Jean-Baptiste Faverjon has beena Legal Affairs Associate at Fill-Med for two years. Before, he had to manage his contracts with the help of Excel tables that scattered his office and filled his daily life. With Hyperlex, Jean-Baptiste no longer wastes time and has increased the reliability of his follow-up. He tells us how Hyperlex has helped him modernise the management of distribution contracts, leases and services with doctors.
Jean-Baptiste, can you introduce your department and your missions at Fill-Med?
Within the Kresk group, of which Fill-Med laboratories are a part, we are three lawyers. We have a legal director who oversees all the entities. I look after all the legal aspects of Fill-Med and Lazartigue, as well as the contracts of Le Couvent.
As a Legal Affairs Associate, I have a very broad remit: from insurance to international distribution agreements, including brand portfolios, leases, corporate affairs, compliance, etc., I manage everything that has to do with the legal field for Fill-Med.
What issues encouraged you to seek a solution like Hyperlex?
I started my career as an apprentice at another pharmaceutical company that used contract management software. When I arrived at Fill-Med in March 2018, there was no such tool. But the general management wanted to digitalise all the company's departments, including the legal department. So I pushed for a contract management solution.
Before Hyperlex, I used Excel spreadsheets to keep track of all the contracts: a spreadsheet for distribution contracts, a spreadsheet for leases, and so on. The daily monitoring of deadlines, and more generally of important information, was complex. I had to remember to check all the tables every day, not to forget any deadlines, to anticipate alert emails to the operational staff... Maintaining these files took up a lot of my time. I was looking for a tool that would allow me to save time on a daily basis while guaranteeing reliable monitoring.
In addition, the process of internal validation and signing of distribution contracts was done manually. There was room for improvement here too.
Finally, the generation of service contracts with doctors is based on a rather strict regulatory framework. These contracts must be declared in a government database. We were therefore also looking for a tool to simplify this process.
Why did you choose Hyperlex?
Hyperlex was adapted to Fill-Med's operations, particularly in terms of flexibility. Compared to other rather heavy and rigid software, Hyperlex was able to adapt to our needs, for example by allowing us to create tailor-made summary sheets to track information specific to our distribution contracts.
On the other hand, unlike other solutions, Hyperlex's AI understands English as well as French. This capacity was a determining factor in being able to consider digitising our international agreements.
The intuitive interface was also an asset for the various teams to get to grips with. And indeed, it facilitates access for operational staff who need to consult their contracts independently. This means fewer internal requests for the legal department. Moreover, I am the one who trains new employees on the solution and it takes me barely half an hour to teach them how to consult their contracts, find the information they need, etc.
How did the implementation of our solution go?
The project lasted about 3 months before the legal department started using the tool. The operational staff came in afterwards. I would say that all the teams started using Hyperlex 100% after 4 to 5 months. In addition to the configuration that was completely adapted to the information we wanted to track, Hyperlex took care of the transfer of our existing contracts to deliver a solution that was directly usable. This speed of implementation corresponded well to the expectations of Fill-Med's management.
What features are you using today?
To begin with, dematerialised and centralised storage is very useful, not only to consult current commitments remotely, but also to ensure access to all users, with full autonomy.
The automatic reminders are the feature that helps me on a daily basis. Instead of preparing emails to operational staff to anticipate deadlines, all these elements are already preconfigured, which saves me time and gives me peace of mind in the follow-up.
We also use validation workflows before signing. These workflows facilitate the internal approval process: the elements of the contract already present in its summary sheet are submitted to the general management, which is notified via Hyperlex and the contract can thus be validated very quickly, sometimes within the day.
The DocuSign electronic signature integrated into Hyperlex also proved to be very practical during the period of the coronavirus crisis: we were able to continue contracting remotely. A valuable advantage that led us to deploy this tool to other companies in the group.
For service contracts with doctors, the ability to centralise andextract the information in Excel allows us to simplify the reporting process.
Finally, Hyperlex's dashboard and its KPIs allow me, for example, to track 90-day expiry dates or, for contracts in the process of being signed, to monitor amendments and to follow up with partners as they arise.
What are the main benefits of Hyperlex?
- Firstly, the intuitiveness of the solution, which combines ease of use and integration into the company.
- Secondly, the flexibility of the tool, which adapts perfectly to our needs.
- Finally, the responsiveness of the Hyperlex teams who respond quickly when something is needed.
Hyperlex for you, in short...
Hyperlex is modern!
A professional who is considering digitising his or her contract management is reading you, what advice would you give him or her to approach their project?
One should not be afraid to take the plunge. At first, one may doubt the real contribution of technology and its impact on humans. On the contrary, we have all seen how it has radically facilitated our daily practice. You shouldn't be put off by the size of the task, when in fact the tool can be put in place very quickly, especially when you choose a partner who helps you to implement the solution effectively, as was the case with Hyperlex.
Thank you Jean-Baptiste!
Read more about the Fill-Med + Hyperlex adventure. 👇
Recommended read:
- How to digitalise your legal department?
- Contractual validation processes: why digitize them?
- Contract management software: focus on due date reminders