New Legal Tech in Place— What Happens Next?

By Neethu Vijayan

So, finally, your legal team gets the software they've been asking for.

Maybe it's a contract management tool to allow them to start handling agreements faster or a system to keep everything organized and available.

Whatever it is, the deal is done, the software's yours, and now the real work begins.

Getting value out of new software is not about setting it up and letting it run; it's about making it part of the routine of your team.

Here is how you can get it to happen while ensuring your legal team and the business gather the benefits of it.

Know why you bought it

Begin with the big question: why did the team select this software in the first place?

Was it to speed up contract approvals? To avoid bottlenecks? To improve collaboration with other departments?

Whatever the reason, write it down and share it with everyone on board.

It's very easy to lose sight of the goal once you start using the tool, so having a clear "why" helps keep things focused.

Make it easy for everyone

Legal tools work best if they are not designed only for the legal team.

Contracts, for instance, touch almost every department in a business: sales, HR, procurement, and many more.

That is why it is important to get the entire team on board.

If your tool is anything like Dock 365, it's built to do the same thing as tools people use every day already.

Dock 365 is native to Microsoft 365, so it pairs really well with Word, Excel, Outlook, and SharePoint.

Instead of having to learn something completely new, your team can work inside platforms that they are already comfortable using.

This kind of familiarity makes adoption much easier. Nobody's scrambling to figure out a confusing interface or wasting time hunting for a specific document.

Everything's in one place, and it all just works.

Build workflows that stick

The software doesn't do the work for you, just as good as the process is that you build around it.

Take a little time to map out how things flow: from new contract creation all the way to final approval.

Consider these questions:

1.????? Who's going to upload contracts?

2.????? How will people know what needs to be their attention?

3.????? How will changes be tracked?

Having a clear process in place makes the tool a natural part of your team's day rather than an extra task they have to remember.

Measure success

If you want to know if the software is doing its job, then track a few numbers.

Look at how long it takes to finalize a contract now versus before. Check how many contracts are stored in the system versus sitting in someone's email.

Metrics like these will show you where the software is helping and where you might need to get into adjustment.

For example, Dock 365 will be able to indicate how long it takes from a draft to a signature, which may help pinpoint delays and bottlenecks.

Keep checking in

The real starting point is only the beginning, though: over time, the way you use it will evolve. Maybe features you didn't plan for become important, or your team's priorities shift.

Make it a habit to check in every few months. Is the software still solving that original problem for you?

Is there something it could be doing better? Dock 365, for example, provides continuous support and improvements so teams adapt as they grow.

The big picture

This is not to make work easier for lawyers; legal tech does that, but it's to enable the whole business.

When legal teams can do things faster, collaborate better, and mitigate risk more effectively, the ripples are enjoyed across the company.

So, if your legal team has just bought new software, take a little time to set it up for success. Build solid processes, track the right metric, and make sure that the system works for everyone involved.

With the right approach, that investment will be something that really drives results.

While Dock 365 could help smoothen the journey, magic will really happen when people and processes come together.

Ready to take the next step? Let's get to work.