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From developing user-friendly legal tools for colleagues across the business, to facilitating an initiative to support Ukrainian refugees, these case studies of the most innovative legal teams highlight examples of lawyers’ work in the following areas:
People management
Operational efficiency
Risk management
Commercial and strategic partners
Sustainable and responsible business
Digital innovation
Researched, compiled and ranked by RSGI. ‘Winner’ indicates the organisation won an FT Innovative Lawyers 2022 award.
Originality: 9 Leadership: 8 Impact: 8 — Total 25
The French video game company’s legal team sets out to deploy resources flexibly so that it can align its professionals with the product development teams. The legal team includes product designers, user interface experts and software developers, along with lawyers, to help ensure that it can develop user-friendly legal tools for the business. The team designed a legal “front door” that allows the business to access legal services, many of which — such as the drafting of non-disclosure agreements and release forms — have been fully automated. Suitably, the team have introduced gamification techniques for training all Ubisoft staff on legal topics, such as data privacy.
Bayer
O: 8 L: 8 I: 8 — Total 24
Employees can learn more about a company by spending time in other departments, so the legal team at the Germany-based pharmaceuticals and biotechnology business runs a virtual secondment programme that is open to all employees. Anyone can gain legal department experience, while legal team members benefit from others’ skills in IT, finance and more. The virtual programme is easier to administer than physical secondments and is being rolled out to other departments.
Diageo
O: 8 L: 8 I: 6 — Total 22
Tom Shropshire, general counsel at the multinational drinks company, has created four “centres of excellence” in the legal team to align with the strategy of the business. The core legal function has been organised according to business topics, such as brands or innovation, rather than legal practice areas. The legal department’s development programme builds on four principles: leading; enabling; accelerating; and protecting. Each focuses on behaviours, such as relationship building or intelligent risk taking, which are honed through training sessions.
Anheuser-Busch InBev
O: 6 L: 7 I: 8 — Total 21
The digital ethics team at global drinks company AB InBev uses gamification to make training in data privacy and cyber security more memorable for the company’s staff. So far, 6,500 staff have been trained via the scheme, in which techniques include real-life scenarios and role-playing. Training is delivered via a digital platform, which allows the team to track completion and gather feedback. Some 95 per cent of senior leadership and all employees have taken the course.
Government Legal Department (UK)
O: 6 L: 8 I: 7 — Total 21
The UK government’s legal department introduced a programme to improve the skills of its 2,000-plus lawyers. For example: participants in an annual hackathon called Innovation Challenge develop ideas to improve efficiency; the department also has an innovation manager who ensures money for improving operations is spent wisely; and an upskilling programme recently involved lawyers going on a course to learn more about artificial intelligence and its public law implications.
Laing O’Rourke
O: 7 L: 7 I: 7 — Total 21
Madeleina Loughrey-Grant, group director of legal at Laing O’Rourke, the UK construction company, is encouraging staff to think more strategically and to feel more engaged. Senior team members were trained on working collaboratively and increasing efficiency. New job roles were created to align with the structure of the business rather than legal practice areas.
Coca-Cola HBC
O: 6 L: 7 I: 6 — Total 19
The bottling company’s legal team led the establishment of “cross-practice groups”, which are networks that bridge legal teams across various countries and Coca-Cola companies. The groups provide opportunities to share knowledge on topics such as legal operations, engage with a broad network of peers, and have helped lawyers from Coca-Cola HBC to develop their careers across other departments.
Originality: 7 Leadership: 9 Impact: 9 — Total 25
The outside counsel management team at UBS overhauled the bank’s approach to buying legal services to gain greater oversight and control. The changes led to an estimated 15-20 per cent saving on costs. A concierge service handles case admin while a “smart framework” helps to decide whether to engage legal advisers. Persuit, a specialist IT platform, helps law firms bid for work and gathers data to assess their performance. The team has a database of historical law firm rates and an AI tool to estimate future fees.
Britvic
O: 7 L: 8 I: 8 — Total 23
At drinks company Britvic, the legal team found it was losing significant value each year, because manual processes meant lawyers were failing to catch lapsed counterparty obligations, such as payments and late fees. So the team worked with procurement and IT colleagues to develop automated systems for contract drafting and approval, with technology-friendly contract templates. The legal team expects the moves will save up to £12mn over the next few years.
Iberdrola
O: 7 L: 8 I: 6 — Total 21
The Spanish utility company’s new operations unit has modernised the legal department, making it a leader in Spain’s utilities sector. Contract management and spending on outside counsel have been automated and the legal operations team has experimented with the use of new technologies — such as blockchain — for signing documents.
The team has also developed ways to measure the legal department’s performance. A new knowledge management team has implemented learning programmes centred on leadership and agile working.
Commended
Eon UK
O: 6 L: 6 I: 6 — Total 18
The legal team used its existing tech to develop a new way to triage legal work, which has standardised how anyone in the business requests legal support. The team uses Microsoft Planner to assign work and oversee priorities, providing a simple, easy way to view the workload. A new matter management tool has centralised interactions and document sharing with the business and external counsel.
Scotia Gas Networks
O: 6 L: 6 I: 6 — Total 18
Processes across the legal department at the UK gas distribution company have been divided into different areas of work.
The legal tech platform HighQ automates lower value work, such as the drafting of non-disclosure agreements using templates, while assigning medium level work to lawyers, with the rest being sent via HighQ to outside counsel. Automatic triage of legal queries from the business has speeded up the department’s response time. Using HighQ as a matter management tool allows the general counsel to oversee and reassign workloads easily.
Originality: 8 Leadership: 9 Impact: 8 — Total 25
The digital ethics team, which is responsible for compliance at the global drinks company, has developed a platform called Lighthouse to analyse the risks associated with data processing. Issues such as the quality of an asset’s underlying code can raise concerns over cyber security or data privacy.
