Putting Finnish Legal Tech On The Map
Text: Päivi Tolonen
Customers are satisfied with Finnish products.
CEO of Ment Kaisa Kromhof and CEO of Ilves Solutions Heikki Ilvessalo have published an updated version of the Finnish legal tech map on Thursday, November 10, 2022. The map lists the most important legal tech and legal design players Finland and it is already third version of the map that was first time published in 2018.
In Finland, according to Kaisa, there are even more competitive great legal tech products and international know-how. With the assistance of cloud services legal tech products are available anywhere in the world. Legal tech services are not limited by language either.
For example, Ment has customers as far away as Australia, India and the United States. The legal tech field has grown so much that we decided to make a bigger version of the map with Heikki.
Such maps are also viewed abroad as they easily show legal tech’s key companies and their services, so it is also good to update the map regularly, says Kaisa Kromhof.
Ilves Solutions is also rapidly expanding its cloud services. Ilveshaku “search from one place” and Ilves MyActivities – “what I did today” services are both available in cloud versions, says Heikki Ilvessalo. Although Ilves is focused on legal tech, its services are also available in other industries. The document automation solutions offered by Ment are also suitable for all industries.
Legal tech offers are plentiful at the moment, and it is not easy to put a stamp on one type of technology for a specific service. It may be difficult for the customer to find the right solution for their particular company’s needs. That’s why there was a need to bring the services together. The purpose of the renewed map is to make it easier to buy legal tech and to contribute to the development of the entire industry.
The level of legal tech has risen dramatically in Finland since we held our first legal tech event in 2019. Our main message is: buy Finnish, state Kromhof and Ilvessalo.
The Finnish product has a good price-quality ratio, says legal tech buyer Liina Laiso of Banijay Group’s Finnish production companies
Liina Laiso is responsible for the companies’ legal tech acquisitions. The business of Banijay Finland, Endemol Shine Finland and Jarowskij Finland is TV and film production, so there are plenty of contracts. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all employees have updated versions of the contract templates. The contract automation solution purchased from Ment takes care of that.
Before that, I was often asked, “is this the latest version of the contract?”. Now that problem no longer exists, Laiso states with satisfaction.
The companies also have a contract management tool, which was acquired from Zefort. It greatly facilitates the processing of contracts. I don’t need to have in mind the maker of the contract or the date. It is enough that I remember what type of thing was agreed upon and I can search for the right contract with that search term.
Laiso would like a law firm to develop a data bank on specific issues with the help of legal tech.
We in-house lawyers usually have quite general expertise in legal matters, so we would sometimes need more detailed information about a specific field.
When the company’s legal affairs department decided to buy legal tech services, it initially surveyed both domestic and foreign services. The Finnish solutions seemed to be the best and of the highest quality. The price-quality ratio was also right.
It is easy to communicate with Finns and the training is held in Finnish. The customer service is also excellent: if, for example, we have a problem with the contract template and we send a message about it to Ment, someone will immediately call or have a video conference.
According to Laiso, with the help of legal tech, the routine tasks have decreased considerably.
Now I have more time for the most important thing, i.e. brain work and developing our operations.
The domestic market has interesting new solutions from the customer’s point of view.
Petteri Skaffari works as an IT manager at the law firm DLA Piper. His field also includes the company’s information security and legal tech matters. DLA Piper’s Finnish office employs 70 people, and it belongs to one of the world’s largest law firm chains, which operates in more than 40 countries. The solutions offered by Legal Tech are a natural part of the company’s operations and with their help work is made more meaningful and efficient. At the same time, the customer experience improves.
For example, it is easier to handle large international projects with the help of digital solutions. We also use the electronic information search services offered by legal Tech and have automated routine work. Microsoft solutions and legal tech also enable remote work, which is also popular with us, because with them many services are available over the network.
According to Skaffari, the domestic legal tech market has many new, interesting solutions. He is happy that legal tech companies are investing heavily in the development of services.
A positive surprise for me is, for example, the legal design services. Formatting contracts in a more comprehensible form is an important point for customers. We are also currently thinking in what form we would offer them to customers.
Hoping for more data and analytics
solutions Of course, there is still plenty to develop. According to Skaffari, the domestic legal tech environment is somewhat fragmented. He encourages legal tech operators to network even more with different parties and to offer larger service packages to law firms and in-house legal affairs departments.
I would like more ecosystem thinking; that the services would talk more and more flexibly with each other, so that information would be easily transferred from one service to another. Thus, the customer would not have to integrate the services into a single entity, but could buy it ready-made from legal tech operators. For example, more integrated service packages could be offered through API interfaces, he advises.
There is also room for new legal tech services. Skaffari needs so-called due diligence solutions, which could be used, for example, to review the situation of the company to be bought from different perspectives when doing business deals.
Services related to the risk management of the company’s partner network, such as suppliers and customer companies, would also be useful. This is also related to the so-called ESG responsibility aspect, i.e. how the risks related to responsibility could be better managed in the partner network with the help of digitalization.
According to Skaffari’s experience, there are still very few data and analytics solutions aimed at the legal industry. As an example of a useful solution, he mentions an analysis tool that would look for various risks in the mass of contracts made by companies.
This analytics solution would serve as a good help for contract lifecycle management, i.e. CLM. Thus, we would get better information about the entire contract for their management and decision-making needs.
Although there is still a lot to develop, Skaffari stands solidly behind Finnish legal tech. According to him, its advantages are flexibility, the customer’s good opportunities to influence the development of the service, and excellent local support services.
The importance of data security is growing even more
Petteri Skaffari sees document automation, i.e. the automation of contract creation, as future trends. Robotics will also create new tools that can be used to reduce repetitive work steps. The use of artificial intelligence and machine intelligence will increase.
The importance of data and analytics will grow in all industries. When the company’s operations are better understood with the help of the collected data, services can be offered more effectively to customers through its analysis.
The importance of data security will also grow even more. The legal industry has to think even more about how to offer customers secure solutions in terms of both basic information security and data protection. Data protection legislation has been renewed a lot in the European Union recently and, for example, the legislation related to the transfer of international personal data is important for many companies.
It is certain that technological change will continue to be inevitable.
It frees up people’s time for problem solving and leaves routine, mechanical work to the machine, Skaffari sums up.
