Given the tough fundraising environment and immense competition in the private markets, firms are striving to be faster, more efficient, and more reliable than their competitors. They’re streamlining and automating back- and middle-office workflows to enable faster insights and decision-making. During this transformation, investment firms are specifically looking to automate routine legal document processing.
Below, we explore the benefits of automating routine legal document processing and how to get started with a purpose-built, AI-powered solution.
What is legal document processing?
Legal document processing refers to the handling, review, organization, and management of legal documents. It encompasses a wide range of activities for managing high-volume legal documents, such as intake, review, redlining, negotiation, data extraction, storage, and monitoring compliance.
Ontra’s legal document processing for repetitive agreements turns static documents into actionable intelligence for investment firms. AI with human review transforms contracts into searchable data in a centralized repository, giving you easy access to their precedent agreements and current obligations.
How can I automate routine legal document processing?
Define your goals and use cases
Before adopting legal document processing, determine your firm’s needs, goals, and specific use cases. For example, many private markets firms begin by processing their NDAs with an AI-powered solution. Once the firms have successfully adopted a new technology solution and processes, they expand their use case to other document types.
Identify repetitive agreements
Your high-volume, repetitive contracts are likely ripe for AI-powered legal document processing:
- Buy and sell-side NDAs
- Vendor agreements
- Reliance letters
- Non-reliance letters
- Engagement letters
Choose document processing software
Once you’ve pinned down your most pressing need and first use case, review document processing software. The right AI solution is key to automating document processing tasks.
Look for a software solution that:
- Is purpose-built for the private markets.
- Automates specific contract workflows, such as redlining, alerts, or signatures.
- Utilizes AI to streamline or automate parts of the contract lifecycle.
- Offers access controls to support data security and confidentiality.
- Provides a record of document revisions and versions.
The best legal document processing solution for investment firms will specifically address your industry agreements, workflows, and risks.
Ontra’s Contract Automation and Accord solutions provide fast, consistent AI-powered negotiations. Contract Automation is an AI-powered, human-in-the-loop negotiation solution. Leverage Ontra’s global Legal Network to quickly turn around and finalize your agreements based on your digital playbooks and precedent agreements.
Accord is AI-powered contract negotiation software that helps in-house teams move faster with fewer resources. By leveraging our AI solution, your team can centralize and digitize your agreements, speed up redlining, and move deals along faster.
Both are part of Ontra’s suite of solutions purpose-built for private markets. Reach out to Ontra to learn more about our AI-powered legal document processing solution.
Onboard the software solution
Best practices for onboarding a legal document processing solution include:
- Establishing a playbook for your contract type to set preferred and fallback terms and determine when to escalate concerns.
- Gathering precedent agreements to digitize and store within the software.
- Clearly defining and publicizing new internal workflows.
- Storing newly completed documents in the centralized solution.
Once you’ve onboarded the solution and your team has fully adopted your new workflows, create new contract playbooks for additional document types. By scaling your use of the solution and AI, you can further streamline and automate contract workflows to save time.
The benefits of automating legal document processing
By automating how you process routine legal agreements, your firm can benefit from:
- Faster negotiations: AI-enabled data insights and workflow tools help move contracts forward faster, and Ontra Legal Network members can turn around redlines in as few as four hours.
- More consistent terms: Digital playbooks and historical contract information can standardize negotiation approaches and enhance outcomes.
- Increased transparency: Never question where a contract stands with insights into negotiation statuses and benefit from structured contract data and reporting features.
- Lower costs: Finalize agreements with fewer internal resources, less external spending, and predictable fees.
Talk with Ontra about document processing for your investment firm
If you’re ready to spend less time on repetitive agreements and manual tasks, schedule a custom demo with Ontra. The private markets move fast, and you need to move faster. You benefit from NDAs finalized ASAP, deals signed, and data at your fingertips. Our AI-powered platform for private markets helps you streamline document processing, accelerate workflows, and boost efficiency to gain a competitive edge.
