Canadian Lawyer InHouse

35 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE SEPTEMBER 2017 and allowed a direct feed of information from the litigation tool into the risk tool without any manual intervention," says Waechter. Considered a "highly complex integra - tion," the benefits of the process improve- ment are considered significant. The result has been more efficient and timely report- ing of legal risk events to risk — continuous, real-time, information flow to risk ensures that the most current and timely informa- tion about risk events is being used. Prior to the automation project, a significant amount of lawyer and paralegal time was spent preparing and reviewing monthly spreadsheets and then directing and responding to questions from risk. Similarly, when risk received the monthly spreadsheet, considerable time was spent transferring data from the spreadsheet to the risk system. The automation has reduced the internal resources required to deliver risk event data to the risk group, as well as greatly reduced the churn that previously followed the delivery of data. "Basically, we're reporting our loss events in real time to risk instead of a time delay of more than a month," says Waechter. "We've found between the two groups of legal and risk we've eliminated 276 hours of person time per year, and in the legal group alone we have 50 per cent fewer steps to take to do this reporting every month, and we found our email traffic has gone down by 50 per cent be - tween the two groups each month. So we're thrilled the systems are doing what they are best at and we are doing what we're best at." Now, the data offers greater transparency to risk about the legal risks in the bank's lines of business, improves risk's reporting to management and furthers BMO's ability to provide accurate and timely reporting to regulators. There is also a lower risk of human er - ror because of the increased accuracy of risk events as a result of safeguards built into the legal group and risk operating systems. Additionally, the safeguards either pro - hibit inconsistent information about risk events, ensuring the accuracy of the en- terprise's risk events, or will flag items that appear to be inconsistent so they can be re- solved immediately. Keeping risk event data in the legal group's system allows them to analyze the data differently and identify trends, which further enhances the systems risk manage - ment capabilities. This innovation provides the legal group with better data analytics to enhance risk management discussions with its stakeholders. In addition, better analytics are now available to the Legal Group for assessing both short- and long-term trends. IH Montreal Los Angeles Paris Enterprise Legal Technology™ LEADING SOFTWARE FOR IN-HOUSE COUNSEL Discover our scalable, secured, and modular software suite at legal-suite.com LS Canada Inc. www.legal-suite.com 1,000+ projects 550+ clients 40,000+ users Untitled-4 1 2017-08-17 1:57 PM Basically, we're reporting our loss events in real time to risk instead of a time delay of more than a month.

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