Beyond point solutions: Using unified software products to optimize legal operations
While there is a significant market for legal software products in Australia, most departments in the field have not, as of yet, begun to employ any programs. Ian Goddard, CEO of Yarris, spends a great deal of his time speaking to prospective customers about their software habits and requirements. “It’s clear from the hundreds of meetings we’ve had with GC’s around Australia over the last 18 months that most people don’t use any custom tools or apps at all. Standard procedure is to use Microsoft 365, Excel, SharePoint, if they’re large, and, if they’re a local government, they use Trim, albeit reluctantly,” says Goddard. By eschewing programs ill-suited to the complexities of legal operations and adopting more comprehensive products such as Dazychain, GC departments stand to save their own people time and effort while saving the company significant sums of money in overall operating costs.
Though it seems there’s a great deal of legal software products on the market, a majority are designed only to tackle some minor function or another. “We call these ‘point solutions,’” says Goddard, “or programs that only deal with one particular little part of a legal function. Contract management is the single biggest one, alongside data management, external firm management, intake and triage systems, as well as discovery tools for litigation teams. So, there’s a whole range of programs out there, but at the moment there aren’t many unifying or comprehensive ones.”
But, as the field grows, so too must the tools GC departments employ. “There’s been a change in the legal landscape — GC’s are now being asked to do more with less, and they need systems to manage their whole operations in a unified, ergonomic way.” Many of these shortcomings stem from the decentralised nature of a legal department’s digital infrastructure: “GC’s are realising that they don’t have the tools to extract data to demonstrate their value to the organisation. They don’t have the best tools to find all the information they need and keep it at their fingertips, and they don’t have the best document management systems across the board to retain documents.
“All of that means that there is a demand now, not for point solutions, but for solutions that can single-handedly manage the multiple challenges faced by GC’s across the country. Dazychain is designed to do just that: handle the plural operations of the modern legal department. Document management, matter allocation, intake systems, external firm supervision, data consolidation… using Dazychain, legal departments can single-handedly manage all of these fields to reduce risk, take better care of customers, and improve overall efficiency.
“Most legal departments still rely on Microsoft products, and that’s about it. But the good thing is that there’s real appetite for change now, as more and more companies recognise that legal processes can be greatly improved with modern technologies.” Dazychain is a sterling example of such technology, improving productivity and reducing headaches for legal departments across the country.
By Cameron Raia