The Challenge: Microsoft was experiencing inefficiencies and frustrations that came with having 17 different outside counsel handling procurement projects, no clear protocol to escalate matters to the legal department, monthly budget variations for outside counsel spend of up to 200%, and a lack of hard data on contract volumes, cycle times, and other operational data. These barriers prevented Microsoft Legal from realizing the full strategic potential of its procurement program. Microsoft launched an RFP process and our firm was selected to help.
The Solution: We designed, built, and managed Microsoft’s global procurement contracting managed service program. We led a cross-functional team of attorneys, technologists, and process engineers to create a system that addressed Legal’s pain points. The system included a centralized intake mechanism that provided a single point of contact for matters around the world, escalation protocols, measurable SLAs to guide the process and provide data for continuous improvement, and playbooks to ensure quality and consistency across matters. Centralized matter intake and escalation protocols helped us to assign the right work to the right resources around the world. We incorporated automated workflows to optimize and operationalize the entire process and accomplished all of this using a monthly fixed-fee model to help Microsoft predict and control costs.
The Results: As a result, we transitioned Microsoft from 17 outside law firms to two and eliminated outside counsel spend variability. The program resulted in a 20% reduction in contract negotiation cycle time for the Microsoft team and freed up bandwidth for in-house counsel to focus on strategic work.