The Lighthouse dashboard uses a risk matrix to calculate whether the risk from a digital asset in different regions and business areas is high, medium or low.
The platform shows which regions need more resources to mitigate risk, and where greater adoption of Lighthouse is needed.
Carlyle
O: 8 L: 8 I: 8 — Total 24
When sanctions were imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, the global legal team for investments at the private equity group had to assess possible knock-on effects on the 360-plus companies in its portfolio.
Fortunately, the team was already working on a platform that brought together data regarding Ukraine, Russia and Belarus — such as deal due diligence and antitrust responses — and mapped out any potentially risky exposures.
It automatically monitored possible disruptions in the region, which helped Carlyle lawyers co-ordinate mitigation strategies ranging from heightened cyber security to external communications. The risk exposure of Carlyle and its investments was ultimately found to be limited.
The legal team’s platform became a central information hub that was used by the entire organisation.
Bayer
O: 7 L: 8 I: 8 — Total 23
The legal team worked with colleagues in compliance, data privacy, IT and procurement on a new risk assessment platform for the 100,000-plus external parties with which the pharmaceuticals company does business.
The tool combines due diligence assessments from all these departments and systematically requests data from suppliers. It also links to third-party databases that flag up any company on sanctions lists or receive adverse media coverage.
Assessments are now faster, more thorough and easier to oversee.
Colt Technology Services
O: 7 L: 6 I: 7 — Total 20
Colt was the first telecoms company globally to implement “binding corporate rules” approved by the European Data Protection Board — a move that ensures a high standard of protection. The legal department helped Colt achieve the certification.
The policies implemented had to be embedded in the business, which required cross-company working to change core processes.
Fujitsu
O: 7 L: 7 I: 6 — Total 20
A new tool launched by the legal team uses statistical modelling to analyse the risk of potential deals and provides useful information for negotiations and helping the IT business decide on strategy. It has generated more than 300 reports providing initial insights and extending the legal team’s market data.
The team also uses dashboards to track workflows and performance across the legal department.
Originality: 7 Leadership: 8 Impact: 8 — Total 23
Lawyers helped develop Aviva Zero, a programme that matches customers’ use of petrol and diesel cars with carbon offsetting projects — enabling the insurer to advertise “carbon-neutral insurance”. They worked on calculating motorists’ emissions based on annual mileage and matching them with contributions towards buying carbon credits. By working closely with the rest of the business, the lawyers helped Aviva launch the product after four months of development, in February 2022. They also made improvements based on customer feedback.
Anheuser-Busch InBev
O: 8 L: 7 I: 6 — Total 21
The digital ethics team at drinks company AB InBev developed a “fairness toolkit” to assess risk in new technology projects where the regulatory implications are unpredictable. The toolkit is based on core values decided by the team. It then draws on consumer surveys and the team’s knowledge of best practice to anticipate compliance risks, such as data or diversity considerations, even if they are not yet solid legal risks.
Diageo
O: 7 L: 8 I: 6 — Total 21
The legal team at Diageo, the distiller, sees its mission as “clearing the path” for the business, with lawyers providing clarity when regulatory regimes are ambiguous. One example was the lawyers’ work with the innovation team on the launch of a new alcohol-free spirit. They talked with the European Commission about the best way to market the product responsibly, taking into account its trace alcohol content. This work has set a standard not just for Diageo but for the broader industry.
Vodafone
O: 7 L: 7 I: 7 — Total 21
Lawyers helped to create a digital process to replace manual contract negotiation with the UK telecoms group’s smaller-company customers. They looked at how they could separate product lines to let clients choose which services they want via a user-friendly online interface. The automated process works out the best deal for the customer and builds a bespoke contract using a rules-based algorithm that draws on precedent. The time taken to contract has been cut from about four days to one hour.
European Investment Fund
O: 6 L: 7 I: 7 — Total 20
The European Investment Fund, a subsidiary of the European Investment Bank, has created a “venture centre of excellence” to channel more funding into life sciences, especially those that support recovery from the Covid pandemic. The system uses an artificial intelligence tool to process new investments. The legal team resolved complex questions about data privacy and intellectual property for ideas developed on the platform. They also helped collaboration between a wide range of parties.
International Fund for Agricultural Development
O: 6 L: 6 I: 7 — Total 19
The legal team helped the fund to secure a credit rating, making it the only UN entity to have a credit rating — apart from the World Bank.
The fund can now use its rating to borrow at lower costs and lend directly to the private sector, increasing the ways it can provide funding to farmers.
Originality: 8 Leadership: 8 Impact: 8 — Total 24
When Airbnb.org, the not-for-profit arm of the home-sharing platform, pledged to accommodate 100,000 Ukrainian refugees internationally, Airbnb’s legal team helped facilitate the initiative. The lawyers designed legal protections for hosts and guests and used their network of law firms to connect with non-governmental organisations that could provide vetting. The legal team realised they could not expand fast enough if relying solely on NGOs and so implemented faster processes, such as self-verification. Some 48,000 Airbnb hosts offered temporary accommodation, which enabled the business to achieve its goal.
Vodafone
O: 7 L: 8 I: 8 — Total 23
The UK telecoms company is giving free internet connections to 1mn people in 2022. Vodafone’s legal team led the initiative, working with charities that seek to end digital exclusion. Lawyers designed bespoke contractual agreements so that connections could be set up as quickly as possible, and the company had made 500,000 by July. The lawyers also helped to provide 200,000 free Sim cards to Ukrainian refugees.
