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Contract automation (creating your contract with document assembly) solves many of your law firm’s problems if it’s extremely user-friendly:
Creating a first-draft share purchase agreement or facility agreement takes a lot of time:
If your client comes up with updated details (“not one shareholder but two are selling“) you may need to redo a lot of rewriting (Seller has vs. Sellers have). Many will perceive this as ‘secretarial work’ and no lawyer likes this type of ‘project management’; it takes a lot of time. With contract assembly, such updating may take less than 10 minutes.
Time saving. In most contexts, creating a complex agreement, such as a share purchase agreement (SPA), a credit facility (LMA) or a shareholder agreement, can easily be done 120 times faster. Substantial parts of such agreements are standard.
Model contract know-how changes. Once automated, further-automation is the next step. It is easy, because contract creation software does not care about your Word-document becoming unworkably filled with options. So where you think that automation would still require the additional 40 percent to be tailored; two steps down the road of contract automation, the reality will rather become that the first-draft contract covers up to 80 percent of what you need.
You probably recognise the problem:
Minimising your response time. Because drafting routine contracts and more complex contracts requires much less time with automated contract creation, the response time of a law firm minimises. Because contract automation with the Weagree Wizard implies strong contract know-how management, the right examples are easily available. Business performance improves. There is an efficient involvement of stakeholders (whether that is the client for a law firm or ‘the business’ providing input). Providing a ‘simple’ first draft business contract does not take weeks.
Standardising also complex contracts. The Weagree Wizard can automate all types of contracts and documentation. It can create both routine contracts (e.g. powers of attorney, shareholder resolutions, notarial documents), and large, complex contracts (e.g. SPA’s, JV Agreements, loans, credit facilities, prospectuses and all kinds of IP and ICT licenses).
For your core business process, contracts and contracting, you want to stay on top. It is our ambition that you can upgrade your model contracts yourself – without involving others. Template-upgrading work must therefore be simple, without much training.
‘No coding skills required’. Our competitors tell you that ‘no programming’ is required. How do you define ‘programming’ and how much time does it cost you learn this not-to-program?
You don’t want to sink your valuable model contracts and model clauses into a contract creation application for which:
Why not Weagree? Does Weagree bring better news? Yes. Because we did not start with legacy technology. Because the Weagree Wizard has automated the coding blocks, making it a (highly visual) game of puzzling your contract together. You need special people: those who enjoy making a puzzle and who have a passion for language (writing a good questionnaire and good model contracts).
Weagree admin training is awareness training. Weagree administrator training takes only 3 hours (for millenials) to 9 hours (for baby boomers). No skills needed, but if you like puzzling, that helps; and if you know what contracting practice asks, that’s perfect. No special people. No installation on your laptop: everything is web-based. You can do the administrator training by yourself: everything you need to know is in our admin tutorial video’s (30 short videos of together 38 minutes to get you started, and altogether 2:10 hours).
Template insertion is highly scalable and intuitive: it’s fun. The administrator function for inserting or modifying an automated contract template is entirely intuitive: admin training is awareness training. Weagree has automated the programming elements for setting up your Q&A and the outline of your template is highly visualised: everyone can find their way to the template, without preparatory reading or remembering how it was set up initially. And yes, we managed to keep it user-friendly: simple and intuitive.
Improved quality of contracts. Introducing the Weagree Wizard serves as a catalyst for upgrading model contracts (so top class model contracts are not a precondition to introducing legal document automation or contract assembly). With the Weagree Wizard, all model contracts and contract building blocks and clauses are managed from one central location. This contributes to a higher quality of all contracts.
“Why is this clause inserted? it does not apply to our case!” You have probably heard the other party saying it. Here is your problem: you are unsure whether or not it applies, and if you ask your colleague next to you, he or she will probably confirm, to facilitate deal closure but unaware of the nuance in the clause.
If, in your template contract, you would flag every contract clause as ‘optional’ (and explain in which cases it can be deleted) or how it may be amended, your Word-document would become unworkable. Some clauses are included because – if applicable – you need them, and most people do not object.
A computer, our contract assembly software, does not care about ‘a contract becoming unworkable’: your challenge of drafting model contracts should not be about selecting what is worth reflecting (finding the common denominator) but about whether an extra Q&A-question is desirable (optimising the generated contract for 95 percent, instead of for 50-60 percent only).
Shortening the transaction cycle. A contract that is circulated promptly, contributes to momentum of a transaction. As a result of a smart Q&A, a first draft contract will not contain superfluous contract clauses. Also, because (i) the productivity of legal counsel improves, (ii) the response time of the legal department minimises, and (iii) the quality of a first draft contract improves, the finalisation of a business transaction requires less drafting time and less negotiation cycles. Negotiation issues are clear from the outset. A shortened transaction cycle is the result.
…Even in the business: many of them may have given up asking the legal department. They have their personal versions of your previously drafted contract template. …Except that those were for a specific context. …Except that the law has changed or you have improved the model contract.
Optimised contract know-how management. The Weagree Wizard is a powerful solution for managing contract know-how. Thanks to the database-technology on which it is built, all model contracts, contract building blocks and the clause library are not only managed centrally, they are also better searchable and accessible (through categorisation, keywords and assignment of ‘know-how ownership’ of clauses). Moreover, the Wizard facilitates an effective handing over of model contracts from generation to generation of lawyers.
User-friendly: happier people. The Weagree Wizard is simple and very easy to use (no training is required). The Q&A is intuitive. The Wizard requires no major process redesign.
For detailed information, including as regards technology, see the frequently asked questions (FAQ) section or contact us. We have created a demo video, which gives you a first impression of Weagree’s contract creation application.
