In a competitive profession, the pressure is always there to be faster, more collaborative, and responsive right up to deadline. Whether or not your firm has a dedicated Head of Innovation or Chief Technology Officer, you’ve got to know what tech is out there to give you a competitive edge. With more smart software available than ever before, there’s ample opportunity to bring tech-driven agility into your next Corporate Finance and Capital Markets transaction – and simultaneously improve quality and reduce risk.

Which technology is right for you?

Listen to your team, who live the day-to-day operational detail and are engaging with clients. You’ll become aware where your process is ripe for change – where your team is wasting precious time doing repetitive manual tasks during the document draft-to-print lifecycle; tasks that could easily be automated.

When you’re working with companies, accountants, investment bankers and of course your legal colleagues across multiple jurisdictions, who are all involved in your transaction in some way, they’ll benefit greatly from an instant and ongoing insight into the progress of the deal.

And there’s also the ever-prevailing requirement to make changes in your submission documents right up to a regulator deadline. To allow for that you need an agile system, one that can manage the constantly changing UKLA rules, for example, without jeopardising the deal completion.

Lead, don’t follow

As long ago as 2016 the Law Society was highlighting the speed of change in the sector – and yet, while almost three quarters of firms they surveyed agreed innovation is critical to exploit opportunities, more than half said they were likely to wait for others to pioneer new technologies.  (http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/support-services/research-trends/capturing-technological-innovation-report/).

Don’t be the last in line. If you’re still working with multiple versions of Word documents, losing time working on the wrong version, or waiting for a new version to reach you by email, you’re wasting your team’s time.  There is also the danger that with all the various document versions in circulation, you could miss a crucial amendment impacting the accuracy of your financial data.

Smarter working, happier teams

There’s no reason, half an hour before a filing deadline, you shouldn’t be able to make 20 changes to your documents and still deliver on time, because your finished prospectus is a button-click away. All the re-pagination and checklists are reflowed by your software, not by your people. That doesn’t just boost morale, which in itself is worth the investment, but it also eliminates the risk that could be associated with overstretching people before a submission deadline or deal completion.

We helped top law firm Travers Smith bring Scribestar into their listed funds practice and they haven’t had to work through the night on a deal since, because now they don’t need to manually verify content and reflow checklists, or call in changes to printers in the early hours. Smart software doesn’t just take the sweat out of your audit and risk management – it transforms your way of working.

Work more efficiently and profitably

For firms working on capital market transactions, timing is critical and delays costly. Missing a deadline may mean financial information expires and has to be re-audited. Using Scribestar, Travers Smith could gain a day in their timetable; one that they otherwise wouldn’t have had.

The right technology enables you to work more efficiently and profitably. Your clients can enjoy the greater collaboration and transparency they get, being able to work simultaneously on live documents in a bespoke, secure system. And you can rest easy that you’re taking control of your process, and offering clients increased value.