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“As the organization continues its digital transformation and ecosystem strategy, we saw the opportunity to use automation to be smarter about how we’re spending our time, so the legal team can focus more on the strategic issues where we provide the greatest value.”
Woolworths deployed Checkbox’s no-code workflow automation platform so its in-house legal team could develop a service delivery model with online self-service solutions that offer legal advice to stakeholders across Woolworths Group as they need it, and within their existing workflows. Use cases extend to legal matters across the entire Woolworths Group, including Woolworths Supermarkets, BIG W, WooliesX, and the Everyday Market online marketplace.
"It is a living, breathing tool we can scale and adapt easily to ensure we can provide low-cost legal support to the business as retailers. Importantly, it enables us to integrate our tools into the business stakeholders’ own processes so we can meet them where they are, as the saying goes.”
In addition to intake and triage, the legal team has used Checkbox to develop a range of solutions, including:
- A data incident tool to achieve consistency in approach to data incidents reported from anywhere inside the organization and collect better information about them;
- The automation of first drafts of longer agreements such as service agreements;
- Full automation of straightforward documents such as non-disclosure agreements (NDAs);
- Supporting seller onboarding (including agreements) for the new Everyday Market platform; and
- An application to help administer approvals for trading in accordance with the company’s securities trading policy, replacing a previously manual process managed by the company secretarial function.
Checkbox has served as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for many things in the legal team, allowing business clients to view their existing matters and create new ones. “There is not an automated answer to every question, of course. Requests will be triaged to our team wherever appropriate through a legal front door, providing clients with visibility of where their matter is up to, which lawyer is in charge and a home for documents created through the tool, without having to log into different systems or resort to email updates.”
Among the most important Checkbox projects to date is a Data Incident Application which codifies an approach to escalating data incidents that may impact on privacy. The tool requires business users to input specific information, and provides guidance – what steps to take, whether to escalate and to whom - based on their answers.
Checkbox has also fostered opportunities for upskilling within the legal team, with a cohort of lawyers and paralegals undertaking training in Checkbox and helping design and guide the various Checkbox implementations across the Woolworths Group.
“Checkbox has allowed some of the team to develop a whole new skillset, having started using the platform with absolutely no app building experience and having since built out many different types of apps from start to finish.” Langford said. “Checkbox has also enabled the broader team to think differently about how we do things and ensure that rather than replicating an ‘as is’ process, we look at how the process can be streamlined and then automated to save time for everyone.”
Evan Wong, Co-Founder and CEO at Checkbox, said “Woolworths Group is creating a forward-thinking version of legal that is scalable, a better user experience for business clients, and frees lawyers and paralegals to focus on high quality and strategic work. The company’s legal team now has the bandwidth to make a greater impact on Woolworths Group’s vast range of stakeholders by designing new digital tools to deliver advice when it is needed and in a familiar context.”