How did Workday apply their philosophy and Workday values to their global legal and legal operations team? Workday’s legal operations team realized that by automating contract data processes, they could save hundreds to thousands of hours of contract search time and improve data search accuracy. By streamlining their contracting processes using AI, this would allow the group to connect the contract data, to locate information more quickly and easily than ever, while surfacing critical business insights. When the legal operations team proposed this to the business, Workday, an employee-first company, immediately agreed and dove into a search for a solution.

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Exploring the benefits of AI for contracts

Workday’s global legal team regularly works with hundreds of thousands of contracts; when they needed to locate specific language, the process of data analysis, extraction, and delivery was typically manual. As an innovative technology company, the organization’s legal leaders knew there had to be a better way–a way they could both improve the employee experience and streamline contract-related reporting.

Workday connected with Evisort to investigate how to improve the contract management processes through AI and automated workflows. Using Workday’s own contracts, Evisort demonstrated how the organization could benefit by significantly reducing the time and expenses associated with manual search outsourcing, while virtually eliminating the chance for human error. “I was amazed at how fast Evisort ingested a large volume of contracts and that we could immediately use the AI platform to search Workday’s contracts data,” said Workday’s Director of Legal Operations.

Using the Evisort platform, the Workday’s legal professionals realized how Evisort could help their teams get time back in their day. Beyond pulling contract data for specific requests, Workday used the AI platform for larger-scale and global projects with multiple search parameters, often connecting that data to platforms, including Salesforce. “We see a lot of value with workflow automation connectivity, especially with third-party integrations,” said Workday’s Director of Legal Operations. “Evisort helps everyone at Workday move faster. We are able to constantly monitor all of our contract information and create data points, so if something arises, we take action. Evisort helps legal operations fully empower Workday’s legal teams.”

Accelerating adoption across the enterprise

As news of Evisort’s capabilities and benefits spread, requests for demos began to roll in from Workday stakeholders from around the organization. Workday’s Director of Legal Operations understood that while the platform is designed for easy use, Workday could benefit from adapting processes around Evisort to best serve their team members. “We shared with the global legal team that Evisort is more than a tool; it is a service that legal operations will provide to the business,” he said. “‘Come to legal operations and we will run your search requests and come for help with data extraction projects as Evisort will get your results faster and be more accurate.’ I wanted workmates to feel comfortable making any request and get the results they want with the support they need.”

With the help of a legal operations program manager, Workday implemented multiple Evisort user levels. For users who wouldn’t require frequent use of the platform, the program manager helps them identify the contract data they need, then builds out a search, and delivers the data. For those comfortable with using the platform, the program manager provides ongoing support.

Finally, Workday implemented “Evisort Champions,” one or two members from each legal team who understand the platform and suggest ways for their respective teams to use Evisort to improve efficiency and results.

“Our team has found that the best results happen when humans use AI to help other humans,”  said Workday’s Legal Operations Program Manager. “Why? The human interaction and the conversation around AI is just as important as the AI itself. You still need a human to understand the request, translate that request to train the AI and then use the results to understand how all the pieces work together.”

“Workday has formed a community around Evisort users,” she added. “We have implemented an Evisort Slack channel that is a one-stop shop where people ask questions, get updated information, collaborate, and learn from others.”

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Realizing a rapid return on investment

Not long after Workday implemented Evisort, multiple uses for the platform began to surface. Beyond the daily time and resource savings realized via AI-powered data searches and automated, integrated workflows, two key instances where Workday was able to realize an immediate and drastic ROI stood out. 

For one project, their legal teams were collaborating on an extensive integration project with a tremendous amount of data. Time was running short and the year-end holidays had begun. Using Evisort, legal operations was able to put together a high volume of information in a couple of hours, a task which would have taken considerably longer if it had to be done manually. 

Another instance involved a massive data search for a foreign-language clause within a corpus of 88,000 contracts. Prior to implementing Evisort, this task would have been outsourced at a significant cost and time expenditure. Evisort helped Workday connect contract data, allowing teams to analyze the documents and find two contracts containing that clause - in less than an hour!!  “At Workday, we always say using Evisort is like finding a needle in a stack of needles,” the legal operations program manager said. “Evisort gives Workday greater visibility into our contracts. We now move faster than we ever could with manual review, and we are able to uncover data that we would never have been able to find without using Evisort’s AI capabilities.”

In addition to these instances, Workday’s Legal Operations Program Manager monitors Evisort’s value to their legal teams by maintaining data on the platform’s quarterly ROI. “I keep track of every time someone asks me for something in Evisort. I will put down the date, whether it's a search or a project, a key idea of what it is, who asks for it, and what team it is for,” she said. “Then I note the time it took to complete and how many contracts we searched through. At the end of every quarter, we say, ‘What was the quarterly cost of Evisort?’ We review the entire platform cost including the document cost, plus the cost for me as a platform administrator and compare that to an averaged and presumed cost for outsourcing. We average around 3,500% ROI when we use Evisort.”

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Achieving peace of mind: the intangible ROI

Beyond the benefits of connected contract data and better bottom-line results, Workday’s investment in Evisort has provided their teams with peace of mind. They now have immediate access to technology that has drastically improved efficiency, delivering hours back in the day allowing the team more time to enjoy other pursuits, which aligns with Workday’s core values. 

“One of my biggest Evisort ‘Aha!’ moments is that we no longer worry about outsourcing for large scale analysis projects anymore. With Evisort, the capabilities are at our fingertips in our own Workday system,” said Workday’s Director of Legal Operations. “The time and money it saves to analyze contracts internally with Evisort is phenomenal!”

“My favorite thing about using Evisort at Workday is that it helps me help my workmates,” the Legal Operations Program Manager said. “Being able to provide search results and data faster than they can imagine is fantastic. Workmates come with a two-week turnaround request and I am able to provide answers within as little as a day. It is gratifying to help my workmates get back more time for their job, more time for other responsibilities and more time for their personal life.”

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