Legallyours welcomes a guest post from Jason Winmill, Partner at Argopoint
Consulting LLC.
Argopoint has designed award-winning, nationally recognized legal sourcing
approaches for leading Fortune 500 companies.
Sophisticated sourcing professionals are introducing
innovative sourcing solutions to their legal departments, and in doing so,
delivering millions of dollars in savings. Successful collaboration between
sourcing and legal can manifest itself in many ways (e.g., exploring
alternative supplier models, introducing alternative fee arrangements, issuing
RFPs, introducing supplier competition through e-auctions). Legal Process
Outsourcing (LPO) is among the beneficiaries of strategic interactions between
sourcing and legal. Introducing an outsider perspective (i.e., sourcing) can
often help drive legal department conversations away from “How can we preserve what we have?” and towards “How can we continue to capitalize on
opportunities in the legal marketplace?”
The media is gradually beginning to pick up
on these successes: a recent article in the Wall Street Journal noted that
several companies (including GlaxoSmithKline, Toyota, Sun Microsystems, and
eBay) are using competitive bidding and e-auctions to purchase legal services.
As with other important services, effectively sourcing legal is a delicate
process with major upside.
“Compared to a few years ago, legal sourcing
is now an area where I see major companies investing. Doing legal sourcing
properly does require a real investment. It’s not a category where you can
watch a few episodes of Law and Order
and fake it,” notes Justin Ergler of GlaxoSmithKline Legal Services
Procurement, a rising star in this emerging field.
Legal services are highly complex, sensitive,
and high-risk; supply management professionals face the difficult challenge of
building credibility in the legal department and moving along a steep learning
curve without losing sight of short-term savings goals. In spite of these
difficulties, savvy sourcing and procurement departments are earning the
appreciation of their legal colleagues and guiding meaningful change in their
legal departments.
Potential Benefits to Including Sourcing in
Legal Projects:
1. Tools
to Facilitate Rigorous Provider Selection: Leading
sourcing departments typically have tools and processes (e.g., RFPs, e-auction
technology) that can simplify the legal sourcing process. When customized
appropriately, these tools can help legal departments obtain greater visibility
into their provider network while collecting decision-grade data from
alternative providers.
2.
Exposure to a Wide Range of
Provider Models: Seasoned sourcing
professionals tend to have experience across a range of categories and service
areas. While not all of these experiences will translate directly to success in
legal, sourcing professionals are often well-positioned to see opportunities
for increased efficiency within legal provider models.
3. Detachment
from Long-Standing Provider Relationships: Sourcing
professionals are typically not burdened by professional or personal
relationships with legal service providers. This outsider status can be
appealing when communicating competitive sourcing initiatives to potential and
existing providers.
-Jason
Winmill, partner at Argopoint
LLC
Read this article to learn more about legal sourcing.
