Gartner’s data are based on global statistics specifically related to legal departments. In summary:
- Statistically, 66% of your legal department will not adopt contract automation or CLM in their day-to-day work if:
(a) avoiding the application is not made difficult, and
(b) if legal leadership does not walk the talk (e.g. do not show that or how legal tech is relevant for them, do not use it themselves where they should, or do not base decisions on data that ought to be collected by the legal tech). - 50% of potential user adoption would anyhow not be achieved if using contract automation or maintaining the CLM is not ‘enforced’, or rather, if legal leadership does the wrong follow-up on the various types of excuses by non-users. Excuses for non-use are abundant, and while they may seem to relate to the implemented application, they are in essence mostly relating to everything but the application.
- If the emphasis is too much on optimising ‘process’ (or rather, on process simplification), the necessary accountability-based incentives may be removed. Needless to say, that if ‘accountability’ is insufficiently anchored in contracting processes or if soft process-based incentives for adoption are absent, then the context prevents an upgraded role for legal.
- Non-users will always have an excuse for not using contract automation or CLM. (Duh, that may not come as a surprise to GCs or heads of legal.) The right action to support such non-user is key.
- Legal departments may think that they defined a proper ‘vision’ on their future, but are likely to miss what matters.
Altogether, if a legal department is not CLM-ready (if the quality of legal operations is not ‘mature’ but merely in a starting or at best in an intermediate phase), then the circumstances for adoption are much like swimming against the tide. Global standards for measuring legal ops maturity identify 12 relevant competencies.
Only misère?!
Don’t we have success stories? Of course we do! Weagree’s customer success stories are truly spectacular. But even exceptionally successful customers have their 17.8% of laggards in the team, with their excuses.
