Legito for Sourcing and Procurement

Jan 25, 2023 | Weekly Automation Corner

Legito for Sourcing and Procurement

Charles Drayson

Jan 24 · 3 min read

Today, we’ll look at the application of the Legito platform for folks working in sourcing and procurement. The challenge they face, among many, is buying-in goods and services from suppliers who will have their own procedures, policies, pricing and requirements, and checking that they will fit the needs of the customer. The scene is set for a potential clash when a buyer’s procurement team meets the supplier’s sales team. Meanwhile, their colleagues in both organisations want to get things moving.

If you think it will work in practice, you could build a Legito solution that effectively forces all buying processes through a strict regime, audit trail, and get signatures on all the paperwork you see fit to require. However, if life were that simple, you wouldn’t need sourcing professionals. We think it’s better to create a facility that leaves space for the sourcing professionals to use their expertise and support them with the more tedious tasks, and help them keep visibility of the big picture.

First Things First

Let’s suppose you have started a Legito trial. Where would you begin? You could start by defining your documents and processes at a granular level and then replicate them in Legito. If that looks manageable without too much difficulty, do that. However, if you struggle to extract all those low-level details, it might be because you don’t have many things that are fixed and defined at low-level (perhaps because it doesn’t serve the real-world needs of the business). In those cases, we suggest you start by mapping some high-level procedures and thinking about the subsidiary documents and tasks that serve each step of the end-to-end process.

Using Legito to implement and manage a high-level workflow is one way to create the space for human intervention. You don’t need to automate everything – you add optimum value by focussing only on the bits that are tedious and repetitive. If you take this approach, you build a working application more quickly, and add extra layers later as the need arises.

Expertise of your Sourcing Team

For sourcing teams that manage higher volumes of lower complexity purchases, consider using Legito to enable some self-service options for business colleagues – this can work particularly well when a procurement process starts with information-gathering. You could use Legito to prompt colleagues through the first few steps, so the sourcing team has what they need when it’s time for them to start work. This will reduce wait times and alleviate frustrations associated with stop-start patterns because it has to pause for things that are missing.

For sourcing teams faced with a wide variety of purchases, where it can be hard to keep track of the different requirements associated with different categories of purchasing, Legito can work well as a reference source, helping you retrieve the correct documents and requirements.

If you start by modelling only high-level procedures, it takes less time to build. Because Legito is a no-code platform for citizen developers, you can use the expertise of your sourcing team to build what you need without having to remove them totally from their duties.

Legito Deployment

If you deploy Legito to augment the purchase process, it’s a small step to retain the associated data to help you manage suppliers’ fulfilment of contracts. Use the automatic extraction of diary dates, so you don’t overlook renewal dates, SLA checks, routine inspection of insurance policies, and other supplier assurance requirements.

Legito for Sourcing and Procurement

Charles Drayson

Jan 24 · 3 min read

Today, we’ll look at the application of the Legito platform for folks working in sourcing and procurement. The challenge they face, among many, is buying-in goods and services from suppliers who will have their own procedures, policies, pricing and requirements, and checking that they will fit the needs of the customer. The scene is set for a potential clash when a buyer’s procurement team meets the supplier’s sales team. Meanwhile, their colleagues in both organisations want to get things moving.

If you think it will work in practice, you could build a Legito solution that effectively forces all buying processes through a strict regime, audit trail, and get signatures on all the paperwork you see fit to require. However, if life were that simple, you wouldn’t need sourcing professionals. We think it’s better to create a facility that leaves space for the sourcing professionals to use their expertise and support them with the more tedious tasks, and help them keep visibility of the big picture.

First Things First

Let’s suppose you have started a Legito trial. Where would you begin? You could start by defining your documents and processes at a granular level and then replicate them in Legito. If that looks manageable without too much difficulty, do that. However, if you struggle to extract all those low-level details, it might be because you don’t have many things that are fixed and defined at low-level (perhaps because it doesn’t serve the real-world needs of the business). In those cases, we suggest you start by mapping some high-level procedures and thinking about the subsidiary documents and tasks that serve each step of the end-to-end process.

 Using Legito to implement and manage a high-level workflow is one way to create the space for human intervention. You don’t need to automate everything – you add optimum value by focussing only on the bits that are tedious and repetitive. If you take this approach, you build a working application more quickly, and add extra layers later as the need arises.

