New beginnings make great opportunities for everything new: tools, processes, strategies… When this U.S. based retirement financial services company went independent after a series of acquisitions, that is exactly what they did. As their mission shifted to focus on helping American individuals retire richly, the newly formed legal team set out to make meaningful improvements.

CASE STUDY – MATTER MANAGEMENT

Transformation of a Retirement Financial Services Legal Ops Team

How one legal department digitized and streamlined operations in a highly regulated industry, leading to 50% in cost reductions.

Ottakringer Getränke AG

AT A GLANCE

Challenges

  • Existing solution was expensive and difficult to use
  • Complex system changes led to low adoption (25% of invoices still processed manually)
  • Inability to extract relevant data, lowering the tool’s value
  • Customization requests were slow and cumbersome, limiting agility

Results

  • Reduced operational costs by over 50%
  • Implemented more than 6 department-wide process improvements
  • Improved process compliance and eliminated manual workarounds
  • Cut outside counsel review time from months to just a few days

Products Used

Matter Management

INTRODUCTION

New beginnings make great opportunities for everything new: tools, processes, strategies… When this U.S. based retirement financial services company went independent after a series of acquisitions, that is exactly what they did. As their mission shifted to focus on helping American individuals retire richly, the newly formed legal team set out to make meaningful improvements. Bringing in their best practices and expertise, the General Counsel and Assistant Vice President of Legal Operations aimed to enhance processes, increase speed, and reduce costs wherever possible.

THE CHALLENGE

Outdated Processes Holding Back Legal Efficiency and Saving Opportunities

As soon as the Assistant Vice President of Legal Operations was brought in by General Counsel, she analyzed why the current system wasn’t working well. From this analysis she outlined some major problems:

  • The current solution was both expensive and difficult to use.
  • System changes were so complex that adoption remained low, with 25% of invoices still processed manually, which undermined the organization’s automation goals.
  • Legal teams felt they were not extracting relevant data and information from the system, reducing the perceived value of the tool.
  • The existing matter management and e-billing systems no longer met the organization’s needs, and any request for customization involved a long and painful process.

This financial company needed to find safe ways to speed up processes whilst engaging final users to boost adoption rates. The internal legal team lacked the tools and visibility required to support a high-performing department. It was clear: a better, more agile solution was needed. The AVP pushed the project resulting in a satisfying solution.

THE SOLUTION

A User Friendly and Data Driven Matter Management Platform

After a thorough search for the best-in-class solution, the AVP proposed DiliTrust Matter Management to her team. Not only was the organization looking for a solid and secure tool, they also needed one that could adapt to their existing workflows. Besides that, the chemical leader had a precise list of capabilities and goals with the solution. After evaluating different market options, they chose DiliTrust Matter Management and got:

Custom workflows and configurations, easy to implement and rollout.

Collaborative tool enabling cross departmental invoice review, removing legal’s approval as a blocker.

Enhanced visibility into insurance applicability, vendor diversity metrics (e.g., LCLD, Mansfield Rule), and data quality issues.

This allowed the legal department to innovate beyond expectations, bringing previously siloed tasks like insurance tracking into the system and adding DEI tracking fields into matter records. Moreover, the implementation went smoothly and included migrating historical data and invoice line items detail, as opposed to just summary level data. This was a real game changer, since most providers had limited them to summarized migrations.

THE RESULTS

Reduced Processing Time, Costs and Enhanced Collaboration

  • Reduced operational costs by more than 50%
  • Implemented more than 6 process improvements
  • Improved process compliance throughout the entire department

Overall, the implementation of DiliTrust Matter Management enabled better processes. Now, teams of this retirement financial services company do not feel the need to bypass any system or perform manual tasks. Problems can be handled before they even arise, thanks to the system providing insights in real time. A true collaboration between DiliTrust and the Financial Services organization has made daily work much easier. And the best part? The Litigation Department is a true fan of the tool, which has led to high adoption rates.

Now that invoices are automatically sent to reviewers, the outside counsel review process takes half the time. We went from months and thousands of emails to just a few days, making our work lives significantly easier.

Assistant Vice President of Legal Operations

Learn more about what DiliTrust can do for you, whether it’s accelerating processes, efficiency gains, cost savings or all the above mentioned.

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