Work Flow Analytics is the capability that allows the legal department to see, understand, and actively manage how legal work flows through the organisation.

This station is not about dashboards for their own sake. It is about giving legal leadership the same level of operational visibility that every serious business function relies on — demand patterns, bottlenecks, capacity constraints, predictability, and performance over time.

A legal team that does not deploy a  workflow analytics competency  is operating blind. It can feel busy, stressed, and reactive — but it cannot explain why, cannot plan what comes next, and cannot credibly justify change.

High-performing legal teams do not guess where pressure is coming from. They measure it, model it, and manage it.

The Work Flow Analytics station should enable legal to:

◼️ Measure Legal Demand: What work is being requested and in what volume.

◼️ Identify Demand Sources: Who is requesting work (by individual, team, BU, geography).

◼️ Classify Work Types: BAU, revenue, special projects, X-factors.

◼️ Track Timing Patterns: When demand spikes and why.

◼️ Assess Predictability: What demand can be planned for versus what cannot.

◼️ Measure Throughput: How long work actually takes end-to-end.

◼️ Identify Bottlenecks: Where work slows or stalls.

◼️ Compare Demand to Capacity: Where legal is structurally over or under-resourced.

◼️ Evaluate Service Alignment: Whether work aligns with the Service Charter.

◼️ Inform Forward Planning: Inputs into resourcing, automation, and strategy.

The Work Flow Analytics station is considered a Repeater and a Specialist resource within the GLS Legal Operations model.

A Foundational Resource: Is responsible for determining the overall performance capabilities of a “critical” legal function. If it is not optimised, the function can never be optimised. 

A Repeater Resource: Supports the performance of multiple "critical" legal functions and as such represents a "ripple effect" productivity intervention point. 

A Specialist Resource: Is responsible for driving the performance of a very specific part of an individual legal function. Its productivity contribution is limited to that single legal function. 

World-class Work Flow Analytics exhibit the following features:

◼️ Demand-Led Design: Analytics start with intake, not outputs.

◼️ Consistent Taxonomy: Work is classified the same way across the organisation.

◼️ End-to-End Measurement: From request to completion — not isolated steps.

◼️ Time-Based Insight: Cycle times, wait times, and hand-offs are visible.

◼️ Capacity Awareness: Data links demand to available legal resources.

◼️ Segmented Analysis: Insight by BU, geography, work type, and risk profile.

◼️ Trend Visibility: Patterns are tracked over time, not snapshots.

◼️ Action Orientation: Analytics are designed to drive decisions.

◼️ Leadership Usability: Senior leaders can interpret the data quickly.

◼️ Integration with Other Stations: Feeds cost strategies, engagement, and planning.

Effective Work Flow Analytics deliver material business value by:

◼️ Improving Speed: Bottlenecks are identified and removed.

◼️ Increasing Predictability: Business teams can plan with confidence.

◼️ Reducing Risk: Overloaded legal teams are visible early.

◼️ Supporting Growth: Legal capacity scales with demand, not after failure.

◼️ Improving Decision Quality: Leaders see trade-offs clearly.

◼️ Reducing Cost Leakage: Inefficiencies are exposed.

◼️ Aligning Service Delivery: Legal effort matches business priorities.

◼️ Reducing Friction: Fewer surprises and missed expectations.

◼️ Enabling Proactive Support: Legal mobilises before pressure peaks.

◼️ Strengthening Governance: Decisions are evidence-based.

For the legal department, Work Flow Analytics provide:

◼️ Operational Control: Legal understands how work truly flows.

◼️ Credible Resourcing Conversations: Data replaces anecdote.

◼️ Better Prioritisation: Work is triaged with confidence.

◼️ Reduced Firefighting: Pressure points are anticipated.

◼️ Stronger Transformation Cases: Automation and redesign are justified.

◼️ Improved Morale: Chaos is replaced with structure.

◼️ Leadership Confidence: Legal leaders can explain performance.

◼️ Objective Measurement: Performance discussions are grounded.

◼️ Scalable Operating Model: Volume does not equal collapse.

◼️ Professional Maturity: Legal operates like a serious function.

Work Flow Analytics are essential for:

◼️ General Counsel

◼️ Legal Leadership Teams

◼️ Business Unit Leaders

◼️ Finance & Strategy Teams

◼️ Legal Operations Teams

◼️ Project & Transformation Teams

◼️ Risk & Compliance Functions

◼️ Senior Executives

◼️ In-House Legal Teams

◼️ External Advisors supporting optimisation

Where Work Flow Analytics are absent or immature, organisations experience:

◼️ Blind Overload: Legal feels overwhelmed but cannot explain why.

◼️ Reactive Staffing: Hiring and outsourcing happen too late.

◼️ Misaligned Investment: Automation targets the wrong problems.

◼️ Service Failure: SLAs are missed without warning.

◼️ Executive Frustration: Legal cannot justify constraints.

◼️ Unmanaged Growth: Demand increases silently.

◼️ Persistent Bottlenecks: The same issues recur.

◼️ Poor Cost Control: Spend grows without insight.

◼️ Low Credibility: Legal decisions appear subjective.

◼️ Transformation Stagnation: Improvement stalls.

Supporting world-class Work Flow Analytics requires:

◼️ Structured Intake Data: Clean, mandatory data at source.

◼️ Workflow Tracking: Visibility across stages and hand-offs.

◼️ Analytics Engines: Ability to slice data by multiple dimensions.

◼️ Dashboards: Clear, role-specific views for leaders.

◼️ Integration with Finance & HR: Linking cost and capacity.

◼️ Trend Analysis: Longitudinal performance tracking.

◼️ Configurability: Taxonomies evolve as the business changes.

◼️ Data Quality Controls: Garbage-in prevention.

◼️ Scalability: Works at volume and across regions.

◼️ Decision Enablement: Data directly informs action.