Expertise of your Sourcing Team

For sourcing teams that manage higher volumes of lower complexity purchases, consider using Legito to enable some self-service options for business colleagues – this can work particularly well when a procurement process starts with information-gathering. You could use Legito to prompt colleagues through the first few steps, so the sourcing team has what they need when it’s time for them to start work. This will reduce wait times and alleviate frustrations associated with stop-start patterns because it has to pause for things that are missing.

For sourcing teams faced with a wide variety of purchases, where it can be hard to keep track of the different requirements associated with different categories of purchasing, Legito can work well as a reference source, helping you retrieve the correct documents and requirements.

If you start by modelling only high-level procedures, it takes less time to build. Because Legito is a no-code platform for citizen developers, you can use the expertise of your sourcing team to build what you need without having to remove them totally from their duties.

Legito Deployment

If you deploy Legito to augment the purchase process, it’s a small step to retain the associated data to help you manage suppliers’ fulfilment of contracts. Use the automatic extraction of diary dates, so you don’t overlook renewal dates, SLA checks, routine inspection of insurance policies, and other supplier assurance requirements.

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Legito PowerUp 2022: Panel Discussion – Automation for Sourcing and Procurement Departments

Jul 19, 2022 | PowerUp 2022

Legito PowerUp 2022: Panel Discussion – Automation for Sourcing and Procurement Departments

The first panel session at PowerUp conference heard from two different organisations sharing similar requirements when deploying Legito for buy-side departments.

American Trade & Finance provides lending services across five continents. Lending is a heavily regulated sector, and operating under multiple jurisdictions adds another level of complication. The result: 75 documents are needed for each transaction, and some of those documents are 100+ pages long.

The panel learned how they deployed Legito to solve several challenges:

  • The organisation had templates, but scattered across the computers of different people, with no reliable way to know who had the authoritative versions.
  • It was cumbersome to copy information needed for one document for use in another.
  • Compiling the documents for each transaction was manual and therefore vulnerable to human error.

Diversity of a different kind was the challenge for the second panel contributor: the diversity of products and services (including intellectual property) that needed to be correctly managed by the procurement team. Legito works like a database for the different requirements matched to the subject matter of the procurement. When they need to procure something for the first time, the solution’s capability expands and can be re-used on the next occasion.

The panel also discussed how Legito is used to create links between business development teams, compliance teams, and Finance. The solution allowed the business development team to work at pace because they were equipped with a solution to generate documents, including invoices, without needing to wait for colleagues in the other teams.

💡Tips for successful deployments:

  • Don’t automate broken systems or documents. Adopting a new solution is a good time to implement improvements.
  • The best way to overcome sceptical or conservative colleagues is to deploy a solution that was a ‘wow factor’ – make it nice to use and demonstrate that the solution deals with a known problem.
  • Listen to feedback from users and act on feedback, quickly.

We thank Pavlin Stoyanoff and Galya Oster for beign part of Legito PowerUp 2022 and sharing their experience and useful tips for successful deployments.

 

Legito PowerUp 2022: Panel Discussion – Automation for Sourcing and Procurement Departments

The first panel session at PowerUp conference heard from two different organisations sharing similar requirements when deploying Legito for buy-side departments.

American Trade & Finance provides lending services across five continents. Lending is a heavily regulated sector, and operating under multiple jurisdictions adds another level of complication. The result: 75 documents are needed for each transaction, and some of those documents are 100+ pages long.

The panel learned how they deployed Legito to solve several challenges:

  • The organisation had templates, but scattered across the computers of different people, with no reliable way to know who had the authoritative versions.
  • It was cumbersome to copy information needed for one document for use in another.
  • Compiling the documents for each transaction was manual and therefore vulnerable to human error.

Diversity of a different kind was the challenge for the second panel contributor: the diversity of products and services (including intellectual property) that needed to be correctly managed by the procurement team. Legito works like a database for the different requirements matched to the subject matter of the procurement. When they need to procure something for the first time, the solution’s capability expands and can be re-used on the next occasion.

The panel also discussed how Legito is used to create links between business development teams, compliance teams, and Finance. The solution allowed the business development team to work at pace because they were equipped with a solution to generate documents, including invoices, without needing to wait for colleagues in the other teams.

💡Tips for successful deployments:

  • Don’t automate broken systems or documents. Adopting a new solution is a good time to implement improvements.
  • The best way to overcome sceptical or conservative colleagues is to deploy a solution that was a ‘wow factor’ – make it nice to use and demonstrate that the solution deals with a known problem.
  • Listen to feedback from users and act on feedback, quickly.

