LEDOX365 enables both in-house counsel and colleagues from the business units to have end-to-end digital processes for contract matters and other legal issues. The customised solution offers functionalities that are difficult to realise with standard contract lifecycle management software and was implemented by Merck’s Legal & Compliance Operations team in collaboration with Join GmbH and Deloitte in less than a year.
Building on a 350-year history of innovation, Merck is pioneering new technologies, not only in its core business areas of Healthcare, Life Science and Performance Materials, but also for its in-house lawyers and colleagues from the business areas. The ‘LEgal DOcument boX’ (LEDOX) takes a new approach to Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) and has been completely customised from standard Microsoft Office 365 components.
“After evaluating other CLM solutions on the market, it was clear that building our own platform would offer many unique benefits, while allowing us to leverage our existing Microsoft enterprise licences and IT infrastructure.” Nina Stoeckel, Head of the Legal & Compliance Operations Team
The CLM component of LEDOX365 covers the entire contract lifecycle from contract initiation and drafting to negotiation processing with external parties, approval and signature workflows for electronic and paper-based signatures, deadline management, reports and data retention requirements. Colleagues from the business departments are supported by fully automated contract drafting functions for standard contracts. Requests for more complex draft contracts are managed through an automated process that also supports the involvement of in-house lawyers. LEDOX365 utilises the full power of MS SharePoint’s collaboration capabilities within Merck and provides secure areas for collaboration with third parties. Additional contract matter management capabilities beyond the capabilities of most standard CLM solutions are an added benefit gained through the customisation of LEDOX365.
“Building a platform on the scale of LEDOX365 is a collaborative effort. I was impressed with how the consultants worked with our team to get this application up and running!”
Thomas Sachsendahl, Business Partner Information Technology
In designing the underlying business processes, Merck relied on a cross-functional team that included legal management consulting experts from Deloitte Legal, process specialists from Deloitte’s Business Process Solutions team and change management experts from Deloitte Consulting. The Deloitte team helped design the future contract processes and the metadata model as a blueprint for the technical implementation based on an assessment of the existing contract management. Before the go-live, Deloitte provided support with user training, change management and communication. Before the design work began, Deloitte also prepared a detailed vendor evaluation tailored to Merck’s needs.
In order to achieve a rapid realisation, Merck chose Join GmbH for the development and implementation of LEDOX365. Join GmbH brought its technical expertise, a deep understanding of business processes and many years of experience in Office 365, SharePoint and document management to the project team. Join not only carried out the technical implementation, but also supported the Merck project team with advice on changes to the business processes. The result is an easy-to-use, flexible yet highly secure environment for contract and other legal matters that Merck will continue to improve and expand over time.
LEDOX has been live since November 2020 and serves approximately 5000 Merck employees including in-house lawyers in 60 countries.
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Core team Merck: Nina Stoeckel and Michael Bergmann, Legal & Compliance Operations Team | Thomas Sachsendahl, Information Technology | Representatives from the legal department and the business units
Core team Deloitte: Klaus Gresbrand, Deloitte Legal | Arne Möller and Yang Yang, Deloitte BPS | Carolin Joseph, Deloitte Consulting
Core team Join: Lars Bendler and Christian Wittrich, management | Arnim Wagner, project manager | Benedikt Finger, development manager
Deloitte provides services in the areas of Audit & Assurance, Risk Advisory, Tax Advisory, Financial Advisory and Consulting for companies and institutions from all sectors of the economy; legal advice is provided in Germany by Deloitte Legal. With a global network of member firms and affiliates in more than 150 countries, Deloitte combines outstanding expertise with first-class services and supports clients in solving their complex business challenges. Making an impact that matters – for more than 334,000 Deloitte employees, this is both a shared mission statement and an individual aspiration.