How it Started:

Open’s small team, responsible for everything legal at a rapidly growing fintech company, was overworked and overwhelmed. With 1000+ contracts to create and manage annually, they were playing catch-up, sacrificing strategic planning for never-ending paperwork.

Here’s how they transformed their team operations with SpotDraft:

Watch what our partners at Open have to say:
‍

Open's Challenges:

‍₀₁ Scattered and fragmented contracts:

“It was a real headache, constantly searching for contracts all over the place. It’s not just about tracking down a document; it’s the risk of losing something important in all the mess.”

Open's contracts were scattered across different platforms like Gmail and Google Drive, making it hard to find and manage them. This meant more than just losing time looking for contracts; it also increased the risk of losing important documents. Plus, without a centralized system, it was difficult to get a complete picture of all their contracts.

‍₀₂ Overburdened legal team:

“We were swamped with everyday tasks because everything was manual. It was like there was no end to it, and it just left us feeling totally overwhelmed."

The organization heavily depends on the legal team for each and every contract-related question. This stemmed from lack of automation and a self-service system for people to find answers themselves.

For example: the finance team had to reach out to the legal team in every instance where a vendor had to be paid, to better understand the payment terms. As a result, the legal team became overburdened and was becoming a bottleneck in business operations.

‍₀₃ Manual contract creation and review:

“We had to deal with thousands of contracts with just a few of us on the team. Manually checking each one was just draining. We were always running behind, hardly finding time for the more important, strategic work.”

With 1000+ contracts to manage annually, reviewing and redlining contracts became a tedious process, since they were doing everything manually.

‍₀₄ Disorganized user access and deadlines:

“Our team wasn’t big, and trying to stay on top of things was a challenge—keeping everyone updated, handling contract access rights, and so on. We really needed something to make this smoother and give us more control.”

Open's legal team struggled to stay organized due to:

• Numerous pending contract reviews.
• The challenge of keeping all stakeholders informed.
• The complexity of managing access rights for everyone.

They needed a tool that could provide better control and streamline their processes.

“SpotDraft is such an interactive platform and it’s customizable to our unique needs. We learned its functionalities pretty quickly and the experience has been wonderful. We are impressed by its repository, and how contracts could be differentiated based on department, type and more.”

Rishab Bothra
In-House Counsel, Open‍

How SpotDraft Helped:

‍₀₁ Creating a single source of truth:

Pre-SpotDraft, contract management was fragmented and chaotic, with contracts scattered across multiple platforms, making retrieval a challenge.

After they switched over to SpotDraft, they experienced a more streamlined approach to contract lifecycle management. They described the tool as a “single source of truth” for the whole organization. Some of the benefits Open experienced were:

• A safe repository for the thousands of contracts they had in the system.
• A way to search and retrieve key terms from contracts with ease.
• A self-service option across teams, especially for non-legal employees, to get answers to their questions.
• A way to improve collaboration between legal and business teams.

The platform increased efficiency and maximized value for the whole organization.

‍₀₂ Making the Tool Work for its Users:

In their search for a solution, Open prioritized feature-rich, affordable, and customizable tools. SpotDraft stood out with its user-friendly interface and adaptability to organizational needs. SpotDraft offered:

SpotDraft helped provide:

• Self-service options for all employees across teams.
• Accessibility for users on-the-go with mobile devices.
• An on-platform Editor that makes reviewing contracts a breeze.
• Customizable dashboards that provide insights into the contracting workflow.
• The ability to execute contracts via a variety of signing options such as e-sign, Aadhar signatures.

This made SpotDraft the ideal choice for Open.

‍₀₃ Onboarding and Implementation Within Two Weeks:

It is always hard to implement a new tool, particularly a CLM solution that requires organization-wide buy-in. If time-to-value is too high, it could become counterproductive and negatively impact the performance of the team.

However, with SpotDraft, the onboarding process was smooth and seamless. Here’s a summary of how the platform was onboarded at OpenFinancial:

• Within 2 weeks, all their contracts were imported into the system.
• All contract key pointers were extracted from legacy contracts.
• Weekly calls were set up to ensure the the team learnt the basics.

In less than a month, the legal team and the whole organization was able to reap the benefits of the platform.

“I joined Open around the same time SpotDraft was being onboarded and I was skeptical because we had 600-700 contracts in place at the time. But the SpotDraft team made it so quick and easy. Within 2-3 weeks all contracts were on the platform along with their key pointers.”

‍Rishab Bothra
In-House Counsel, Open

‍₀₄ Staying on Top of Deadlines:

Open has a lean legal team, dealing with all different types of contracts. This includes buy-side and sell-side contracts. SpotDraft has helped them streamline their contracts, keep up with contracts and stay organized. 

Some of the ways that SpotDraft has facilitated this are by:

• Providing a bird’s eye view of what stage the contracts are in the life cycle.
• Making it easy to see which contracts have an upcoming deadline.

"Our most striking breakthrough with SpotDraft has been how much it helped during our investment rounds. The usually time-consuming legal due diligence process became seamless. We were able to filter and share contracts at the click of a button!"
‍
Arjun David Alexander
VP, Legal, Open

What’s Next for Open:

With a legal team of 4 and an employee base of 600+, with ambitious goals in the upcoming years and months. As the company scales up, the legal team plans to scale up as needed. SpotDraft will play a key role in aiding the expansion. Open has already started its international expansion plans with some countries in the Middle East; they eventually plan to expand their footprint in South East Asia and the rest of the globe.