We thank Pavlin Stoyanoff and Galya Oster for beign part of Legito PowerUp 2022 and sharing their experience and useful tips for successful deployments.

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Case Study: Contract Automation for Procurement Department at a Retail Company

Sep 24, 2020 | Case Studies, Success Stories

Case Study Contract Automation for Procurement Department at a Retail Company

dafiti

Name: Dafiti
Website: https://www.dafiti.com
Industry: Retail (Fashion)
Employees: 2,800+
Vendors: 300

 

 

 

More about Dafiti

Key Improvements

%

Drafting time saved

%

Time Saved On Audit Reports

%

Time saved in contract negotiation

Background

 

 

  • One of the largest E-commerce retail companies in South America.
  • Distributor of over 300 fashion brands.
  • Member of the Global Fashion Group.
  • Presence in 4 Countries.
dafiti
dafiti

Procurement Department

 

  • One of Dafiti’s busiest departments with respect to the volume of documents and contracts.
  • Responsible for closing contracts with suppliers and with other key partners/stakeholders.
  • Due to the very high document volume, Dafiti required a system capable of automating and improving its contract drafting, negotiating, approving, and signing processes.
  • Experienced a major challenge in the generation of numerous audit and analysis reports.

“I am constantly looking for solutions that really help us improve our internal processes. Without a doubt, Legito has allowed us to optimize processes for creating, negotiating, filing, and following-up on the organization’s contracts.”

Ignacio Roggero

Ex-CFO, Dafiti

Challenges

 

  • Due to the large size of the company’s business operations, handling over 300 fashion brands from around the world, the company’s contract volume is very high. With Legito, Dafiti has found a way to digitize and digitally transform this integral part of its operation.
  • The terms of business with each supplier are usually unique for that supplier. For that reason, the team of Dafiti Colombia needed a tool that allowed for dynamic and flexible action while simultaneously enhancing their contractual processes, all without sacrificing the quality and legal security that identifies their brand.
  • Their team, being a technology company, knew how to identify and solve improvement opportunities using innovation – digital transformation is in their DNA. However, Dafiti’s IT team historically had been focused on key operational and logistical parts of its business, and not contract management solutions.
dafiti

Evaluation

 

  • Because of the tool’s ease of use, the Dafiti purchasing team quickly implemented Legito tools successfully, and integrated them into their operation.
  • Their strong commitment to improving organizational processes was evident every step of the way.
  • Dafiti’s team has realized that in Legito they have not only found a set of tools that have solved their problems, but have also found a team committed to helping them adapt to any situation related to the implementation of the software, the development of the templates, and the management of their documents.
  • In less than a year, a majority of Dafiti officials are now using Legito daily, having already created over 435 successful contract records.

Onboarding

 

  • The Legito team has accompanied Dafiti closely during its implementation phase. This has allowed Dafiti to successfully use Legito, exceeding expectations.
  • Today the procurement department has a new way of creating audit reports. Easy, fast and efficient.
dafiti
dafiti

Results

 

  • Legito manages the entire life cycle, from the draft to signature.
  •  Purchasing department employees have dramatically reduced their document preparation times.
  • Through Legito’s External Sharing feature, Dafiti, with every document it shares, demonstrates to its stakeholders that they are an innovative and modern company, inside and out.
  • Dafiti is considering implementing Legito in additional departments to continue systematically improving its operations.

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Procurement & Sourcing

Jun 12, 2020 | Academy

Procurement & Sourcing

Manage the supply chain faster and accurately with Legito

Drive Success For Yourself And Your Organization

 

We know Procurement/Sourcing departments work tirelessly to ensure their organization’s access to must-have resources continue to flow smoothly, and that supply chains remain unbroken. The right document automation tool will leverage precise document assembly and ease the pains of generating accurate paperwork. Necessary approval processes are streamlined through neat and efficient automated workflows, routing forms to the right stakeholders for quick approvals.

Together, Let’s Get A Win Using Our Verified Digital Transformation Playbook

 

We have helped many Procurement and Sourcing departments and we can help you. We share our know-how and tips from automation experts and satisfied clients who have already implemented a document automation solution to help you on your way to do it correctly, starting from determining your use cases, selecting the correct tool, implementation, and building 100% adoption.