NatWest
O: 6 L: 8 I: 8 — Total 22
Lawyers at NatWest, the UK banking group, have made its legal documents more accessible. Terms and conditions are now shorter and easier to read, as well as gender-neutral and easier for dyslexic readers to navigate. The lawyers also worked with the Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative legal initiative, on introducing requirements into its supplier agreements around energy use — the first UK bank to do so.
Laing O’Rourke
O: 6 L: 9 I: 6 — Total 21
Keen to tackle both the construction sector’s harmful impact on the environment and its lack of employee diversity, the legal team at the UK-based building and engineering group drove the introduction of a sustainability policy, which won approval from the board. This policy includes goals to achieve operational net zero carbon emissions by 2030 and total net zero by 2050. The business is also aiming for a 50/50 gender balance among global staff by 2033.
Colt Technology Services
O: 6 L: 7 I: 6 — Total 19
The legal department has helped the company in its strategy to cut its carbon emissions, including work on the procurement process for making three-quarters of transportation electric by 2030. The lawyers set up an environmental, social and governmental criteria team to help create a Q&A and a “sustainability bot”, to inform customers about Colt’s ESG strategy.
Diageo
O: 6 L: 7 I: 6 — Total 19
The legal team has facilitated projects to help the drinks business improve its corporate social responsibility efforts. These include the promotion of Diageo’s ESG credentials in a way that avoids accusations of greenwashing and the creation of sustainable packaging.
European Investment Fund
O: 6 L: 7 I: 6 — Total 19
The UN agency’s lawyers helped Médicins du Monde, a French non-governmental organisation, to design a pioneering social-impact investor product. Its payout is linked to goals being met, such as whether the NGO has cut reconviction rates among offenders through its work in communities.
Coca-Cola HBC
O: 6 L: 6 I: 6 — Total 18
Several sustainability initiatives have been handled by the legal team. These include gaining EU approval for a new type of recycled packaging, introducing contract terms that require suppliers to have external sustainability assessments, and negotiating the contracts for a programme to fund postgraduate research on recycling.
Originality: 8 Leadership: 8 Impact: 8 — Total 24
Since April 2021, the legal department’s digital services team has taken significant steps to increase efficiency at the Japan-based IT specialist, starting in Europe. For example, it has standardised more documentation to enable automation. In addition, the team has automated more than 1,500 workflows using digital platform ServiceNow, with data presented through dashboards. More than half of the day-to-day work has been automated. The team launched an automated chatbot for legal queries from the business that can handle the most common topics. It also established a round-the-clock service desk so that questions needing a human response can be answered promptly.
Bayer
O: 7 L: 8 I: 8 — Total 23
The chemicals group built a system last year that collects legal and compliance data centrally, which is helping the legal team to improve its operations. It now has real-time information on the number and type of requests coming from across the business, how long tasks take, satisfaction with legal services, and more. The team shares progress reports and performance metrics with the business through a user-friendly dashboard.
Coca-Cola HBC
O: 6 L: 6 I: 7 — Total 19
The bottling company’s legal team introduced tools to automate approval processes for marketing materials and the management of the business’s relationships with law firms. It has also introduced contract management software SAP Ariba for the company’s procurement team and developed a separate tool in-house to handle more than 20,000 commercial contracts. The sales team can now access “preapproved” contracts that do not need input from a lawyer.
Vodafone
O: 6 L: 6 I: 6 — Total 18
The telecoms group’s legal team has developed a resource that allows staff across the business to access up-to-date contractual terms that they can offer to customers. This has nearly halved the number of bespoke mobile phone contracts that are issued to business customers requiring a lawyer’s sign-off.
The lawyers have also rolled out a tool that flags any time-sensitive matters — from reminders about forthcoming payments to failure to meet minimum spending levels.
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TORONTO, Sept. 22, 2022 /CNW/ – Cybeats Technologies Inc. (“Cybeats” or the “Company”) is pleased to comment on the memorandum (M-22-18) issued by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget on September 14, 2022 under President Biden’s May 2021 Cybersecurity Executive Order.
The memorandum, intended for the heads of executive departments and agencies, focuses on enhancing the security of the software supply chain through secure software development practices.¹
The memo requires all federal agencies to complete a NIST-approved standardized self-attestation form before using any vendor’s or third-party software, including software renewals and major version changes. It also sets new deadlines for federal agencies with regards to their software inventory processes, communication and attestation processes, as well as organizational training needs. The memo further calls on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the General Services Administration (GSA) to help develop a program plan for a government-wide central repository where software attestations and artifacts can be stored with mechanisms for information protection and sharing among federal agencies.
“By strengthening our software supply chain through secure software development practices, we are building on the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to modernize agency cybersecurity practices, including our federal zero trust strategy, improving our detection and response to threats, and our ability to quickly investigate and recover from cyberattacks,^“2 stated the Federal CISO and Deputy National Cyber Director, Chris DeRusha.
“Following the recent rise of cyber-threats and an increased scrutiny of software supply chains, this memorandum comes at a crucial time for federal agencies and critical infrastructure departments” stated Yoav Raiter, CEO of Cybeats. “Cybeats applauds this memorandum and we will continue to put our efforts towards supporting the development of best practices for software supply chain intelligence and security.”
The full memorandum can be read here:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/M-22-18.pdf
The National Institute of Standards and Technology have released a Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF) on recommendations for mitigating the risk of software vulnerabilities. The SSDF Framework provides a core set of high-level secure software development practices that can be integrated into each SDLC implementation. The Framework highlights that “following these practices should help software producers reduce the number of vulnerabilities in released software, mitigate the potential impact of the exploitation of undetected or unaddressed vulnerabilities, and address the root causes of vulnerabilities to prevent future recurrences, and to foster communications with suppliers in acquisition processes and other management activities.^“3
Cybeats SBOM Studio, already deployed commercially, helps companies to achieve compliance with the NIST SP 800-218 SSDF Framework as well as with U.S. and North American cybersecurity regulation at large.
