Users Are Leading the Way In Process Automation Co-Innovation

When they’re given the right opportunities to connect and collaborate, process automation users are driving innovation forward. Our own TAP clients have already enthusiastically jumped at the chance.

One forum they’ve taken to immediately for sharing ideas with other process automation adopters, even from other companies? The TAP Co-Innovation Center. The level of participation we’ve seen there after just a few months has surprised even us.

It would be arrogant to claim we inspired these conversations and collaborations. It’s more accurate to say that legal tech adopters, especially those who have jumped in over the last couple of years, have understood from that start that these new tools offer tremendous potential for innovation and customization. The very growth of Legal Operations over the same period absolutely stems from their understanding of how new approaches have to be embraced in order to drive much-needed transformation.

In a recent blog post, in fact, Jason Parkman explained how this movement is being powered by the user community itself:

There’s really a grass-roots, common impulse among our client community to launch into free-wheeling discussions and put new ideas out there for others to explore.

Process automation use cases built by users for users

TAP Workflow Automation has been one Miratech product that’s really spearheaded co-innovation, as its users have quickly led the way in creating fresh approaches to process automation.

Here are some of the use cases that have been shared by the TAP user community since the launch of the Co-Innovation Center. Some of them have innovated atop existing use cases (like “Conflict of Interest Disclosure”) to meet the very specific needs of an organization or vertical.  Each is a solid addition to the existing gallery of TAP use cases for process automation and acceleration of key processes in legal, marketing, procurement, HR and other departments.

Here are details about a few of these user-built-and-shared workflows:

• Ask Legal: Legal resources are centralized through this workflow, which pulls all requests into one place where they’re automatically triaged and routed – with total visibility and quick turnaround time.
• Conflict of Interest Disclosure: Instead of evaluating COIs manually through email and smartsheet, this workflow allows them to automate a complex approval process, reducing the possibility of errors and giving easy visibility to the Legal Department.
• Non-Revenue Transaction Portal: Designed as a portal, this TAP workflow determines whether a contract and/or purchase order is necessary and routes the order accordingly and automatically, while enforcing corporate policy through its conditionally produced questions and options.

A window into industry-wide innovation

A forum like the TAP Co-Innovation Center aren’t just useful for sharing and improving process automation use cases. They help the user community stay in touch with how legal technologies are broadly impacting an entire industry. That helps them stay on top of the trends that may affect their own technology roadmap in the years ahead.

As Greg Bennett, Senior Manager, Legal Operations at Gilead Sciences, explains it,

Through Mitratech’s TAP Co-Innovation Center, we realize the opportunity to develop and share ideas on how we can use TAP to improve – if not eliminate – effort-heavy, high-volume/low-risk business processes in our organization and between our Legal systems. More importantly, the Innovation Center provides a front-row seat to see how this technology is rapidly shaping a new landscape in the legal business.

Process automation resources you might find useful?

• White Paper: Automating Workflows for Legal Operations

• Webinar on Demand: Process Automation Made Perfect

• Case Study: “Life-Changing Technology” – NetApp and TAP Workflow Automation