Leverage the Experience of Other Digital-forward Companies

Key Improvements Our Customers Achieved With Legito 

%

%

Drafting Time Saved

Higher Document Approval Efficiency

More Revenues

More Accurate Final Documents

Step 1: Identify Your Use Cases

Internal Research

First, identify individuals in departments or teams who will benefit from the change and increased efficiency (typically managers). Assure interviewees that may be resistant to change that there is nothing to fear from automation, and that their input is valued and will help the company by helping them to be even more successful at their jobs.

Determine the key stakeholders. Here is a list of departments which, in our experience, we have found benefit greatly from automation:

 

  • Sourcing/Procurement department
  • Legal department
  • Human Resources department
  • Purchase/Sales department
  • IT department (for integration and security purposes)

After you have determined the correct people to speak to, start your research. Try to avoid questions that elicit feelings or opinions. Here are some standard questions that could prove useful:

 

  • What is our current document drafting process?
  • What is our current document workflow and approval process, and the state of our lifecycle management?
  • What does our current contract signing process look like? Do we use electronic signatures?
  • What are the current challenges we are facing?
  • What contracts or other documents are used most frequently? Is it possible to estimate how much time, on average, it takes to draft each without automation?
  • What metrics are available?
  • What are our software usage and data security policies?

Calculate Your Automation’s Return On Investment (ROI)

Use our Document Automation Matrix to estimate how long it will take you to automate a document, and our ROI Calculator will help you see how well (and how soon!) Legito will work for you.

Investment = Time and Resources spent in the following areas:

 

  • Document Assembly: Time spent defining the Conditions and logical dependencies that power automation. How many different logically dependent / conditioned content and alternative wording options will be automated within the document.

 

  • Document Lifecycle Management: Time spent developing automated Workflows and defining the proper User permissions and User Groups.

 

  • Environment: Time spent preparing the Workspace (i.e., Branding, Footers, Categories, Document Groupings, etc.)

 

  • On-Premise (if applicable, i.e, not using a cloud based solution): Time spent installing the solution and preparing it for use (e.g., servers, integrations, etc.)

Return = Benefits reaped from invested time and resources

 

  • How much faster are documents drafted?

Best way to calculate these results is to research how much time it currently takes to draft different documents from various categories and multiply that number by the number of times it is drafted per year. Next, assume that 90% of that time could be saved through proper automation.

 

  • How much more efficient is your document lifecycle management?

Similar to calculating increased document drafting speed, determine the state of your current document lifecycle management processes, and also how much time is spent. Trial an automated document lifecycle management solution and capture how the time it takes to complete the same processes after automation. The difference is your time saved per process, which can then be expanded to include additional processes by multiplying that time by the frequency these lifecycle processes are activated.

 

  • How much time is saved using eSignature?

Like the above scenarios, it is possible to test the before and after state of your signing processes to determine time saved. Broadly, research has shown that a well deployed eSignature solution can decrease signing times by 95 percent.

 

Averaging these three criteria can help you confidently create an estimate of your automation ROI. Legito’s custom ROI Calculator and Automation Matrix may give you a good starting place to reasonably estimate your expected ROI.

Frequently Automated Documents for Procurement and Sourcing Departments

  • Contracts on providing services
  • Purchase Agreements
  • Master Service Agreements
  • Framework Purchase Agreements
  • Documents relating to submitting or receiving tenders NDA/Confidentiality Agreements
  • Lease Agreements

Step 2: Choose the Right Solution

Important Features

Legito customers similarly placed in your field have found that, in addition to Legito’s core features, the following features cater particularly well to Procurement and Sourcing departments:

 

 

Legito strongly recommends initially testing a complex automation solution (e.g., multiple logical dependencies in an automated template) on a small use case.

 

This may provide an opportunity to investigate many different features. Not only can you determine if the product has everything that you need, but it’s a perfect opportunity to try a pilot project that can serve as a warm-up for an actual implementation. and roll out. Using a complex use case has the advantage of it being more likely that any product limitations will be discovered early. So rather than encountering difficulties later on in the implementation stage and having to start over, these important decisions may be made early.

 

Fortunately, Legito offers a 30-day free trial that gives you the opportunity to do just this.

Useful Resources

Commonly used criteria

  • End-users ease of use
  • Scope of use-cases to be covered by software
  • Fast software development with continual updates
  • Product road map for the upcoming year
  • Out-of-the-box integrations with other applications

 

Additional criteria will depend on the size of your business (Enterprise, Midsize, or Early Stage), and of course, company specific criteria will be determined based on your business’ unique use cases.

