There can be a lot of spinning plates when it comes to deal closing. That’s why many firms choose iManage Closing Folders to simplify their legal transaction management process. But to maximize the benefits of your investment, it’s critical to make a plan to increase user adoption.
Adoption best practices
Any firm that thinks it is the only one that has challenges with adoption can rest assured that this is a widespread struggle, common across different technologies and different sectors. At iManage we are very experienced in helping customers overcome any adoption issues – and are happy to support and nurture our customers through adoption and use maximization.
Here are some strategies we find really help increase usage of Closing Folders in the post-rollout phase.
Find champions. A Closing Folders champion is someone who understands its value and talks about this to others. They might come from anywhere in the organization. The great advantage of champions is that they demonstrate the benefits of Closing Folders in real-world situations. Others see these benefits and want some of the pie for themselves.
Get partner support. The gravitas a partner brings, their experience, knowledge, and understanding, carries great weight. When a partner talks positively about Closing Folders, more junior staff members feel confident about jumping in.
Get people talking. Encourage early adopters to spread the word. For example, use opportunities such as team meetings as a platform for early adopters to give short presentations on the value of Closing Folders so that non-users become interested and want to try it.
Broaden the training offer. Introductory training gets people started, but there should be plenty of other training opportunities. Early adopters can benefit from further training to learn about additional features – which they can then use to refine how they work with Closing Folders. Short, function-specific training sessions can double down on particular workflow elements or tasks and help both existing and potential users. The latter group might be very interested to see the benefits as they relate to very particular parts of their workflow – and this can help drive adoption.
Build Closing Folders into onboarding. When new recruits come on board, take the opportunity to let them know that Closing Folders is available and the benefits it brings. Offer training if they’re not already familiar with Closing Folders.
Seek and learn from feedback. Bring non-adopters together in an informal setting such as a breakfast or lunch session and find out why they’re not using Closing Folders. Perhaps they’ve been put off by the time it took for the first deal or two to get completed. But that’s not unusual: there is a learning curve. Identifying user issues puts you on the road to dealing with them.
Use Closing Folders as a management tool. Senior attorneys can look at how junior lawyers are working so that they can catch errors, offer support, and make suggestions. This allows for active management and is particularly useful in today’s hybrid working environment, where in-office interaction is less frequent than in the past.
By employing these strategies, your users will be adopting Closing Folders in no time.
Dive deeper on adoption
Want to learn more about user adoption strategies? Watch my ConnectLive session about this topic on demand.
About the author
Elizabeth Cavendish