The problem

We often come across people who have some form of existing automation solution in place, but it isn’t meeting their needs and they aren’t sure what to do about it.

They have potentially invested a lot of money already in the existing solution, so there’s a large sunk cost that is in their mind.

Of course, the best thing to do is to ignore sunk costs – what's done is done - and to focus on what is the best decision from here on. Easier said than done, but still necessary!

Reasons

There could be a number of reasons why the existing solution isn’t meeting needs. These could include:

• Poor implementation: The existing solution has the capability to do what is needed, it just hasn’t been set up well (surprisingly common).
• Lack of support: The existing solution was initially procured with the best intentions of being supported in-house. That person leaves, and no one remaining knows how the solution can be maintained. Alternatively, the support from the external provider has fallen away as their focus has shifted elsewhere.
• No longer available: The existing solution is no longer available. This could be because it’s been acquired and is no longer sold or supported (or the price has been jacked up substantially), bundled into a range of solutions that you don’t want or need and don't want to pay more for, or the provider has gone broke or otherwise exited the market.
• No longer the best: When we set LawHawk up, there weren’t that many options in the document automation or broader legal automation space. Cloud was new. You had to work with what was available and make the best of it. Now, most of the solutions that were available then have improved out of sight, while there has also been a wave of new entrants offering different functionality. Platforms have emerged, while best of breed point solutions can now be integrated. In the document automation space, there’s now a lot more interest and potential to create greater value in broader workflows and where you are currently saving hours of drafting time, you may be able to remove weeks of delay in the overall process.
• Never was the best: Many people have been told that they will be able to achieve great outcomes with software that was never capable of complex legal automation. People who say lawyers can do everything they need with their practice/matter management system, M365, or the ERP contract management module have a lot to answer for, and there may be a lot of buyer's remorse coming for people who jump on the AI bandwagon to draft contracts when they just needed document automation.
• New version available: Rather than shifting from one platform to another, you may just need to upgrade from one version to another – for example, from HotDocs Classic to HotDocs Advance.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter why you are looking at moving to a new solution – what matters is how to approach it.

Recommendations

Here’s what I recommend:

• Reassess your requirements: Things will have potentially changed a lot in terms of what you can do with technology, and how you can run your business since you last looked at options. Don’t just look for a like-for-like replacement without first assessing what business outcomes you want to achieve now. Previous limitations in how you built the existing solution may no longer exist, opening up opportunities you may not have considered possible.
• Understand what was working well, and where the gaps were: If there are things that were working well and that you want to keep, make sure you understand that and can check any new solution can maintain that functionality. At the same time, you need to know where the gaps are so you can ensure they will be covered this time too.
• Get external help to identify the right solution: There’s so many tools in the market now, that it’s hard enough for people like us to keep across all of them, and their various strengths and weaknesses. Taking time to get some advice and to narrow your evaluation to two or three options that could genuinely work will save you significant time and money – now and ongoing. Even just a 30 minute conversation might save you months or years of frustration. Your procurement and IT colleagues, while specialists at what they do, are not specialists at truly understanding what solution is going to work best for your team's processes, or the processes of the people you support. Too many times have we seen failed projects due to a mismatch in understanding between what a procurement or IT team member thinks they can achieve for the legal team with a tool the organisation already has, and the reality of what the legal team actually needs. Don't fall into that trap!
• Consider specialist help with the migration: When you’ve been working exclusively on legal automation for 8+ years you can quickly see how one automation solution works, and how templates can be shifted to another platform in a way that keeps the parts that work well while also making the most of the functionality in the new platform. The last thing you want to do is to get an amazing new Ferrari and then try and make it drive like your old Cortina. Some automation platforms have wizards that can assist with conversion from common competitors, and some are now looking at using AI to jump start conversion too, but don't overlook the value of having humans designing the process for humans to use to achieve the best outcomes for them.

How long will it take and what will it cost?

In life and business, sometimes, we have lots of time to evaluate and make decisions, and sometimes decisions are forced on us more quickly.

In automation, the good news is that the best solutions these days are “no code” or “low code” which means that it can be very quick and affordable to build a new solution, particularly if:

• You (or your preferred specialist) have legal and automation knowledge, and so you can see how the documents/process are required to work legally, while also understanding how to best use the automation functionality to enable that; and
• You (or your preferred specialist) have a body of existing automation IP that is already well tested and proven, and that can be used as a springboard for your new project.

In these situations high quality legal automation can be delivered in days or weeks, and at costs that will make you forget about how much money was spent on your last solution and allow you to focus on how to scale your business.

If you are in a situation where your existing legal automation solution is no longer available or meeting your needs, don’t despair! Get in touch for an initial (free) consultation and we’ll be happy to take a look at your current situation and give you some options for how you can move forward in timeframes and budgets that will work for you.