SBOM Studio provides organizations with the capability to efficiently manage SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) and software vulnerabilities, and provides proactive mitigation of risks to their software supply chain. Key product features include robust software supply chain intelligence, universal SBOM document management and repository, continuous vulnerability, threat insights, precise risk management, software license infringement and utilization and SBOM exchange with regulatory authorities, customers and vendors.
Cybeats is a leading software supply chain intelligence technology provider, helping organizations manage risk, meet compliance and secure software from procurement, development through operation. Our platform provides customers with deep visibility and universal transparency into their software supply chain, as a result enables them to increase operational efficiencies and revenue. Cybeats.
Software Made Certain. Website: www.cybeats.com
Except for statements of historic fact, this news release contains certain “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as “plan”, “expect”, “project”, “intend”, “believe”, “anticipate”, “estimate” and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions “may” or “will” occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE.
There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company’s control. There are no assurances that the commercialization plans for the technology described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management’s estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Under the parent company, Scryb Inc., company filings are available at sedar.com.
______________________________
¹ https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/M-22-18.pdf 
²  https://governmentciomedia.com/white-house-issues-new-memo-secure-supply-chain
³ https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-218/final
SOURCE Cybeats Technologies Inc.
For further information: James Van Staveren, Corporate Development, Phone: 647-244-7229, Email: [email protected]
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Cybeats Announces Partnership with Veracode, an Industry-Leading Application Security Firm
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Next-generation platforms help contractors create efficiencies and manage risk.
Though naturally skeptical of new technologies that too often promise more than they deliver, Turner Construction Chief Innovation Officer James Barrett has reason to be optimistic about AI’s ability to enhance preconstruction tools.
“We see a lot of startups with very bold, ambitious, broad claims,” said Barrett, who helped launch Turner’s’s virtual design and construction team 15 years ago. “But when people show up and say, ‘Look, I’ve got this very specific problem to solve, and I’m using AI for it,’ that’s more credible — far more credible.”
AI Clearing uses drone-based data and advanced analytics to automate infrastructure construction progress reporting.
ALICE Technologies provides an AI-powered construction simulation platform.
Assemble Systems offers cloud-based BIM and data-management services.
B2W Software’s ONE Platform manages estimating, scheduling, field tracking, equipment maintenance, data capture and business intelligence.
Beck Technology offers estimating software DESTINI Estimator.
Bentley Systems produces software for digital construction management.
BuildingConnected automates bidding, qualifies vendors and tracks opportunities.
Corecon Technologies offers cloud-based software for estimating, scheduling and collaboration functionality.
Faro Technologies enables high-precision 3D capture, measurement and analysis.
Join is focused on decision making throughout preconstruction.
Proplanner offers a platform for planning, scheduling and receiving real-time analytics.
SolidWorks offers integrated analysis tools for bidding and visualizing project feasibility in both construction and manufacturing.
Stack provides a centralized hub for plan management, takeoff and estimating.
StratusVue offers a cloud-based platform for project and document management from design through building operation.
Strayos provides aerial data analytics for drilling, blasting and mining.
Togal.AI uses machine learning to analyze blueprints during estimating.
ALICE Technologies, an AI-powered construction simulation platform that enables contractors to set up projects and “build” them virtually with a variety of different inputs before physical construction begins, is one of the tools that meets Barrett’s credibility test.
“We’re talking to them quite a bit because we like that it can also be used during production, as you’re putting your budgets together,” Barrett said. “By bringing that into preconstruction, we can fix problems as we’re planning a project so we avoid having to deal with them during construction.” 
Preconstruction — the initial phase of a project when contractors plan and schedule a job’s entire scope, estimate costs and analyze needs — has always been a crucial part of the construction process. But only recently have technology developers turned their attention to how it can make an entire project run more smoothly. 
Using cloud technology as well as machine learning, AI, drones and 3D modeling, the new generation of preconstruction technologies improves efficiency and saves time by eliminating the need for manual cost estimating and reporting, reducing errors, improving accuracy, mitigating risk and making curated data available for real-time decision-making throughout a project’s life. 
Many contractors have some catching up to do when it comes to preconstruction technology.
“I think a lot of people still use Excel and very homegrown platforms” for preconstruction, said Michael Boren, chief technology officer for Beck Technology, a preconstruction data lifecycle company that recently partnered with Togal.AI, which offers machine-learning takeoff software, to improve the speed and quality of 2D takeoffs while simultaneously building construction estimates. 
“All it takes is for one estimator to accidentally delete a cell in a spreadsheet, and all of a sudden, nothing’s calculating correctly, but you don’t know it,” Boren said. “Technologies like ours maintain data integrity as you pass it off downstream to the jobsite.”
In its quest to be “America’s most skilled builder,” Tempe, Arizona-based Sundt Construction has worked closely with Beck to help create DESTINI Estimator, a one-stop estimating platform that allows contractors to pull reports, execute takeoffs and see cost history on one platform.
“Now, more than ever, we’re chasing more work with the same amount of people,” said Melissa Love, Sundt’s project controls manager. “So, my goal is to make every estimate as efficient as possible.”
Faro Technologies helps contractors in the precon phase bring the real-world environment back to the office so that more eyes can collaborate on it without going to a jobsite, said Kyle Tarr, Faro senior business development manager. The Lake May, Florida-based company offers hardware and software that enables high-precision 3D capture, measurement and analysis of projects and sites. 
“The teams on large construction projects are getting bigger and bigger, so being able to essentially bring that real-world project digitally to everybody is a huge collaborative benefit for the contractor,” he said.
