How multinational companies have accelerated the automation of in-house legal processes to optimize global subsidiary management
Our 2024 research with 300 general counsels (GCs) of multinational companies within the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe found that most plan to set up new global subsidiaries at the same volume in 2024 as they did in 2023. They also acknowledged they faced challenges when putting infrastructure in place quickly to support those new entities.
One of the biggest problems for GCs managing global subsidiaries is that legal processes, such as compliance and reporting, are handled at an entity level, and then rolled up into a global overview. When subsidiaries are partnering with local law firms or other third parties to manage those processes, more and more complexities can emerge.
GCs recognize that legal process automation and digital transformation can help. Our research found that the majority (58%) of respondents will accelerate their digital transformation strategies in the next 18 months, while just 13% are still defining it. This is a marked improvement on the findings of our 2023 report, which found that 41% of respondents were still defining their strategy and just 27% were accelerating their digital transformation.
The acceleration ties into GCs’ strategy for their legal departments. When considering their legal processes relating to areas such as corporate governance and secretary operations, the top three goals for GCs are to upgrade new technology, increase automation, and improve efficiency, the same as those identified in our 2023 report.
How automation is freeing up human resources
By automating repetitive, time-consuming tasks, organizations can significantly improve efficiency, reduce human error, and free up human resources for more strategic tasks. This is important from a cost and productivity point of view. GCs’ teams have well-trained legal professionals in place, and a lot of the governance work that has to be done, such as maintaining records and tracking compliance due dates is relatively basic.
Multinationals run the risk of losing legal team members who are unhappy because they are always focused on basic processes, instead of helping to solve problems for the business.
Looking in more detail at where GCs believe they have introduced the most automation, it’s clear that billing and invoicing score highly, with three fifths reporting that between 75% and 100% of those processes are now automated.
Almost six-in-10 (59%) of GCs believe that entity management processes are between 75% and 100% automated. Processes at an earlier stage of automation include vendor management and contracting.
While it’s positive news that GCs report accelerated digitalization, technology is never a one-size fits all solution and will not solve organization problems overnight. Where it can help is to bring order to siloed, local systems and processes.
How CSC can help
One way to take more control of acquired or existing entities and their legal responsibilities is to migrate from a decentralized operating model to a centralized model, with a single version of data and standard reporting.
This is easier to achieve with a tried and tested technology platform from a corporate services provider that can be rolled out much faster and more effectively than if multinationals try to do it themselves.
CSC’s Global Subsidiary Management solution harnesses the power of CSC Entity ManagementSM, our market-leading technology platform to support centralization and the complete oversight of critical legal entity data—reducing uncertainty and risk. Our technology combines with a centralized service model that allows us to deliver our Global Subsidiary Management solutions in 140 jurisdictions around the world.
Another benefit to multinationals is that we employ a team of experts whose role is to stay on top of changing legislation and regulation in every region. GCs’ teams don’t need to spend valuable time trawling through new advice or publications, and can rely on the fact that our team will help them navigate regulatory complexities and stay abreast of any changing jurisdiction requirements.
Above all, the right entity management software solution supports secure collaboration and establishes a single source of truth for legal entity information, bringing peace of mind to GCs.
Interested in finding out more? Download and read our latest General Counsel Global Barometer 2024 report.
