FTD Educação gains efficiency with dematerialization of the legal area

About FTD Educação

FTD FTD is a tribute to Ferre Théophane Durand, Superior General of the Marist Congregation between 1883 and 1907. During his tenure, he encouraged the Brothers to write school books for other subjects. These books became part of the collection, which received the title of FTD Textbooks Collection. The FTD Publisher is part of the Group and currently has 1500 employees. It has its administrative and editorial headquarters in São Paulo, as well as its printer and logistics in Guarulhos-SP and several sales and distributors in the main squares in Brazil. The Marista group is based in Curitiba-PR and has, in addition to FTD Educação, universities, schools and hospitals in the south and southeast regions of Brazil.

The beginning of the expansion in new markets

Five years ago, the Publisher started a new operation process and started to enter new markets and carry out new activities, which caused the expressive growth of production and sales of books and, in turn, of all the contract making and analyzes with service providers, suppliers, among others. “To handle this impactful growth in the department, we increased the number of professionals in the legal area, but we soon realized that this was not enough. We needed to review our process to meet this growing demand,” commented Victor Linhares Bastos, Legal Manager of FTD Educação, at the Marist Group.

Operation impact

3-step implementation

Having identified that the impacts were mainly due to the increase in operational activity, we went over the procedures and established a change in the internal customer service base. The first stage of the process was to unify the contract drafts in the editorial area. Most of the contracts were very similar and, therefore, generated repetitive work, subtracting unnecessary time and hours from the professionals, who could be dedicated to other more strategic activities. “What changed between one contract and another was the delivery time, conditions and values. Based on this observation, we unified the conditions in a standardized draft and implemented the “mother contract,” with the specifics of each case being indicated exclusively in an attachment,” commented Rosana Cristina de Oliveira, Legal Supervisor. Likewise, another similar rationalization took place in the copyright assignment contracts related to the production of content.

The 2nd step was to implement a system for managing the department. This occurred in 2015, by choosing the Espaider system, initially focused on litigation and contract requests. Yet, that was not enough. All the great contractual demand was still printed and the service was slow. We needed more efficiency in the operation. Considering the needs, we started the 3rd step that took place in 2017 by deploying the automatic generation of mass contracts, with QualiSign's digital and electronic signature, integrated with Espaider.

Digital Signature eliminated the “mileage card”

In view of FTD EDUCAÇÃO's new commercial activities, volumes tripled in this period, from 200 to 500 monthly contracts, which represented 6000 contracts/year in 2017. Moreover, the physical volume of documents was gigantic and they were kept on the company's ground floor, with the legal office being full at the 3rd floor. “The comings and goings to collect internal signatures next to the other building of the company, where the Editorial and the files are located, was so intense that we used to say that each contract had a mileage card!”, said Victor. “Initially, some would say that it was expensive to have and maintain a digital signature and we demonstrated that it was the post office, as well as the authenticated signature, the comings and goings to collect physical signatures, often using a courier or Sedex, that was expensive. In addition to the financial advantage, the issue of legal certainty and efficiency in the operation also prevailed,” explained Victor.

Cost Benefit ratio and ROI

Focus on efficiency, lower value contracts, large physical quantity, large operational effort, justified the implementation of the digital signature. “Internally, there was no restriction on the use of digital and electronic signatures, because we did a cost/benefit ratio and ROI analysis, considering the amounts spent on contract management, the hourly cost of each professional involved in the process of formalizing contracts and other items,” concluded Victor.

Benefits

Agility
The gain in agility was impressive. “In the initial process, when the contract was on paper, it took us about 30 days from the creation of the contract to the closing of the formalization. Today the deadline is only 1 day. The gain in agility was obtained mainly through the management system and the digital signature,” emphasized Victor.

Productivity
“Everyone saved the time that was dedicated to operational activities by redirecting them to activities of a strategic nature, focused on the FTD business: the legal area, the Editorial area, the board and service providers,” said Rosana.

Cost Reduction
The issue of contract control has always been a critical one. “It was an invisible wear, which generated insecurity, as we didn't know where the contract was. With the new tools, we can immediately identify the status of this or that contract and where the document is stuck at,” commented Victor.

Mobility
The board digitally signs via a mobile application, providing the director with the convenience of being able to sign wherever they are, simply and quickly.

Control and management of contracts
The issue of contract control has always been a critical one. “It was an invisible wear, which generated insecurity, as we didn't know where the contract was. With the new tools, we can immediately identify the status of this or that contract and where the document is stuck at,” commented Victor.

Positive impact with employees and service providers

Victor also mentions that employees started to develop their activities with more satisfaction, due to the significant reduction in repetitive legal routines.

In addition to the digital signature, the legal department chose to use the electronic signature when formalizing their contracts, that is, by login and password, only for smaller service providers (MEI), who do not have the digital certificate.
“Things improved for service providers, as the contract needed to be manually signed. Often, providers needed to physically head to the publisher to streamline the delivery of documents. This evolution is a one-way road! Given the positive repercussions, lately we have received requests from service providers and content producers residing or traveling abroad to digitally or electronically sign their documents before FTD,” explained Rosana.

Evolution and Expanded Use

The digital signature has been growing gradually. “In the beginning, it was a “pain” only for the legal department and some directors who needed to sign stacks of papers. Now, with the digital process and integrated with the contract management system, the person who asks the legal department for a contract realizes that the response for their request is much faster, as the document “is moved” only by digital means. Now the document is no longer stamped on someone's desk for signature,” commented Victor.
This gain in efficiency and agility occurred only in the editorial area. The next step will be the expanded use to the entire board. "The initial objective will be signing the meeting drafts, then, in the near future, the intention is to expand it to the commercial area with contracts with schools," stated Victor.
“I hope that new technologies become increasingly productive. Thus, we will have more time to be human,” concluded Victor.