At Turner, Barrett said, the preconstruction process is becoming more and more granular. “Some day, we will plan down to the nuts and bolts — everything — because that’s the opportunity.” 
As he’s watched preconstruction technology take big leaps forward over the past five years, he’s grown more optimistic about the possibilities. 
“It’s easy to just fall into the hype and rattle off names of software,” he said. “But I think over the next five years, we’re going to see transformational change come to the industry because these new technologies are addressing real problems.” 
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Today, local governments face security, document management and remote work challenges. Canon USA has several digital imaging products and systems that address these organizational tests.
Canon USA’s state and local government solutions division provides a portfolio of imaging solutions and software offerings. These include its black-and-white and color multifunction devices as well as production center and large format solutions. The firm is positioned to ensure successful, consistent and secure implementation across each agency.
Canon offers a host of large format printer software programs that ensures each customer has a software product that suits their specific application. For instance, its Direct Print Plus software is a batch-printing setup that enables one to streamline printing large sets of drawings efficiently. It enables governments to insert required accounting fields (i.e. project ID, department code, etc.) so they can effectively track internal print activity within the agency.
“Regardless of what one might be using their Canon large format printer for, a host of free software programs are available to make this as easy and productive as possible,” says Mike Betsko, senior director, integrated marketing (BICG) at Canon U.S.A. Inc.
The firm’s Publisher Select software is a job-submission tool that gives one the ability to view printer features all on one screen, and templates you can create for frequently used job settings. Accounting Manager is a software package that allows one to closely monitor all printing costs, with the ability to enter costs and track all media and ink-related costs overall. Device Management Console allows an administrator to monitor a fleet of devices and maximize uptime of its printers.
On the graphics side, Professional Print & Layout is a software package that enables one to efficiently lay out images intuitively. The system offers preview and color management; all are supported in a seamless photo printing experience. Free Layout Plus allows one to nest, tile and create custom layouts before printing your files and to print directly from Microsoft Office programs. PosterArtist software, now available online, allows a novice user to easily select from many templates, photos, clipart, backgrounds, etc., or import their own, to create posters, banners, calendars and more.
A remote workforce may change requirements in your agency, Betsko tells Co-op Solutions. “With employees working in different locations, capturing, processing and sharing documents might be difficult, unless you have a complete document management workflow.”
He says solutions such as uniFLOW Online can assist in enabling and supporting customers’ digital transformation initiatives and can help improve document workflows while providing cost management and control features.
Canon Office Cloud, a FedRAMP-authorized service, can efficiently manage print infrastructure, gain print activity insights and use security features while printing and scanning. FedRAMP authorization denotes its accreditation by a federal government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization and continuous monitoring for cloud offerings such as Canon Office Cloud. Betsko adds that systems that offer numerous security features as part of a FedRAMP-authorized cloud service may be even more important as hybrid work environments becoming more prevalent.
Betsko tells Co-op Solutions that the pandemic has affected the way governments manage documents. “We saw more scanner purchases during the pandemic, along with many people who work in procurement for state governments working from their homes. Canon’s workflow allows multiple users—from regional offices and headquarters—to collaborate regardless of their work location, either in the office or remotely.”
The Canon organization has strived to continue to grow its support systems during the pandemic, Betsko says. “Our firm has utilized its resources to maintain high levels of support, as evidenced by our staffing levels for our customer service centers.”
Betsko predicts more governments will be adopting his company’s solutions in 2022-23 because of the breadth of Canon USA’s offerings. “As more state and local government (SLG) customers adopt a cloud strategy, looking to reduce IT administration and save costs, Canon Office Cloud (with its existing FedRAMP authorization and security features) will make an attractive choice for cloud-based output and device management.” He adds that Canon’s robust lineup of office and home office equipment and solutions allows SLG customers to provide employees the ability to be productive in a variety of locations.
Betsko sees several trends in local governments’ futures. He says security concerns, document management and remote work will have an impact on local governments down the road. “Regarding security, information and cybersecurity is at the forefront of most SLG agencies. Canon’s imageRUNNER ADVANCE DX series offers a number of standard and optional features that can help address security needs. From user authentication and access to network and data protection, Canon’s A3 and A4 product lineup help administrators integrate multi-function printers and copiers into their security strategy.”
Betsko believes many SLG agencies are looking to adopt (or have already) a cloud strategy. “But with that comes more security issues,” he cautions. “The federal government has mandated a standardized approach to determining security authorizations for cloud service offerings called FedRAMP. State agencies have begun to implement similar security authorizations of their own based on the federal program.”
He says his firm has a noteworthy solution: “Canon Office Cloud, a FedRAMP-authorized service (moderate authorization), offers subscribers centralized control to enhance productivity, help ensure document security, and monitor costs. With an existing FedRAMP authorization, SLG entities can subscribe to the Canon Office Cloud service knowing the federal government’s security validations for the service have already been completed. That can save time and money for agencies.”
Yes, cooperative contracts can provide several pluses, Betsko says. “Local governments, with many employing smaller staffs, can use cooperative contracts to benefit from assistance with the sourcing process and putting together the standards for what should be included in a bid or contract. Using a cooperative can be a boon for governments that do not possess plentiful resources because of the time, money and effort that goes into solicitation in the contracting process. It can cost a lot of money for governments to do their own bids.”
Betsko says his firm is ready and willing to help. “Canon understands these needs and offers a variety of GPO (group purchasing organization) and state-sponsored contracts supporting state and local government customers across all 50 states.”
Betsko cites one additional benefit of cooperative agreements: “Going through a cooperative could also help procure better pricing, as a smaller group might mean fewer customers and less opportunity. Subsequently, local governments using cooperative contracts can often get better pricing that way instead of going out on their own.”
