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In our previous post in this series, we shared a story about Procurement’s skills and knowledge helping a Legal department in unanticipated ways. The success factors in that story are essential to building a productive relationship between the two organizations.
This week, we draw on the story’s lessons and discuss the reverse dynamic when law department practices enable a productive working relationship with Procurement. There are four key areas to consider:
- Enablement: The law department has multiple ways to work productively with procurement. As a foundation, open the lines of communication and create an environment where Procurement can learn about the law department’s needs and priorities. The lesson from the last blog post is understand details of the outside counsel management program better than both law department senior management team and the consultant. In that story, the law department paved the way for a productive relationship with Procurement.
- Expectations Require Access: Law department leadership has high expectations of Procurement. Give it a chance to meet them. Include Procurement in Legal’s senior staff meetings and strategic planning efforts.
- Control the Pace: While last week’s story describes an RFP process, the law department did not always welcome competitive procurement for outside counsel. But as Legal matured, it eventually embraced competitive bidding. For Procurement, there are other opportunities to improve savings, data privacy and security, and contract processes. The Legal leadership team should insist on regular two-way communication to strategize, agree on expectations, and share information.
A Purposeful Relationship: Legal must consider its relationship as strategic, not transactional. In the prior post, part of Procurement’s strategy involved doing its part to mature legal operations. Procurement had intent and purpose. Corporate leadership decided Procurement would have resources to serve Legal. The Legal team took advantage of the resources offered. When a law department is trying to mature its operations, resources are rarely sufficient to move more quickly. Take advantage of resources. Leverage the Procurement relationship to scale your effort and achieve goals.
