Adopting legal tech is a challenge for every organisation. Maybe not for the frontrunners in the team, but certainly for the less nerdy, less adaptive ones (often the majority).
Being successful is a balancing act for team leaders: what ‘investment’ is a lagging team member willing to do? Conversely, will the anticipated benefit pay off at all? In other words:
what ‘investment’ is a lagging team member willing to do? Conversely, will the anticipated benefit pay off at all? In other words:
- How to reduce the required effort?
- How to let everyone perceive (and enjoy) the benefits?
For example, we see that the contracting steps after contract creation (i.e. managing and comparing negotiation versions, contract schedules and other transaction-related files) are sometimes perceived to be such ‘disconnected’ from contract creation that users avoid contract automation altogether.
Believe it or not, for many people, psychologically it feels more comfortable to start working on a Word-template (and work on it for an hour), than answering a questionnaire in 15 minutes. While this is at odds with ratio, it is the perception (emotion) that makes people follow the slow and inefficient way.
We are proud to announce an upgrade to Weagree’s existing SharePoint plugin. Using it does not require any effort from end-users. Moreover, it removes numerous (tiny) hurdles and accelerates subsequent contracting steps. Also, implementing the SharePoint-connection merely takes 15-20 minutes of activation and configuration work (!).
Our SharePoint integration has been made more flexible and extremely intuitive to use:
- As the last step of contract creation, the correct SharePoint-site can be selected (if the default one for that template was incorrect), as well as the correct folder (if the admin-defined folder naming-parameter was inaccurate).
- All subsequently added negotiation versions, compares, contract schedules and other transaction-related files will automatically be stored on the same SharePoint site, in the same folder. Weagree’s DMS automatically brings everything together.
- Weagree has become the central, single point of access for all contracting work, no matter where on which SharePoint-site the contract files are stored. Weagree thus becomes more of a ‘shell’ over SharePoint. It eliminates clicks and simplifies saving, navigating-to-SharePoint site, deleting files, correcting file names, etc.).
- Files opened from within Weagree are opened directly from SharePoint and open in (laptop-installed) Word. Likewise, Word’s AutoSave and the classic Ctrl-S save changes onto SharePoint, completely underwater. Word documents can be opened this way directly in Word (laptop version). All this means that there is no more need to temporarily save a Weagree-file ‘locally’ before editing it.
- The existing ‘email your received email+attachments to Weagree’ functionality ties in seamlessly with this: if you get emailed a version-02 or contract attachments from the counterparty, users can forwarder that email to your Weagree-portal email address; Weagree will fully automatically deliver that email with attachments in the user’s in-app inbox.
- This semi-automated way of selecting the correct SharePoint site and the correct (sub)folder is not only flexible, it also follows a smart hierarchy of fall-back scenarios. Also in Weagree’s large transaction management functionality (projects) supports this. End users can vary depending on rights granted to them.
- The correct SharePoint site may also be determined ‘by’ external applications (e.g. if Weagree is integrated with Microsoft Dynamics or Salesforce, the correct SharePoint site and folder can be determined there and automatically ‘imposed’).
- Per type of template, a different approach may be implemented. Likewise, all NDAs may be stored and managed differently than other types of contracts.
- Users have powerful and intuitive options to move incorrectly stored contract files to the correct SharePoint site or the correct (sub)folder. This may be particularly useful if SharePoint-site-access rights did not exist or were unknown at the time of creating the contract.
- All entity management and corporate housekeeping files are also easily stored on SharePoint. Also in connection with entity management we have adopted best practices for storing the entity-related files.
- In view of IT security, it is also possible not to use SharePoint’s commonly used Documents folder but instead SharePoint’s Library feature. (This works the same for authorised users, except that with SharePoint Libraries it is possible to control and enforce access to files more stringently).
This listing of benefits and features may sound too good to be true. But after elaborately testing, it is simple to see all the benefits. Now it is up to you to let everyone, including the less adaptive colleagues perceive (and enjoy) these benefits!
We are happy to show you how. Implementation support is (as always) free of charge, and (as always) no additional licence is required.