As technology advances, cooperative agreements are keeping pace, says the Canon executive. “Many GPOs are starting to include categories for emerging technologies and are setting up a process in advance where, during an active contract, new technology can be embraced. They may have opportunities to acquire the technology quicker versus a local bid that might not be able to address new technologies until the current contract expires.”
Michael Keating is senior editor for American City & County. Contact him at [email protected].
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Key initiatives are in product development, customer success, flexible pricing options, and a new website
Watch the Synergis Software rebranding video.
Watch the Synergis Software rebranding video.
Synergis Software’s new Adept product logos. (Graphic: Business Wire)

QUAKERTOWN, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Synergis Software, a global leader in engineering document management and workflow solutions, today announced a rebrand and new website in synchrony with major investments in product development and customer success. These initiatives will fast track the company’s delivery of superior products and services to their global customer base.

“We see so much opportunity to have a positive impact on the customers we serve, which is why we’re making major investments in the company,” states Scott Lamond, vice president of marketing at Synergis Software. “We want our brand to align with our mission of transforming the way our customers work— providing greater clarity, control, alignment, and harmony—so they can accelerate engineering projects, streamline operations, reduce risk, and lower costs.” Watch the rebrand video.
The Adept platform is used by 120,000 users worldwide, including Dow Chemical, Con Edison, Amazon, Merck, and General Mills, and is managing over $1B in digital assets.
“Adept manages billions of dollars of digital assets containing priceless Dow intellectual property, with thousands of users across several dozen global sites,” says Teresa Yang, Product Manager, Document Management, Dow Chemical.
Synergis is committed to accelerating the company’s growth and elevating the value delivered to customers with significant investments in their products.
“We’re tripling the size of our software development organization. By the end of 2022, our team will have grown by 218% in just two years,” explains Todd Cummings, vice president of research and development at Synergis. “The added positions include developers, QA staff, product managers, DevOps, SCRUM Masters, and User Experience professionals. Key leaderships roles are in place to help us refine the processes, tools, and methods we use to develop and deliver more value, faster.”
Synergis is investing substantially in the Adept platform, including the upcoming release of a new, integrated visualization solution for 2D and 3D engineering designs and other document types, along with major new feature enhancements and support for new versions of mainstream CAD systems. A new Cloud version of Adept is underway for customers who want to lower their IT costs and simplify deployment and upgrades.
“We’ll continue to build on Synergis Software’s legacy of extraordinary, love-based service and treating customers like family,” adds Lamond. Toward that end, Synergis is expanding its customer success team, developing an online “Adept Academy”, and launching three new services options, including:
Synergis Software’s focus and investments in service and support will help maintain their strong leadership position in the market, as validated in the rankings on the G2 software review site.
“We couldn’t have arrived at this moment without 30 years of thoughtful, collaborative, and visionary support from our customer community and the individuals who have shaped us,” added Lamond. “We’re grateful for their influence as we build our future together.”
About Synergis Software
Synergis Software is a global leader in document management and workflow solutions and is the creator of Synergis Adept software. Adept serves more than 120,000 users across dozens of industries providing fast, centralized access to design and business documents in a secure, collaborative environment. Adept Integrator connects enterprise applications so critical data and business processes can flow seamlessly across the entire IT infrastructure.
Named the customer service leader in the global engineering information management market by Frost & Sullivan and ranked in the Top 5 globally by Helpdesk International for three consecutive years, the company’s commitment to its customers is unwavering.
Founded in 1985, Synergis Technologies, LLC is headquartered in Bucks County, PA and is privately owned and funded. For more information, visit SynergisSoftware.com.
Scott Lamond
Vice President of Marketing
Email: scott.lamond@synergis.com
Phone: 215-302-3006
Synergis Software, creator of Adept engineering document management software, announced a rebrand with major investments to accelerate growth.
Scott Lamond
Vice President of Marketing
Email: scott.lamond@synergis.com
Phone: 215-302-3006

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When talking about cybersecurity, Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) is often considered the least exciting part of business protection. However, its importance can’t be ignored, and this is why.
While cybersecurity focuses on the technical side of protecting systems, networks, devices, and data, GRC is the tool that will help the entire organization understand and communicate how to do it.
What does it mean?
GRC tools like StandardFusion help companies define and implement the best practices, procedures, and governance to ensure everyone understands the risks associated with their actions and how they can affect business security, compliance, and success.
In simple words, GRC is the medium for creating awareness around cybersecurity’s best practices to reduce risks and achieve business goals.
Cybersecurity aims to protect sensitive business data, intellectual property, personal and health information, and other company systems from cyber-attacks and threats. However, this task has become increasingly harder over the past few years.
Why is that?
Well, because of the ever-increasing global connectivity, new hybrid work models, the popularization of cloud services, and the evolution of technology, among others. Although all of these are great from a business perspective, they introduce new risks and challenges.
Here’s the truth:
Cybersecurity has always been a critical part of organizations; however, in today’s technological and interconnected landscape, they can’t exist without it, at least in the long term.
Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) is a business strategy for managing a company’s overall governance, enterprise risk management, and regulatory compliance.
From a cybersecurity standpoint, GRC is a structured approach to aligning IT (people and operations) with business objectives while effectively managing risks and meeting regulatory needs.
In this context, to achieve business objectives and maximize the company’s bottom line, organizations need to follow the best practices and procedures. This is why GRC exists… to mitigate any threat to productivity and the company’s value by creating standards, policies, regulations, and processes.
More importantly, GRC helps build trust in the organization. This trust comes from improved efficiencies, better communication, employees’ confidence to share information, and enhanced business outcomes.
