Harnessing API Integration for Streamlined Corporate Legal Operations

Do you have the impression that your company's data is scattered across several departments and solutions? Do you sometimes find it difficult to get hold of important contract or customer data, because it's hidden in other tools used by different services, such as salesforce or SAP?

Have you ever heard of API integration?

API integration facilitates the seamless transfer of data between various software applications, allowing a broader overview on the company’s data, eliminating the need for manual data entry and reducing the risk of errors. Legal departments can integrate their legal management systems, contract management platforms, and other relevant software applications through APIs, allowing them to access real-time information and gain a holistic view of their legal matters.

Indeed, in-house lawyers face major daily challenges: managing hundreds or even thousands of contracts, ensuring company compliance, monitoring the protection of the company’s data, etc. If, on top of all this workload, the information is difficult to gather, it lengthens workflows, increases the risk of error and harden the tasks for lawyers.

How does API integration work?

API integration refers to the process of connecting different software applications or systems through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to enable seamless communication and data exchange. APIs act as intermediaries, allowing one system to interact with and consume data from another system in a standardised and controlled manner.
API integration involves defining and documenting APIs, implementing authentication and authorisation mechanisms, sending HTTP requests with specific parameters, processing data requests, and generating responses. But your IT service will know how to handle that for you.

Use case of a successful API integration that benefits the legal department

Your company's sales team may be using a CRM solution to track sales opportunities with their prospects. Once a contract is being negotiated, certain information is stored in this CRM. However, this information also must be shared with the legal team, who need to be able to monitor the contracting process and access the information in real time. Let's take a look at how integration between the legal solution used by the legal department and a CRM for salespeople (such as Salesforce, for example) can benefit the legal team:

Integration between a contract management software and Salesforce allows legal departments to generate contracts seamlessly and more quickly. Sales teams will enter relevant opportunities’ data in Salesforce, such as customer information, contract value, duration...
The legal department do need these information for the contract’s drafting. With a proper integration, in-house lawyers can automatically retrieve the information and use them into their contract template. This integration eliminates the need for manual data entry, reduces errors, and accelerates the contract creation process. The contract is created more easily, more quickly and without any risk of error –efficiency unlocked!