy integration with existing tools
The ability of a legaltech to propose integrations with the tools that the different actors of the company use on a daily basis allows to fluidify the exchanges between the teams, to generate business faster, and is therefore expected at the drop of a hat in the next few years.
The technology solutions used by lawyers must be able to connect with the solutions used by finance, sales or purchasing teams.
For example, CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot contain data on sales opportunities that teams have already validated. But to make the sale happen, a contract is needed.
And to do this, there must be an exchange between the commercial and legal departments. This means relying on customer information, which means communicating data to the legal department, or copying and pasting it into pre-established templates for validation. These tasks have no added value and are a waste of time, especially since there is a high risk of errors. Back and forth, confusion and delays in signing go hand in hand with this manual method.
👀 Also read: How to sell your legaltech project internally?
3) Full remote working capability
It is important that legaltechs are able to provide solutions that allow for full remote working.
Many companies have taken a "makeshift" approach to collaboration, mobility, virtual meetings and remote work. Now it's time to re-examine the tools companies use to leverage technology and make the experience more enjoyable.
🤔 For example, if an employee handles documents through a Legaltech solution and goes on vacation or leaves the company, what happens to their documents and associated data?
Legaltech must be able to meet their requirements by including specific functionalities that will improve the daily management of users, such as the delegation of their rights.
🧑🤝🧑 To go further, here is a concrete example with our case study: Fluidifying Sales & Legal exchanges in the negotiation phase, the story of Jean Clause and Jean Close
4) A connection via the cloud, but secure!
If the cloud seduces more and more, it is above all for its ease of use. All you need is Internet access to access the solution, no installation is required to set it up! Moreover, the cloud allows you to access all your data wherever you are, which is very precious today.
In this period of repeated confinement, and in view of the transformations of professional practices (telecommuting will most probably be generalized, even when the health crisis will be over) a Legaltech on the cloud allows professionals to access all their documents in one click, on mobile or computer.
On the other hand, data security must be ensured. Today, the cloud enjoys high security standards and measures (measures implemented at the infrastructure level, protocol protection, data encryption, backups, access rights management). More information on this subject is available in our article dedicated to data protection in the cloud.
5) Increased focus on data for performance monitoring and profitability
Capturing data and building reports that identify what work is being done, by whom, and with what efficiency is increasingly in demand by businesses.
Today, thanks to legal KPIs, we can evaluate the profitability of missions, the productivity of teams and the performance of actions with the right figures.
Technology solutions that not only capture data, but also develop meaningful and easy-to-understand reports to help measure these areas, will help drive decision-making and create a more profitable business.
👉 To download: The guide to choosing your legaltech in 6 steps
6) Using AI for more automation
In many industries, artificial intelligence, or AI, is a buzzword whose added value is not always understood. But in legaltech, it is an extremely useful technology. Because the legal field is ripe for the automation of "basic" work.
The competition to achieve efficiency in document processing has given rise to legaltechs that do just that. And it has quickly become a necessity for law firms and corporate legal departments in various industries.
The goal is not to replace professionals, but to equip them with the necessary tools to facilitate their daily repetitive tasks and to focus on more specialized tasks that require their own creativity.
In conclusion, the future holds great things for legal professionals and businesses! 🔮
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