Legal and Tech transform work at Marks and Spencer using Power Apps

Building a true partnership between Legal and Tech 

“In the last few years, there’s been a real move towards business partnering,” states James Overstall, Head of Commercial Legal at Marks and Spencer. “The tech team has taken it upon themselves to business partner the Legal team and so develop that relationship.” 

That initiative was spearheaded by Beata Mosio, a Senior Tech Programme Manager. She explains: “I’m very passionate about the potential that technology has to unlock business opportunities. In order to unlock that potential, we have to be part of the team. We have to make it easy for the users - we could have the best tech in the world but, if our users don’t understand it, they won’t get value from it. So, for me, a critical part was to understand the legal team, its strategy, priorities and processes and align on our roadmap starting from small changes which delivered value.” 

“We started at quite a low level, developing the SharePoint Intranet sites,” explains Sarah Dickson, Deputy General Counsel at Marks and Spencer. “The tech team began coming to us with stats around how many people were using the different pages. That built trust.”

Partnering with Microsoft to understand the art of the possible 

Together, the team began the work to understand the pain points in Legal.  

“We kicked off transformation in Commercial Legal just as COVID hit,” recalls James Overstall. “For a year, meetings were all being done via Microsoft Teams. Even technophobes were forced onto laptops – but perhaps that helped to raise awareness about the potential of digital.” 

Sharon Peters confirms, “We worked closely with Microsoft to understand the art of the possible and to prioritise the pipeline of potential use cases.”  

“It hasn’t just been a tech partnership,” underlines Beata Mosio. “Before we started, we met the Microsoft legal team and that really helped us to see how Microsoft products are used in practices and understand what’s possible.” 

A great ambition to digitalise a team highly reliant on manual processes 

It became clear that the team could introduce technology to automate routine processes and free up the time of legal specialists to concentrate on more value-added work. 

James Blackburn, Principal Architect at Marks and Spencer, states, “Automation is important because the legal team is small, given the size of organisation we are. Crudely, we don’t want relatively expensive people spending their time on administrative tasks. The value-add for them is counsel and advisory into the organisation.” 

“We need to automate so that our relatively small team can do their roles more efficiently,” continues James Blackburn. “A lot of our tools for colleague collaboration are centred around Microsoft 365. Given that, Power Apps is a logical extension to enable us to deliver automation effectively.” 

Power Apps is a natural extension to Microsoft 365 

“It was obvious we should use the Microsoft tools because we’ve already got the product,” agrees Sharon Peters. “It’s not costing us extra to exploit what it can do. It’s so simple and streamlined.”  

Choosing Microsoft Power Apps wasn’t only about cost efficiency. It was also freeing for the tech team, helping to foster a culture of innovation. 

“You don’t need to be afraid to fail because it’s being done on a relatively modest budget,” emphasises James Blackburn. “You can afford to get things wrong and try again.” 

Leaning into Microsoft resources to develop digital skills internally 

James Margetson joined Marks and Spencer as part of the firm’s Graduate Enterprise programme. He spent his first six months in the legal team. As part of this rotation, he worked to help develop the teams internal SharePoint site.  

He recalls, “I upskilled in Microsoft Forms and Microsoft Power Automate with the help of our Microsoft Customer Success manager. I really got the bug for it. I find it really exciting to see how much benefit these automations are having for the business.”  

When it came time to undertake his next rotation, James Margetson was keen to continue this work. He joined the tech team as Associate Product Manager for Legal. 

He says, “I got involved with the SharePoint work and the IP request form. That was really important work. It was really useful because all the data is stored in SharePoint lists. When we demoed it to the business, they loved it. Other areas of the business were contacting me to see how they could do something similar. Because of that feedback, I really got the tech bug.”  

Using Power Apps to transform the non-disclosure agreement process 

As confidence and trust grew, so did ambition. The process of creating NDAs was identified as the first opportunity for automation, with others following.  

