LegalTech Soapbox: Empower your daily operations with Betty Blocks.

Chris Obdam is the co-founder and CEO of Betty Blocks, a leading low-code platform. He began his entrepreneurial journey in 2002 when he and his brother built custom software. Under his leadership, Betty Blocks has rapidly grown into a leading low-code platform recognized by Forrester and Gartner.

Let's jump right in!

1. Hi (founder/CEO), could you tell us the story behind Betty Blocks.

The story of Betty Blocks begins with the founders, me (Chris Obdam) and my brother Tim Obdam. We were frustrated with the slow pace of software development and saw an opportunity to create a platform that would allow businesses to build applications faster and more efficiently. That’s why we founded Betty Blocks with the mission to democratize software development and empower businesses to create custom applications without the need for extensive coding knowledge.

Over the years, Betty Blocks has grown and evolved, and we've become a leading provider of no-code/low-code application development platforms. We recognized that especially law firms and legal departments face unique challenges when it comes to managing their workload, documents, and cases. The traditional software solutions available to them were often expensive, inflexible, and difficult to customize. That’s why we focus quite heavily on the legal industry these days. We saw an opportunity to provide a solution that would meet the specific needs of the legal industry. We worked closely with legal professionals to understand their pain points and develop a platform that could automate routine tasks, manage documents, track cases, and ensure compliance with regulations.

2. What are the services/products that Betty Block provides?

The Betty Blocks low-code platform for business developers empowers legal innovation and technology teams to rapidly build customer-facing and internal applications. With these applications law firms optimise business processes and elevate client services. The Betty Blocks platform excels at integration, customization, and ease of use, enabling law firms to build solutions that connect with all existing systems, such as HighQ and iManage. With drag-and-drop components, legal technologists rapidly build powerful solutions, fully customized and in line with the look-and-feel of your brand.

Some of the key services/products that Betty Blocks provides for the legal industry include: Document management, workflow automation, case management, compliance management, client management, and integrations with other systems.

3. How does it help optimise the daily operations of an in-house legal team?

The Betty Blocks platform provides a flexible and customizable solution that can help in-house legal teams optimise their daily operations, reduce manual work, and improve their productivity.

Betty Blocks provides tools for creating custom workflows that automate routine tasks and reduce the risk of human error. These workflows can be used to manage approvals, track deadlines, and ensure compliance with regulations. Betty Blocks also offers a customisable case management system that allows in-house legal teams to track cases and manage their workload more efficiently. The platform also includes tools for managing client relationships, including contact management, client intake, and client communication. This helps in-house legal teams provide better service to their clients and build stronger relationships.

4. What do you believe will be the most significant change in how in-house legal teams use technology in the next 10 years?

In the next 10 years, I believe that the most significant change in how in-house legal teams use technology will be the increased adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies. These technologies have already started to transform the legal industry, and I expect this trend to continue and accelerate in the coming years.

In-house legal teams will need to use technology to automate routine tasks, such as contract review and document management, freeing up time for more complex tasks that require human expertise.

The Betty Blocks low-code platform can play a significant role in this transformation by providing in-house legal teams with a flexible and customizable solution for building AI and ML-powered applications. For example, in-house legal teams can use the Betty Blocks platform to build custom applications that leverage AI and ML technologies for contract review, document management, and compliance monitoring. The platform's visual interface and pre-built templates make it easy to create these applications quickly, enabling legal teams to achieve their digital transformation goals faster.