Challenge
Part of the Ceridian Corporation and the UK’s market leader for employer services, Ceridian Centrefile processes in excess of 300 contracts per month. These contracts are generated by a national sales force of 45 people working from multiple locations. Contract values range from £1,000 to over £1 million, incorporate over 500 variables, and are typically up to 30 pages in length. Adoption of HotDocs software means that the sales force can now issue these contracts without the intervention of the in-house legal team.
In the UK alone, Ceridian Centrefile serves around 7% of the national workforce and enables companies to thrive in their core business through its suite of innovative business solutions for Payroll and Human Resources services.
The company first contacted HotDocs in 2003, and was looking for a complete solution to the challenges they faced when issuing contracts to their customers. These challenges were wide ranging. The end users of Ceridian Centrefile’s contract documentation are sales executives, and it was becoming increasing difficult to control the various elements of this process.
Solution
In brief, the challenges that Ceridian faced included reducing risk, contract control, reducing complexity, and increasing efficiency.
Before the introduction of HotDocs software, sales executives would inadvertently use out-of-date contracts, or would choose the wrong contract forms. HotDocs provided a means of avoiding these problems. Deploying HotDocs software also prompted Ceridian Centrefile to review and rationalize the diverse ways in which it was previously pricing and contracting, which dramatically reduced the work of the in-house legal team.
Charles Drayson, Commercial Director at Ceridian Centrefile, said:“It’s an all too common problem for in-house legal teams. Our sales executives were tailoring contracts to suit each client’s differing needs. Great for customer relations, devastating for contract control.”
The HotDocs document automation process takes the form of an intelligent “interview,” allowing no margin for error. The process of template development helped Ceridian Centrefile to flush out previously unnoticed issues, which assisted in risk reduction, compliance, and increased efficiency.
Having HotDocs in place has reaped unexpected benefits for Ceridian Centrefile. Most routine contract enquiries are now handled by a non-lawyer, saving on legal fees. Sales staff have been trained only once on the software, as the interview process contained within HotDocs effectively makes any legal changes self-explanatory – thus decreasing work hours on contract matters.
In addition, there is no need for a “one size fits all” approach to contracting – resulting in contracts that are more closely aligned to the package that each customer has signed up for.
Verdict
“Without the products of [HotDocs], we would still be struggling with contract control. As a direct result of our implementation of HotDocs we have fewer contract issues and a decreased legal budget when measured as a proportion of revenue. We have also freed up the time of our sales executives and increased our legal protection – we have a nil budget for litigation costs. HotDocs has been a sound investment.”
– Charles Drayson, Commercial Director at Ceridian Centrefile