A new system promises faster contract reviews, clearer matter tracking or fewer manual updates. The demo looks excellent. Your team can already picture a cleaner way of working.

But what happens if the current process is unclear? A tool can simply give everyone a faster way to repeat the same confusion.

Before speaking to vendors, understand the work.

Follow one piece of work from start to finish

Take a familiar process, such as a request for contract review. Where does it arrive? Who decides whether it's urgent? What information is missing? Who reviews it? Who tells the requester the result? Where is the final document kept?

When you map an actual request, you may discover that the biggest delay is not the absence of software. It could be inconsistent intake, unclear approval responsibility or repeated requests for the same information.

Five questions worth answering before a demo

1. What problem are we buying the tool to solve?

Write a simple sentence, such as: We need employees to submit complete requests to one place and see who owns them. It is more useful than 'We want digital transformation'.

2. What needs to change even without a tool?

If requests arrive through five channels, agree a preferred approach. If nobody knows who can approve an exception, resolve that before adding another system.

3. Who will use it, and what will they actually do?

A legal team, procurement, finance and business users may want very different things. Make a short list of the tasks each group needs to complete. Prioritise what is essential.

4. What must the tool connect to?

Think about identity and access, document storage, approvals, reporting and information retention. Implementation cost is not just the subscription fee. It includes setup, training, changes to the workflow and ongoing ownership.

5. How will we recognise an improvement?

Decide what success looks like in plain terms: fewer incomplete requests, clearer status updates, fewer manual follow-ups or quicker access to approved documents. The measures should fit the actual problem.

Then compare providers using the same brief

A common requirement set makes demos more useful. Ask each vendor to walk through the same realistic scenario instead of letting them choose only their most impressive features. Look at the difficult moments too: an incomplete request, a changed approver or information that must be restricted.

The CLOC Core 12 legal-operations framework recognises technology as one part of a wider operating system alongside processes, vendors, information governance and service delivery. That is why software selection benefits from an operational view, not only a feature checklist.

When does specialist help make sense?

An external adviser can help frame the requirement and compare approaches before a project becomes a large investment. Implementation is a separate undertaking requiring the appropriate technology and delivery specialists.

Further reading: original sources

This article offers general information and is not legal or regulatory advice. Requirements depend on your organisation and circumstances.