Step 3: Implementation

Once you have selected a tool, get to know it and have at least one person learn all the ins and outs. This person may become your first Power User.

Determine which would be more appropriate, an in-house or an outsourced implementation solution.

Have the individual most intimate with the workings of the new solution work with your Knowledge Experts and manage expectations of the solution’s capabilities (probably this initial Power User).

Select a narrow use case that, based on your research, will show users just how much it can help, and will present quick measurable results that can be communicated companywide. Let this first attempt provide tips and guidance on future implementations.

On average, it takes three iterations of reworking a newly implemented solution until it functions properly. Communicate with your implementation team in order to get it right. Once you’ve worked out the kinks, it will be easier to work on the next automation solution.

After you’re satisfied with the initial use case, build upon lessons learned, and select another. Don’t make a half-way effort, make sure you have perfected the automation use case. Then you can move with confidence to a new project with increased scope and complexity.

Timing – select an off-peak period in your business cycle to ensure a smooth roll-out and ensure the least disruption.

In-house Implementation

  • Designate 1-3 individuals to be Power Users. Experience has shown that entry level employees make good choices, as generally they tend to be more inclined to apply technology to increase efficiency, and are eager to get involved in these types of wide-encompassing projects which can help them become more acquainted with their new company. Give these Power Users the time to learn and eventually master the product.

 

  • Many products on the market today can take days or even weeks to learn, and months to master, Power Users can learn Legito’s automation in a day, and master it in a matter of weeks.

 

  • Have a look at Legito’s Power User Educational Training Courses. This should give you an idea of the level of expertise you may want a Power User to have.

 

Outsourced Implementation

  • Your implementation partners should be experts in document automation and, able to execute with precision. To aid them in this, be able to provide precise instructions on how the document automation solution should be realized. Give your implementation partners as much detail about the document’s logic so there are no false assumptions. Ensure that you and your partners have the same understanding.

 

  • It would be great if at least one member of your internal implementation team has completed all of the Educational courses, having time to really know your solution’s automation techniques. This individual should be tapped to liaise with the implementation team (specifically this person who has taken the courses). This will help ensure that you have the transparency you need to make sure your needs are being met to be kept apprised of any necessary deviations from the expected design.

 

Legito has a list of trusted partners.

See Our Implementation Partners

Step 4: Adoption

End-user On-Boarding

Communication! Ensure that your messaging manages End User expectations for the product’s capabilities and the benefits.

 

  • Prepare training materials and use various media (documents, video, animation) to use for personal or online workshops.

 

  • Leverage existing knowledge repositories to store helpful information. Easily accessible resources speed up the onboarding process for new hires.

 

  • Set up training sessions headed up by your Power Users. It can be helpful to offer regular refresher courses long after implementation.

 

  • Accessibility: Consider using your Legito Workspace Footer to link to resources, which may include an internal point of contact who can help end-users.

Learn as You Go training. A product with an intuitive user interface, combined with a well-executed implementation will not require training. Ideally a user will be able to slide smoothly into using your solution with little need for external resources. The best way to do this is for users to learn as they use the product. Some ways to do this are:

 

  • Automated Guided Tours – When a user first opens the automation tool, have them walked through the key features.

 

  • In-app Instructions – Provide detailed instructions to users, either from the outset of a task or later in-process.

 

  • Document Help Text – Whenever possible, use help “balloons” unobtrusively integrated to help users learn more about features.
 

Feedback & Continuous Improvement

Curveballs – You may get lucky, but it’s highly unlikely that everything will go perfectly in the first instance. Usually there will be something that wasn’t anticipated. Some fringe case that wasn’t anticipated but actually may prove worth including. Be patient, listen to your team, and make the changes as you need.


Being 100% programming free, Legito makes it easy to adjust and update its automations. 

Communicate with your early adopters (probably the users from the initial use case) and make sure the solution meets most of their needs. Maintain this constant two-way feedback, and when these users are satisfied, they may very well become product ambassadors and will be less critical of the solution, helping to engage other users to fully adopt the new automation solution.

Measurements

Take the estimations determined from your original ROI calculations and compare inputs and results from your pre-automation state with metrics captured after the implementation of your chosen solution. Use this real data to calculate your real ROI and see how much you’ve saved through automation.

Legito’s Analytics features may be useful for additional quantitative measures to your assessment.

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