That’s not all.
GRC empowers companies to create a culture of value, giving everyone the education and agency to understand how they can protect the business’s value, reputation and make better decisions.
Organizations must align people, systems, and technologies with business objectives to achieve solid and effective cybersecurity. This means everyone should know and take the proper actions when executing their tasks — it’s all about awareness and knowledge.
Governance, Risk, and Compliance is the best tool to create an integrated system that focuses on achieving objectives while addressing risks and acting with integrity.
GRC is crucial because it supports cybersecurity with vital business activities, such as:
GRC also provides a framework to integrate security and privacy with the organization’s overall goals. Why is this important? Because it allows businesses to make informed decisions regarding data security risks quickly while mitigating the risk of compromising privacy.
The following are some of the vital benefits GRC offers cybersecurity:
Third-party vendor selection: Many organizations will use a third-party scorecard to gather basic information about potential vendors. This information includes: Corporate reputation, financials, network security, history of cyber breaches, geographic location, and more. A robust GRC model would support IT and security teams select and vet potential third-party vendors. More importantly, GRC will support the creation of vendor assessments and mitigation strategies.
Risk mitigation: IT can use GRC to understand the scope of cybersecurity and document the strengths and limitations of the current security program. GRC allows organizations to outline and act on different types of threats, potential damages, mitigation plans, and risk treatments.
Regulatory compliance: GRC is vital in keeping compliance in the loop as new regulations evolve worldwide. Moreover, it brings these evolving changes to the security team’s attention ahead of time, providing time to plan and respond. Overall, GRC will help develop and manage the policies, regulations, and standards to meet the often-updated business and industry regulations.
Audit support: Modern organizations extend their procedures and protocols to provide proof and audit material to their auditors. Ensuring processes and best practices are well documented will show that the house is kept in order. Critical audit material may include: Incident response, cybersecurity awareness training, internal control test results, cybersecurity compliance reviews, and more. GRC helps craft and maintain a single source of truth for compliance that allows everyone to be on the right page.
Data privacy: GRC helps organizations stay on top of the ever-changing landscape of privacy regulations. How? by allowing the IT team to ensure that the appropriate protection, logging, geographic storage, etc. are in place to defend customers’ and employees’ data.
Visibility: GRC’s integrated approach allows companies to get visibility into every aspect of their security compliance programs. This is vital as it enables different units, managers, and personnel to see the big picture and make data-driven and informed decisions.
In summary:
A well-planned GRC program enables organizations to:
Integrating GRC and cybersecurity is imperative for organizations that want to build a long-term, successful security strategy. Aside from faster communication, congruent metrics, collaboration, and decision-making, the integration of GRC and cybersecurity offers other distinct advantages.
An integrated approach minimizes manual input and the potential for human error, reducing costs and giving organizations more time to create more value for the business.
More importantly, a strong integration helps the board to clearly and comprehensively visualize the organization’s security posture. By understanding the cross-functional posture, business directors can tell better security stories to convey trust to customers and empower employees.
To sum up:
GRC and cybersecurity work hand in hand toward a lower-risk future and value creation — they can’t exist without each other. While cybersecurity aims to protect systems, networks, and data (from a technical perspective), GRC communicates the best method and practices to achieve so.
With an integrated approach, organizations will:
The OCEG has developed this Capability Model (Red Book) as an open-source methodology that merges the sub-disciplines of governance, risk, audit, compliance, ethics/culture, and IT into a unified approach.
Organizations can evolve this standard to address specific situations, from small projects to organization-wide rollouts. Some examples are:
The model is key to framing conversations about GRC capabilities with the board, senior executives, and managers. Also, organizations might use this GRC Capability Model with more specific functional frameworks, such as: ISO, COSO, ISACA, IIA, NIST, and others.
The GRC Capability Model encourages organizations to document best practices to:
Now, let’s see how it works.
The Capability Model has four parts:
1. Learn
The main idea here is to identify the business culture, stakeholders, and organization’s business practices to successfully guide their goals, strategy, and objectives.
As a process, it would look like this:
2. Align
This step focuses on unifying strategy with objectives and actions with strategies. The goal here is to have an integrated approach where senior leadership is engaged and supports the process of decision-making.
In simple words, this process needs:
3. Perform
After aligning business goals and objectives, it’s time to perform. This step defines implementing appropriate controls and policies, preventing and remediating undesired risks, and monitoring to detect issues as soon as possible.
4. Review
As a final step, it’s imperative to review the design and operational performance of the current strategy and actions. More importantly, this step encourages organizations to analyze objectives to constantly enhance the integrated GRC activities.
What is the purpose of this model?
To develop a steady and integral improvement process to reach optimal performance and create value for the organization.
Get your free consultation with StandardFusion and learn how you can design an integrated GRC program to strengthen your cybersecurity and protect your organization’s value.
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BURNABY, BC, Sept. 22, 2022 /CNW/ – Clio, the world’s leader in cloud-based legal technology, today announced that G2’s Fall 2022 Grid Report for Legal Practice Management has ranked Clio #1 in Market Presence for the fourteenth consecutive quarter. The report highlights a continuing trend of high customer satisfaction and advocacy amongst users of legal practice management solutions. Clio received the highest scores in market presence and leadership, based on user experiences collected on the review site, and data aggregated from online sources.
“The G2 report reiterates Clio’s market dominance as the world’s leading provider of cloud-based legal software and we are extremely proud of our ranking,” said Jack Newton, CEO and Founder of Clio. “Clio’s success stems from our focus to do right by our customers. We’re focused on simplifying tedious and critical legal workflows so lawyers can have more time to do what they do best—practice law.”