“We had outsourced our non-disclosure agreement generator and we paid tens of thousands of pounds each year to a third-party for this service,” explains James Overstall. 

Avoiding this expense became a key objective. To solve the problem, Marks and Spencer created a Power App which would enable internal business partners to self-serve NDA documentation. This would eliminate the need to involve the legal team in individual agreements. 

“The NDA generator takes a huge amount of administrative burden out of the team for what is a straightforward and repetitive task,” says James Blackburn. “We could have gone out and bought sweeps of legal products to support the team, but it was better to exploit what we already had. It was much more cost-effective and better suited to our requirements to build it ourselves using Microsoft Power Apps.” 

Transforming documentation must go hand in hand with self-serve digitalisation 

At same time, the legal team recognised that, for self-service to work effectively, the documentation would need to be as simplified as possible.  

“Part of our transformation had to include the transformation of the documents as well,” explains Sarah Dickson. “The only way the automation works is if you’ve got a good document. In the past, our documents have been very long, turgid and old fashioned. The automation is more efficient if the document is fair and easily understood.” 

Today, the typical Marks and Spencer NDA is much shorter – from nine pages down to two pages. Plus, Marks and Spencer’s NDA documentation has been accredited by the Plain English Society.  The success with NDAs spurred on more opportunities to use automation to drive contract efficiencies - such as a short from goods and services contract and also overhauling the way we onboard our food suppliers, 

Amazing results by digitalising 

NDAs was where Marks and Spencer started identifying the opportunities offered by automation. “Our legal team have a home page on our main Intranet and the non-disclosure builder is accessed from there,” explains James Blackburn. “So there is common way in for most colleagues to contact Legal and to access the automation tools that we built.”  

The NDA automation has saved approximately 30 hours per month of legal time that used to be spent on NDA negotiations.

James Overstall states, “The great news is we don’t get involved in this business process now. The business partners can manage it for themselves using the inhouse tools.” 

Further, the automation has removed the overheads of the third-party system that was in place previously. This alone equates to a saving of more than £100,000 per year.  

After this great start, Marks and Spencer went on to use automation to support on driving further efficiencies in more complex areas - such as supplier onboarding. 

Wider benefits for the business as a result of the automation 

Sustainability has also been enhanced. For example, hard copies now are only exception for the NDA contracts processed. Most suppliers sign the NDA without negotiation. Perhaps the greatest impact, however, has been for the internal colleagues who no longer need to seek legal advice when sending NDAs. Similar benefits also followed from the Tech initiatives used to make other efficiencies in contracting at Marks and Spencer, such as a short from goods and services contract and also overhauling the way we onboard our food suppliers – these have led to huge time savings when onboarding new suppliers as detailed further below, 

“We got a lot of support from Microsoft to make it successful from an engineering standpoint, but from a user standpoint we didn’t need so much support because we’d built it in an intuitive way that plugged into our existing portals. We didn’t need to do end-user training – it was simply ‘good news – here’s an NDA builder to save you all that time you used to spend negotiating with Legal’,” remembers James Blackburn. 

As well as saving time, colleagues can action contracts and supplier agreements much quicker as a result of the streamlined process. This has an impact on the speed at which they can get new product lines into stores, undertake a marketing campaign or drive through sustainability improvements in logistics, for example. 

“Because it is a fair document to start with, a contract process that would have taken weeks to negotiate is now measured in hours,” confirms Sarah Dickson.  

Success created an appetite for further digitalisation 

As previously mentioned, Marks and Spencer saw NDAs as just the beginning of the tech journey. “The NDA generator was a really good news story,” says James Overstall. “Saving the £100,000 or more per year was incredible, actually. It led to an appetite to go and see what else we could do. How could tech support us to strip out further cost from the business – both in terms of time and in terms of what we were paying to external agencies to do things that we could do inhouse?” 

The next opportunity identified was around supplier onboarding. The onboarding process involved reviewing contracts, supplier manuals and other documentation.  

