{"id":2558,"date":"2024-11-14T16:40:31","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T21:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog2wrkdev.wpenginepowered.com\/allens-ai-integration\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T08:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T12:34:37","slug":"allens-ai-integration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog2workato.wpengine.com\/allens-ai-integration\/","title":{"rendered":"Streamlining legal practice: How Allens unifies integration, automation and AI with Workato"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Allens is an international law firm with award-winning practice areas throughout Australia and Asia. With over 1,300 employees across 8 offices and a history dating back to 1822, the firm is one of the largest in the Asia-Pacific, boasting illustrious judicial and corporate alumni. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, this scale does not faze Shane Rigney, Head of Integration and Automation Development at Allens. When Shane is not saving lives on the water as a dive rescue volunteer with Marine Rescue NSW, he finds purpose in pioneering a future-ready technology strategy for Allens – one that empowers the firm to drive consistently excellent client experience.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This required unifying integration, automation and artificial intelligence (AI), as part of a cohesive \u201centerprise orchestration\u201d strategy. In this story, we dive into Allens\u2019 journey to drive efficiency and automate at scale, sparked by Shane\u2019s \u201clightbulb\u201d moment with Workato.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fragile to robust; forms to conversations <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Shane\u2019s team of 14 had used business process automation<\/a> for specific workflows, robotic process automation<\/a> (RPA) to fill in the gaps, and had even developed their own internal chatbot (i.e. Allen), to streamline communications and manage office capacity during the pandemic. Yet, they knew they could do more. When the team relied heavily on RPA to coordinate data for critical functions like finance, user-interface based automation turned out to be more fragile, and was also a challenge to maintain and troubleshoot.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having used integration tools before, Shane knew exactly what was missing – the capability to swiftly build deep integrations that are also cloud-native and API-first. He researched several options but the \u201clightbulb\u201d moment came to him at one of Gartner\u2019s IT Symposiums<\/a>, where Workato demonstrated an automated employee onboarding workflow powered by Workbot<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

\r\n
\u201c<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\t\t\u201cI was fascinated by how Workato could create a chat-based experience for an end-to-end process and even archive the process. This meant moving away from forms to a conversational experience. The platform is solid and enterprise-ready, unlike other tools which lack the scaffolding and infrastructure necessary for us to scale.\u201d <\/div>\r\n\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\tShane Rigney, \t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\tHEAD OF INTEGRATION AND AUTOMATION DEVELOPMENT, ALLENS\t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n

Pioneering API-first integration-led automations<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Below are three ways in which Allens evolved itself with Workato.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seamless data syncs between cloud and on-premise marketing systems<\/strong>
A business case presented itself when Allens chose to leverage Marketo<\/a>\u2019s cloud offering, to complement their existing on-premise marketing system. This required integrating both systems, to synchronise data. Workato was chosen because the platform’s robust connectivity to Marketo meant that Allens\u2019 marketing team could stand to unlock the full potential of Marketo\u2019s powerful functionalities, by using Workato to feed it the data it needed.<\/p>\n\n\n

\r\n
\u201c<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\t\t\u201cWorkato\u2019s feature set, orchestration, low-code approach, library of connectors, and scalable nature positions it as a core piece of our integration-led automation journey. With great cost-to-value, it wasn\u2019t a hard sell at all.\u201d <\/div>\r\n\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\tShane Rigney, \t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\tHEAD OF INTEGRATION AND AUTOMATION DEVELOPMENT, ALLENS\t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n

Scalable and consistent API integrations for internal products<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shane\u2019s team also seized the opportunity to use Workato to uplift their growing data architecture practice, which is powered by an API framework they built themselves. The team builds internal products on this API base, while tapping on Workato to ensure scalability and consistency.<\/p>\n\n\n

\r\n
\u201c<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\t\t\u201cIt\u2019s not just about implementing another tech solution. It\u2019s about understanding the user experience and how lawyers work. An example of this is how we moved from a form-based approach to a simple push request on chat that is at the right place and right time. The user can complete this in a matter of seconds and move on. It\u2019s presented in a seamless way and in a place that they are already working in.\u201d <\/div>\r\n\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\tShane Rigney, \t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\tHEAD OF INTEGRATION AND AUTOMATION DEVELOPMENT, ALLENS\t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n

Self-healing RPA health check automation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When faced with no other viable option, Shane and his team found themselves partnering with Mindfields to implement MindAssist on Workato<\/a>, as a way to keep an eye on the health and resilience of prior automations, particularly RPA bots that support critical functions like finance. The solution continuously monitors, alerts and automates support ticket creation to ensure that the bots are running as they are supposed to.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s how it works:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Workflow<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now, AI, large language models and cognitive services present an opportunity to accelerate this journey to unlock knowledge in a more intelligent, accessible and personal way. Shane\u2019s team has started leaning into leveraging AI, starting cautiously with the right use cases and prioritising those that made sense to the business, while maintaining security. For instance, in the above workflow, Workato\u2019s OpenAI integration can be used to get AI to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n