Plan the Transition
Once you see the light at the end of the tunnel (it is a bright future of the legal department handing off a bunch of work to a capable external service provider), you must be careful not to skip on the transition plan.
Work backwards with the serviceprovider from an agreed-upon go-live date, and focus on the communication to the impacted business owners across the company and the hand-off between the client and the provider. There will be questions thrown back and forth, and both parties have to agree on timing of those exchanges and set SLA's, so that no one holds up the other, especially in the early days after transition.Another critical ingredient for success is a clearly documented governance plan that will guide how the client and service provider will interact on a regular recurring basis. At a minimum the following must be agreed upon: (1) How will success be measured? (2) How will issues be resolved? (3) What is the escalation process back into the legal department to resolve inquiries from the serviceprovider? And (4) How will the process be reviewed for efficiencies and improved upon continuously? There are many more questions to consider, and the service provider will likely suggest some goals for the governance model as well. This is an opportunity to have the service provider share best practices from the industry and learnings from other engagements.
6.5