“If a colleague wants to work with a new supplier, they’ll often want to onboard them very quickly. The message we used to hear was that the process takes too long,” continues James Overstall.   

The legal team and the tech team partnered on a review of the onboarding process for the food group. Sarah Dickson says, “When we began the supplier onboarding project, we could see that we could use automation to assist with that process too.”  

Streamlining the new supplier onboarding process for the foods group 

The team used Microsoft Power Platform to develop the automations necessary to streamline the supplier onboarding process. 

James Overstall explains, “It’s moved away from masses of lengthy documents that all needed to be signed. It was very cumbersome. Now it’s all on one platform, so it’s all in one place. We’ve worked with the tech team to see how we can make it really, really easy to sign from a supplier perspective. We’ve got rid of the treacle and made it a lot smoother.” 

Buyers can send out a link via email to the platform. This ensures that the supplier has access to a complete set of documentation – improving consistency. Further, it can be tracked for improved compliance.  

“That’s really helping our food business as well,” says Sarah Dickson.  

The accolade of being shortlisted for Alliance of the Year at the Legal Tech awards 

As a result of this demonstrable success, the collaboration between the tech team and the legal team has been recognised as a candidate for Alliance of the Year by the British Legal Technology Awards.  

“The British Legal Technology Awards are prestigious awards,” says Sharon Peters, “so to be shortlisted is brilliant. But also all the things we’ve enabled the business to do has been brilliant. It feels like we’re a team and that’s really powerful.”  

“Working so closely with the business helps us to be more transformative,” adds Beata Mosio. “We can work together to test and iterate, enabling us to deliver value faster and more effective while reducing the business change and making it much easier for colleagues.”  

James Overstall agrees, “It’s been a real collaboration with Beata and James and we’re very grateful to them. We’ve saved a lot of time and money and become a lot more efficient. Other inhouse tech teams could really learn from what our team has done. Don’t be afraid to get out of your seat and come and talk to people and say ‘hi, we’re here’ and shake the tree for work. Now that we’ve got that relationship, we want to take our frustrations to them so we can find a solution with them.” 

“We’re proud of what we have done together and how the team has driven it,” agrees Sharon Peters. “And I’m excited about what we can do in the future.” 

Cultural change 

The work – and the award nomination – has highlighted the advantages of Marks and Spencer’s business partnering approach. Sarah Dickson says, “Tech have been a really good business partner to us. We need to be as good a business partner to our other colleagues in the business.” 

The efficiencies have provided the legal team with a great opportunity to do more rewarding and proactive work.  

“It’s about doing the right stuff,” continues Sarah Dickson. “Because we’re a very lean team, freeing up time by using these automations means we can spend more time with our business partners. We can look for ways to help them do their jobs better and more efficiently and set those teams up for success. Now we’re spending less time doing the drudgery, we can be out there being proactive.” 

Data and insights 

One way the legal team is already being more proactive is with understanding and using its data.  

“Our partnership has improved us for the better in lots of ways,” says Sarah Dickson. “Having data has massively moved us forward as well. We’ve never had this level of detail before: which teams are using the contracts? Which teams aren’t using the contracts when they should be? We’re understanding what’s absent as well as what’s there. How often are we using our standard contract? There’s so much more opportunity to develop our services in it.” 

This appetite for data that can inform insights doesn’t stop at the data generated by the Power Apps. Sarah Dickson adds, “We are asking for more data about all sorts of things, including from external suppliers now. We know the power of data now, so we ask for more from it.” 

Working with Microsoft to understand where future tech can help on the roadmap 

The team is keen to squeeze maximum return from the technology investments Marks and Spencer has already made. For example, for a contract summary automation the original design was to use Adobe Sign. During the build, the team switched to Microsoft Power Automate Approvals which better suited the requirements and was more cost-effective. 

