Understand What You Are Outsourcing
There is no faster way to fail in outsourcing than to expect the service provider to take on processes that internally the client team cannot understand or explain. It is critical for the client team to spend a significant amount of time learning their own process.
This step is something that does not come naturally to attorneys because we are used to doing what lands on our plates. We receive a problem to solve or a
Fig. 6 Transition timeline
contract to review, and we jump in. There is no time taken to review how to get to the end results. In order to outsource effectively, the current process must be clearly documented in some details. Specifically, pay attention to the “special” cases that arise, and unique scenarios that are outliers, but should be noted for full transparency.
Once the current state is defined, that is the perfect time to identify inefficiencies and process gaps. There is no reason for the processes to stay the same in preparation for outsourcing. Make as many easy changes as possible at this point. Revise the process maps to reflect a better process than the one that you started with. There will be ample opportunities to refine it once the service provider is engaged, but for now it is important to have as clean of a process as possible in order to share it during the RFP engagement with potential suitors.
Uncommon to the practice of law are process maps. This exercise may require the help of a Six Sigma or other process expert. Many project managers have this skill-set, and there are automated tools that can help as well. Documenting a process in prose, using Word, would be very natural to an attorney because we live in Word documents and paragraphs, but real process efficiencies are best analyzed in a visual representation that depicts the various players involved and the key steps taken in each role.
Figure 7 depicts 7 stages on the NDA process touched by 6 different roles. It demonstrates the complexity that can become apparent when breaking down what
Fig. 7 Sample workflow
otherwise would appear to be a fairly simple process of creating and executing an NDA. Needless to say the process was simplified tremendously!
6.2