Case study: M-Files Ment creates self-serve document solution for Finnish globally operating technology company

Using M-Files Ment, Tietoevry created a Standard Contractual Clause (SCC) generator allowing them to contract quicker and in compliance.

Based in Finland, Tietoevry is a leading technology company with a strong Nordic heritage and global capabilities. Working with 24,000 experts globally, Tietoevry specializes in cloud, data, and software, serving thousands of enterprise and public-sector customers in more than 90 countries. Tietoevry’s annual turnover is approximately EUR 3 billion and the company is listed on the NASDAQ exchange in Helsinki and Stockholm, as well as on the Oslo Børs.

As data-privacy laws evolved across Europe, Tietoevry faced several challenges to create a new, compliant system for generating contractual clauses.

The Challenge

On June 4th, 2021, the EU Commission issued a new set of standard contractual clauses (SCC) under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for data transfers to third parties. The legal division of Tietoevry had the responsibility to review the SCCs and to implement them into Tietoevry group’s contracting processes within the rather strict mandatory timeline.

The new SCCs introduce a modular approach with an individualized set of clauses for different transfer scenarios, comprising four different modules. In addition, the new SCCs contain optional clauses—clauses where a selection needs to be made against certain parameters and annexes which require filling in on a case-by-case basis. Some of the clauses and annexes apply only to certain modules and some only partially.

In the end, Tietoevry published the new SCCs as a complex 34-page document. “With our broad range of processing operations, all the modules needed to be considered both from sales and procurement perspectives and from the perspective of controller and processor,” said Niina Koponen Tietoevry’s Head of Legal Partner Care.

“Our first reaction when reviewing the SCCs was ‘How on earth will we be able to publish this in an understandable format to the rest of the organization?’”

The M-Files Solution

While SCC contract generators already existed online, Tietoevry wanted a more enhanced solution that would include practical instructions alongside each clause selection a user made, as well as providing an easy way for filling in the annex portions of the SCCs.

“The objective was to enable stakeholders to fill in the relevant SCCs module in a guided ‘self-serve’ way through M-Files Ment with little to no training, so that the business owners could generate documents themselves with high quality,” Niina said.

Tietoevry performed a quick feasibility study and found that M-Files Ment’s Widget array provided even greater added value. The “button” interface of Widgets allows users to generate automated documents without having direct access to M-Files Ment – no additional training required.

In addition to the Widgets functionality, M-Files Ment also helped Tietoevry identify and describe use cases and connect the correct module with the correct use case. “The identification and description of the use cases was essential from the user journey perspective,” Niina said.

“We identified the correct contacting process (sales vs. procurement) and the connected privacy roles of each party (who operates as the controller and who as processor or sub-processor, who is the exporter and importer of the personal data),” she added.

Next, M-Files Ment broke out the SCCs to individual modules and identified the different clauses for each module according to types—mandatory, optional, etc. The team next identified the need for additional clauses per SCC module and created a list per use case, as well as identifying the annexes for each module and identifying the content type.

“The annexes were Tietoevry styled, and a more user-friendly presentation of the required information was made with ‘tick-the-box’ options, which was designed with the end user in mind” Niina said.

Finally, the M-Files Ment team gathered the relevant Tietoevry legal entities’ contact details to automate the process and created internal instructions for the end-user,
supplemented with hyperlinks to internal resources.

The Results

Today, the entire SCC-creation process takes place in Tietoevry’s intranet.“Automated documents are brought there to the correct use case with M-FilesMent’s Widgets,” Niina said.

“The automation of the SCC modules will greatly contribute to enhanced contractualcompliance and will release lawyers’ time into supporting the most critical cases.We also hope it will empower our end users to feel secure in creating and signingthese new agreements in a self-service manner,” Niina added

“The objective was to enable stakeholders to fill in the relevant SCCs module in a guided ‘self-serve’ way through M-Files Ment with little to no training, so that the business owners could generate documents themselves with high quality.”

Niina Koponen
Head of Legal Partner Care Tietoevry

“[M-Files Ment] will empower our end users to feel secure in creating and signing these new agreements in a self-service manner.”

Niina Koponen
Head of Legal Partner Care Tietoevry