At a Glance
Client Industry: Automotive Manufacturing (Škoda Auto)
Core Challenge: Lack of centralized visibility over in-house legal workloads, in particular disputes and litigation matters; lack of transparent communication regarding operational legal spend across projects.
InvestCEE Solution: Implementation of a central legal matter management hub and data analytics framework powered by our LegalTech Toolkit.
Key Outcome: Structured matter tracking, real-time executive reporting dashboards, and actionable data on internal resource allocation and legal costs.
Project Background
InvestCEE LegalTech Consultancy and our vendor partner Xakia assisted Škoda Auto’s legal department in improving legal operations with matter management and data analytics. Škoda Auto needed a legal matter management software that would prompt more targeted and impactful discussions with management regarding their performance and needs as a legal department, in turn leading to more influential internal and external business decisions.
Škoda Auto is one of the world’s oldest car makers, with headquarters in the Czech Republic. The first vehicle left the Škoda Auto factory in Mladá Boleslav in 1905, and millions of others have followed it throughout the company’s more than 120 years of existence. Škoda automobiles are sold in over 100 countries, with global sales reaching 1.25 million units in 2018. Mirroring their company motto “Only the best is good enough for our customers,” Škoda Auto’s Legal Department was in search of a data-driven legal matter management software to help them exemplify the company’s inventive spirit that drives them every day.
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The Challenge: Managing High Volume Work Without Centralized Matter Data
As one of the region’s largest enterprise organizations, the corporate legal department at Škoda Auto handles a continuous volume of complex legal matters, cross-functional projects, and external vendor engagements.
Operating without a dedicated legal matter hub created clear operational friction:
Fragmented Matter Tracking: Information regarding active cases, contracts, and internal advisories was scattered across individual inboxes and local drives.
Limited Resource Visibility: Department leadership lacked a real-time overview of individual counsel workloads, project statuses, and resource distribution.
Complex Spend Analytics: Tracking outside counsel fees and evaluating project costs required time-consuming manual data collection.
The InvestCEE Solution: Central Hub & Executive Reporting Architecture
A day in the life of a Škoda Auto in-house lawyer is as versatile and fast-changing as the automobile industry itself. The need for communication of the status and needs of the Legal Department, both internal and external, was as important as ever for Škoda Auto with a legal team spanning 18 seats and over 36,000 employees globally. Škoda Auto wanted a matter management solution that would allow them to have more impactful discussions with management, while also increasing visibility within their Legal Department and to the business, through tracking and communicating their team performance.
Having consulted with the advisor team at InvestCEE (Xakia’s local implementation partner for Central and Eastern Europe), Škoda Auto’s legal team was intrigued to manage improvement of their legal operations through outsourced software. Drawing on the expertise of InvestCEE, Škoda Auto were able to bridge the gap between legal operations needs in the local market and technology solutions designed specifically for corporate legal departments.
Škoda Auto identified Xakia as the means by which they could establish a new — and improved — method of communication, a matter management tool purpose built for in-house legal teams with the promise of helping one of the world’s oldest car manufacturers communicate like a modern Legal Department.
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Key Impact Metrics & Outcomes
Centralized Repository for All Internal & External Legal Matters
Real-Time Data Dashboards for Executive Leadership & General Counsel
Transparent Oversight of External Counsel Spend & Workload Capacity
The Results: Data-Driven Legal Operations & Operational Control
Xakia’s legal matter management software and our customer success team have helped Škoda Auto reach its unique goals (and discover new ones):
- More efficient capacity allocation was a tangible benefit of Škoda Auto’s adoption of the Xakia matter management solution. With a dashboard overview of all legal matters, the team can accurately track internal and external legal capacity and implement efficient and effective task management.
- Workload targeting and accurate capacity measurements ensure no time is wasted on overlap work. A central source of truth ensures a complete record of who worked on what, for whom and when — removing the guesswork and repetition that haunts in-house legal teams long after the legal matter has been forgotten.
„Reviewing reports and dashboards within Xakia has provided an easier way to allocate tasks and communicate internally within our legal department.”
Vítězslav Traurig
Legal Counsel, Škoda Auto
- Škoda Auto’s Legal Department optimized overall business operations within days. The legal team was previously viewed as a passive support team, but with Xakia, the Legal Department has a proactive and direct influence and has achieved an enhanced management view.
- Better conversations about the needs of the Legal Department. Immediately after the adoption of a data-driven matter management system, the team was having more targeted discussions with management regarding the short- and long-term needs of the Legal Department to service the goals of the company.
- Regular legal reporting to management has become a breeze and the Škoda Auto team now run weekly management reports. Xakia gives Škoda Auto’s Legal Department the tools to use targeted communication to influence decision making and effective change at a management level.
„The reports and summaries we regularly export from Xakia are key to elevating our communication with business departments.”
Jiří Pařík
Data Protection Manager, Škoda Auto
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