“We’ve bought all this brilliant tech. We want to use it and get the value, rather than just keep being sold to,” agrees Sharon Peters. “Our work with Power Apps has been about how to exploit what we’ve got today to get the best value from it. That’s what we’ve done. And that’s what we’ll continue to do going forward.” 

Power Apps will continue to be a big part of future technology choices 

“Power Apps is a natural extension of what we already have,” emphasises James Blackburn, “so the question then becomes ‘why not?’. This project transformed an area that was heavily reliant on manual workload processes, so automation tooling moved them forward significantly. We made a significant difference with a relatively modest investment.” 

“I have really fallen in love with the Microsoft products,” enthuses James Margetson. “They are just so configurable. Microsoft Power Automate really has unlimited capabilities – so I can use my creativity to come up with solutions and good ideas about how we can do things without limits.” 

“Choosing Power Platform has been the right decision so far,” confirms James Blackburn. “We could have used third-party legal tools, but we’d probably be paying back the debt for that cost. Instead, we’ve achieved our automation objectives on a relatively modest budget with Microsoft’s support. Now, it’s a case of exploring more and more. The ROI has been very high because we went from a relatively low base. We need to pick our next targets carefully to build on our successes. We’ve established a way of working. Now we are looking for more activities to automate so we can rinse and repeat.” 

Continuing the successful partnership to deliver more 

“I don’t know how far we can go with this,” admits Sarah Dickson, “but one thing I do know is we won’t do anything without our partners in tech. They will add value to whatever we want to do.” 

“We have regular planning meetings with the tech team now,” confirms James Overstall. “That face-to-face time has been really important.” 

“The collaboration really works because everyone is willing to be flexible, so the work can always be aligned with business priorities,” adds Sarah Dickson.  

“We’ve shown the art of the possible,” enthuses Sharon Peters. “Now, we have to be resourceful and curious. The sense of achievement and positive reinforcement when something goes live is brilliant.” 

Having proven the concept, the appetite for digitalisation is huge 

“Group Services is the boiler house of our business,” continues Sharon Peters. “Technology has to be seamless and taken for granted. It’s brilliant to be able to shine a spotlight on the people doing that work. People don’t automatically associate Marks and Spencer with a technology or a legal-related career path. Yet we offer these amazing career paths and we are always looking for diverse talent. This recognition of our modernisation confirms that Marks and Spencer is a great place to work.” 

James Margetson is excited about what the future holds. He says, “It has really snowballed. I am most proud of our new property documents sign and approval automation. Everyone has said ‘we’ve never seen anything like this before’. This is such a brilliant automation. It’s going to save the business so much time.”  

“When we started this programme, we didn’t know we’d go this far with Microsoft,” admits Beata Mosio. “But each automation has been bigger and more complex.”  

“There’s always a Microsoft tool that can help us to solve every business problem,” agrees James Margetson. “We’ve recently been looking at the metadata in SharePoint and that’s going to be another exciting area for us.” 

Looking to the future with a great alliance 

“We’ve got to understand the business priorities,” emphasises Sharon Peters, “and look to technology to enable us to get there faster.” 

For the legal team, that means looking for further efficiencies. Sarah Dickson explains, “We want to do more self-serve. Colleagues should be able to own their own documents. It isn’t just about cost efficiencies – it’s about speed.”  

“It has been really important for us to demonstrate the value in what the Microsoft tools can deliver. Now as we look at the long-term strategy of the legal department we can make sure we have the technology that is not just right for now but right for the future,” says Beata Mosio. “We’ll be working with Microsoft on what the future will bring for this area.” 

Sharon Peters agrees, “Microsoft’s support in understanding what is coming down the track and the roadmap has also been very helpful.” 

“Digital is now part of the way the legal team think,” she emphasises. “It’s part of their way of working. That, for me, is success. Where there’s a problem there’s instantly ‘how can we solve this digitally?’ and ‘how can we refine it?’. Digital is at the heart of our legal work now. And Marks and Spencer is leading edge in Legal.”