How can a leading home improvement retailer with more than 500 DIY stores and 100 legal entities effectively manage its legal operations? At such scale, the German retailer faced significant challenges, particularly in matter management, due to fragmented information and a lack of alignment. To address this, the Group Counsel launched a digitalization initiative designed to bring efficiency, structure, and peace of mind to a team of 50 in-house lawyers.

CUSTOMER STORY – DILITRUST SUITE

How a leading German DIY retailer got its own legal toolbox

A bold legal digitalization, sparked by the General Counsel and brought to life by a united legal team. The story of one of Germany’s biggest retailers.

Ottakringer Getränke AG

AT A GLANCE

Challenges

  • Fragmented legal data and unstructured collaboration between teams
  • No formal processes for legal matter intake or management
  • Limited productivity caused by reliance on outdated office tools

Results

  • Streamlined legal operations that enhanced team efficiency
  • Unified, centralized processes adopted across the organization
  • Clear matter structures with accessible data for all employees

Products Used

Matter Management
Board Portal
Legal Entity Management

INTRODUCTION

How can a leading home improvement retailer with more than 500 DIY stores and 100 legal entities effectively manage its legal operations? At such scale, the German retailer faced significant challenges, particularly in matter management, due to fragmented information and a lack of alignment. Its large and international legal department, made up of over 50 professionals across different legal specialties, was juggling everything in silos.

Beyond the usual corporate legal matters, the teams at the organization also handle a mix of industry-specific issues. It ranges from supplier disputes to trademark protection and even customer litigation related to in-store incidents. Fortunately, the internal legal teams had a plan.

In this story, it was the Group Counsel who launched a digitalization initiative designed to bring efficiency, structure, and peace of mind to the team. Acting as the project’s main ambassador, the Group Counsel had one key objective: transparency. The goal was to understand where things stood and what was happening across the organization at all times..

THE CHALLENGE

Limited office tools contributing to cost inefficiencies

The Legal and Finance teams were struggling with unstructured data, whether for matter management, board meetings, or entity management. Prior to DiliTrust, legal activities were tracked with disconnected office tools, while entity data relied on a legacy solution that no longer met evolving needs.

  • Matter management was fragmented and every team member had its own ways of working. This slowed collaboration, especially when others were absent.
  • Limited visibility over provisions and risk assessments led to cost inefficiencies for the entire Group
  • Tracking legal activities and spending was complex due to scattered information
  • Legacy software offered poor customization, particularly for basic fields such as internal store reference numbers
  • Each legal sub-team had its own structure and approach to storing and retrieving documents

Recognizing these challenges, the General Counsel championed an internal digital transformation to resolve the recurring pain points legal teams were facing. Beyond addressing operational gaps, the new solution also had to meet broader organizational expectations, including a modern user experience and seamless integrations to the G-Suite tools. The General Counsel played an active role in empowering team members to evaluate the available solutions and select the best fit for their needs

THE SOLUTION

A single solution to unify legal operations

The German retailer ultimately selected DiliTrust to manage legal entities, matters, and boards within a single platform. The decision was guided by the ability to address three major challenges through one provider, ensuring smoother information flow and stronger connectivity. In addition, the DiliTrust Suite met the retailer’s integration requirements and offered an appealing, user-friendly back office. Together, these factors made the choice clear. DiliTrust provided:

A fully integrated matter management solution, that enabled collaboration even during absences, allowing others to easily take over cases.

A centralized tool to easily view, search, and track legal matters along with their documentation.

Flexible customizations applied where needed, including company specific fields like internal store numbers.


Gmail Suite integration that addressed a major need to manage correspondence by linking emails to matters across platforms.

With DiliTrust, legal teams no longer work in silos. Centralization has improved matter management by giving all stakeholders quick and easy access to information through a built-in search feature. This has been especially valuable for the General Counsel, who can now retrieve specific information in seconds. Under the legacy system, the same task would have required lengthy manual searches.

THE RESULTS

Smarter legal workflows driving measurable impact

  • A unified centralized process for matter management and entity management
  • Clear matter structures enabling risk forecasting, workload management, and analysis
  • Accurate, transparent information sharing within the legal team and General Counsel
  • Improved cross-department collaboration through consistent, reportable workflows
  • A Board management solution supporting the Supervisory board, common in German corporate structures.


What began as a top-down transformation is now an everyday reality. With strong early adoption and growing internal alignment, the German retailer is well positioned to expand its use of DiliTrust as needs evolve. By embedding smart technology into daily routines, the legal team can now work more efficiently and at greater speed, while maintaining the high quality and precision their work demands.

We’re just getting started with DiliTrust, but the potential is immense. We have no doubt the results will follow.

Group Counsel

By partnering with DiliTrust, the retailer set a new standard for legal efficiency and collaboration, proving what’s possible with the
right solution.

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