“And we’re growing our technology together with our customers,” continued Jack. “Their input has led directly to our expanded product platform which includes built-in credit card and eCheck payment processing, text messaging, desktop-based document management, and our popular Clio for Clients mobile app. We appreciate the thousands of customers that worked alongside us this past quarter as we continue raising the bar for legaltech innovation.”
Clio was first named category leader in Spring 2018 with the highest combined score among all legal practice management companies. Customers rank Clio high on end-to-end solutions, workflow, mobility, and customer service. In the Fall 2022 ranking, G2 reported:
Recent reviews include validated reviewers and verified current users collected in the last six months:
WATCH: See what Clio’s customers had to say in their recent G2 review of Clio.
“Our approach is truly unique in this industry,” said Jonathan Watson, CTO of Clio. “We are entirely focused on the success of our customers and by extension, their clients’ experience. Clio’s technology helps lawyers run their firms exactly how it suits them along with the support of our world class customer support team. To see Clio lead the G2 Grid further underscores our deep rooted value that customer success comes first.”
Learn more about what real users say about Clio on G2’s LPM software review page.
Clio is transforming the legal experience for all by creating the world’s leading cloud-based technologies for law firms—to keep lawyers and their clients better connected throughout the legal process. Firms of all sizes and practice areas use Clio products—Clio Manage, Clio Grow, and Lawyaw—to manage firm operations, streamline billing and payments, automate legal documents, and improve client experiences. Following its US$250M Series D funding, led by TCV and JMI Equity, and its US$110M Series E investment, led by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and OMERS Growth Equity, Clio has made history by becoming the first legal practice management unicorn in the world. Learn more at clio.com.
SOURCE Clio
For further information: Media Contact: Juliet Mafua, Senior Public Relations Specialist, Clio, 1-800-347-8314, [email protected]
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Clio’s Legal Trends Report uncovers unparalleled revenue growth as law firms grapple work-life dynamics
Reisman Awards Recognize Seven Outstanding Law Firms for Achievements in Business and Community Impact
Clio Reveals Expanded Platform to Power the Law Firm of the Future
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Updated: Oct 6, 2022, 12:37am
Whip Around is a cloud-based Driver Vehicle Inspection Report (DVIR) solution helping those with fleets manage the inspection and maintenance process of the vehicles in the fleet. It’s an Apple- and Android-compatible fleet management software that sends reminders and notifications to managers so that each vehicle meets maintenance schedules while keeping a complete history log with documents stored for easy access.
Whip Around is a DVIR solution founded in 2016 in New Zealand, with offices there and in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s designed to take the excessive paperwork out of managing a fleet of vehicles. It maintains all data on a cloud-based smartphone app and is compatible with both iOS and Android markets.
Once you enter the fleet basics into the system, the app tracks maintenance schedules and manages emergency scenarios. Automatic alerts notify managers, mechanics and drivers of what needs to be done and when. Inspection reports and other documents can be uploaded into the vehicle summary for easy access, keeping all required information in one easy-to-use platform.
Looking at the fleet from a macro perspective, managers are able to use the dashboards to run comprehensive reports to make sure the fleet, as a whole, is on track and in good condition.
There are three tiers of service. The first tier is the Basic or free version, which comes with a seven-day free trial. This tier is good for one vehicle and one driver. It’s a bare-bones version of the app with defect management, DVIR compliance, reminders and document storage. The cheapest paid plan is the Standard, at $5 monthly per vehicle. This adds customized templates and forms, reporting and integrations. The Pro plan is available for $10 per vehicle each month and adds work order management, inventory, preventative maintenance schedules and cost/time tracking.
Whip Around’s goal is to remove the paperwork and spreadsheets needed to manage a fleet. It does this with an intuitive interface that manages inspection, maintenance and driver reporting data. The benefit to a robust fleet management system is a longer vehicle life cycle where vehicles get the maintenance needed regularly and on time.
Managers are also able to see how the fleet is doing, being able to look at the fleet as a whole and make decisions on acquiring new assets. Because tasks can be shared with mechanics, the process becomes automated and easier to manage. Drivers can upload receipts directly into the app to help keep track of expenses incurred by each vehicle in the fleet.
Through two easy steps: complete the form and get matched with suppliers.
While there are no set–up costs to start using Whip Around, users with small fleets need to understand that there is a minimum charge each month. While the price might be $5 to $10 per vehicle per month, you must pay at least $70 per month. That includes $50 towards the fleet and a $20 license fee. The license fee must be paid for all fleets and is an added cost each month.

Whip Around is a comprehensive tool that will benefit fleet managers with five or more vehicles to manage. It provides managers with the necessary schedules and alerts to stay on top of assets’ needs while storing all required receipts and documents in one central location. Managers can take a micro or macro-level view of the fleet, isolating the needs of one vehicle or the entire fleet as a whole.
A Driver Vehicle Inspection Report (DVIR) tool helps fleet managers manage the fleet’s needs. Needs might include mechanical issues, physical damage or maintenance demands. In many cases, the DVIR sends alerts to managers, drivers and mechanics.
Any business that relies on cars, trucks, vans or other vehicles needs fleet management. The management of a fleet requires a business to track everything from maintenance and registration of each vehicle, location, fuel costs, parts (if they handle in-house maintenance) and even management of the drivers of the vehicles.
Fleet management systems ensure that all vehicles in the fleet get the necessary work done to keep them operating optimally. Even a rudimentary fleet management system provides benefits to fleet managers. A DVIR solution automates much of the process, making it easier to manage the fleet.
Automating fleet management can help reduce fuel costs, improve driver safety and minimize vehicle maintenance costs. Additionally, some solutions help to track the fleet in real time and ensure deliveries are delivered on time. Read more about the benefits of fleet management systems.

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