Votorantim Cimentos North America (VCNA) is a leading manufacturer of cement, concrete, and aggregates, with operations across Canada and the United States. As part of the global Votorantim Cimentos group, VCNA is committed to sustainable construction and innovation in the building materials industry.
A client of Septeo Legal Suite since 2022, VCNA leverages multiple modules to support and streamline its legal operations.
- The Trademarks (Intellectual Property) module helps manage and monitor their portfolio of intellectual property;
- The Matter module provides centralized tracking of all legal files;
- The Contract module supports the full lifecycle of commercial agreements;
- The E-Billing (Spend Management) module improves tracking of legal spend and supports better visibility across legal activity;
- The Collaborative Portal (Legal Intake) streamlines communication with internal stakeholders.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Kelly Sciortino, Law Clerk & Legal Operations, Legal Department at VCNA. In this interview, she shares insights into the legal team’s priorities, the challenges they face, and how Legal Suite helps drive efficiency in both daily tasks and long-term legal initiatives.
Kelly Sciortino:
We selected Legal Suite primarily because of the bilingual display language, we needed the ability to switch between English and French since we have a presence in Quebec. That was very important to us.
Another big factor was the inclusion of the e-Billing module. When we explored other vendors, most of them didn’t offer e-Billing natively and required a third-party solution, which meant signing additional contracts and managing more integrations. With Legal Suite, everything came bundled in one platform, which simplified the process and met all our requirements.
We also appreciated how centralized everything is. Legal Suite provides a wide range of modules that allow us to manage multiple aspects of the legal department within a single ecosystem. That integration saves time and reduces complexity. Upgrades were another plus. They're done automatically as part of our license agreement, always outside of business hours, so there’s no disruption to our work. I don’t have to be involved directly in the upgrade process, which saves time and ensures continuity.
Kelly Sciortino:
We’re currently using the following modules:
• Legal Matters – This is our core module for managing day-to-day legal activity. It gives us visibility into all our matters and helps keep everything organized.
• e-Billing – This was a major deciding factor for us. It’s integrated with the Matter module, so we can track spend in real time, directly within each case, which is incredibly valuable.
• Contracts – We use this to manage contract lifecycles efficiently. It's especially helpful for keeping track of historical data and avoiding unnecessary contract deletions.
• Corporate Legal Entities – This helps us manage corporate records and entities in one place.
• Trademarks – We use it to track our IP assets and ensure everything stays up to date.
• Collaborative Portal (intake management) – This module allows other departments to submit legal requests through predefined templates. For example, with NDAs, users can fill out a template and generate a document themselves without needing to come directly to legal. It’s a self-serve tool that still gives us visibility and control, which is great.
• Litigation (Hold) – This is critical for preserving records. When a hold is issued, the associated matter is automatically locked so no one can delete it. That’s really important to us, especially since we've experienced issues in the past where other departments accidentally deleted key documents we still needed for renegotiations.
Each of these modules supports a different part of our legal operations, but together they give us a unified and efficient system.
Kelly Sciortino:
I love how easy it is to make changes to the custom views within the modules and export everything into Excel. It’s so user-friendly. For example, if I’m in a meeting with my boss and she wants to see something displayed differently, I can make that change live during the meeting, exit, go back in, and it’s instantly updated—no need to schedule downtime. That kind of flexibility is fantastic.
Being able to customize the modules to meet our specific requirements has been a huge benefit. I really like the report writing functionality, and the fact that the e-Billing module is linked directly to the Matter module. I can see how much we’ve spent on a matter in real time at any point, which is incredibly helpful.
Another key feature I appreciate is how the Litigation Hold ties into the Matter module. When a litigation hold is issued, it automatically locks the matter so it can’t be deleted. That’s extremely important for us—especially since in our old system, people would delete contracts once they expired, not realizing we still needed the historical data for renegotiations or legal reference. Legal Suite helps ensure that valuable information is protected.
Kelly Sciortino:
Absolutely. I’ve spent quite a bit of time working closely with the Legal Suite team to either figure out new ways of doing things or provide feedback on functionality that could be improved. They’ve been great at taking that input and passing it along to your developers.
One example was with the Litigation Hold module—we were able to link it with the Matter module so that when I issue a hold, it automatically pulls the relevant data from the matter. I no longer have to retype anything manually. It saves time and ensures accuracy since the information is already populated.
Working with your support team has been a great experience. They’re knowledgeable, proactive, and genuinely collaborative. When we troubleshoot issues together, I’m able to bring my IT background into the process—often running preliminary tests and sharing what I’ve tried so far. That kind of back-and-forth really helps us move faster toward a solution. It’s not just about reporting a problem—it’s about solving it together.
VCNA’s experience reflects a broader shift in modern legal operations: the move toward centralized, connected, and user-friendly legal ecosystems.
By leveraging Legal Suite’s integrated modules, VCNA has been able to streamline processes, improve visibility across legal activities, and enhance collaboration between teams.
