This workflow automation business case outlines how legal operations team quantified ROI, accelerated compliance, and launched automated workflows in days.
Building a Strong Business Case for Workflow Automation at Bath & Body Works
After becoming a standalone public company in August of 2021, Bath & Body Works entered a period of rapid change. In addition to re-orienting itself as a pure-play company, its leaders embraced the new-found opportunity to innovate. Enter Julie Richer, the recently-appointed Director of Legal Operations, who was tasked with leveraging her legal and technology expertise to analyze the needs of Bath & Body Works’s legal operations. When asked to share her story, Julie was eager to give others in her position information to use as a tactical, real-world guide. Here is Julie’s guide for success when building a business case for workflow automation. By grounding her approach in real process analysis and measurable time savings, she helped the Legal Operations team create a compelling business case for workflow automation that other teams can now benefit from.
Do Your Due Diligence to Find the Pain Points
As soon as Julie came on board with Bath & Body Works, she began to identify processes that were time-consuming or sub-optimal. Specifically, she identified administrative tasks that could be streamlined, thereby freeing the Legal Department’s attorneys to focus on important initiatives.
One opportunity stood out:
Automating the Privacy Team’s agreement process. With rapidly-changing privacy laws and looming deadlines, the team wanted to execute new contract terms with vendors (with greater privacy protections for consumers and employees) in just a few short months — a very labor-intensive task that requires vendor-by-vendor negotiation and agreement execution, but on a high-volume basis.
Bath & Body Works needed a quick and effective way to automate as much of the contracting process as possible, reducing the administrative burden for its attorneys and speeding up implementation. As it stood, the team’s privacy addendum process involved a highly manual process: (1) emailing each template agreement to multiple vendors, (2) negotiating each agreement, and (3) executing each agreement with “wet signatures.”
By mapping the current state and quantifying bottlenecks, the team identified where workflow automation could deliver immediate ROI — especially within privacy and compliance processes that required repeatable, high-volume document updates.
“Go and See” – Conduct a Current-State Analysis
Instead of asking the privacy team how it’s done, Julie went to the source to see the process in action. She broke down the steps with the team to identify where improvements were needed, but also where they would see the quickest return on their automation efforts.
This is kind of a soapbox of mine — understanding the business process, and learning the business process the right way before you get started is essential. You have to make sure that you actually get the right people involved, and you need to shadow them. To be successful and roll out workflows quickly, you need to understand your current state to get to your future state.
JULIE RICHER DIRECTOR OF LEGAL OPERATIONS BATH & BODY WORKS
The key to ensuring buy-in of a new technology solution, according to Julie, was to assess the time and resources for each step in the team’s process. This enabled Julie to estimate a solution’s potential ROI and, in particular, savings from a time perspective. The team had identified the contract review stage as the pain point from a time and resource standpoint. Herein lay the opportunity: the team’s figures showed that streamlining the process would reduce attorney involvement by 40 hours per new privacy update. After presenting the opportunity to the company’s chief legal officer, he wondered what opportunities the time savings would unlock.
I went to the head of the privacy team to see what they would do with their time back. The answer: it would enable them to bring back work from outside counsel, which would result in even more cost savings. The more you socialize and talk to people, the more prepared you’re going to be to make your business case.
JULIE RICHER DIRECTOR OF LEGAL OPERATIONS BATH & BODY WORKS
While open communication is a critical step, Julie advises doing a full sweep with your research (compiling your data, having team conversations, making observations, pressure-testing potential solutions, etc.) before fully presenting your business case for review.
This type of current-state analysis is foundational when building a business case for workflow automation, because it reveals measurable time savings and cost-reduction opportunities.
Pick the Right Solution, Find the Right Team, and Be Bold in Asking for Funding
When selecting a workflow automation platform, Julie evaluated multiple solutions with a focus on no-code design, speed-to-value, and scalability across legal and compliance use cases. TAP stood uot as a flexible workflow automation software capable of supporting both document workflows and complex approval processes. Julie used this checklist to qualify technology partners:
- Review multiple software options (internally too)
- Talk to industry peers • Get AND check references
- Ask for ROI help from a service provider
- Custom tailor the ROI to your company/firm
- Vet the solution with your internal security team
Julie’s team chose Mitratech’s Workflow Automation Solution, TAP, to automate the privacy addendum process. Part of selecting Mitratech came down to their work with KPLabs, a workflow automation partner known for creating fast, seamless, and impactful workflows. KPLabs and Julie teamed up to build a proof of concept for the workflow, identifying the team members for involvement, necessary integrations, and the cost savings — all critical pieces in building a case for leadership’s consideration.
This was a great project in part because we were able to deliver on Julie’s vision and go live in under 30 days, providing automation and visibility to a critical regulatory compliance process. TAP enabled incredible time-to-value for the team.
TARRYN PUZSAR DIRECTOR, BUSINESS PROCESS AUTOMATION KP LABS
Armed with the ROI, a proof of concept, and a technology solution and partner, Julie was ready to submit her proposal for funding. For those getting ready to make the pitch, she offers the following advice:
Are you confident? If so, take it to the mat. Those you present to should understand that not approving will be worse for the company. You might have to spend a little to reap big rewards. So just pull your business case together, partner with the right people, and be bold.
JULIE RICHER DIRECTOR OF LEGAL OPERATIONS BATH & BODY WORKS
Don’t Overcomplicate it; Just Get Started
The team went to work planning out and executing the workflow to alleviate the pains, create adoption champions, and garner feedback to keep going.
Shortly after building their prototype, Bath & Body Works made quick strides to process improvement and were able to record several ROI-driving results, including:
- Launching their first live workflow 2 days after signing their TAP contract
- Saving 40 hours per privacy update that requires an addendum to all existing contracts by streamlining the approval process
- Reducing outside counsel use significantly
- Streamlining the management of BBW work through a queue that consolidated numerous work requests
Giving precious time back to the team enabled it to spend time where needed: as a strategic partner to the rest of the organization. And for Julie Richer, building this business case had a resounding impact — she went from legal leader to technology innovator within months of joining the enterprise. When asked about her advice for other individuals looking to do the same, especially knowing many companies are in budget season right now, Julie recommends in-depth preparation, strategic partnerships, and a bit of fearlessness.
If you think you have to have a fancy tool to make workflows, you don’t. If you have a wall and sticky notes, you can streamline any process with workflow.
JULIE RICHER DIRECTOR OF LEGAL OPERATIONS BATH & BODY WORKS
Iterate and Grow
After the quick win of their first workflow, Bath & Body Works is now looking to automate other core processes in rapid succession.
Mitratech’s no-code workflow automation designer made it easy for the Bath & Body Works Legal Team to own, design, and deploy their first workflow. That ownership also empowers the team to quickly make updates and publish its next version, and the next. As the team finds new ways to do things, the workflow supports its growth — never holding it back.
For Julie Richer, automating processes with TAP for increased ROI is an initiative with unlimited potential. Future projects for the company include automating charitable contributions and streamlining customer requests for data gathering, information storage, or preference changes.
I have a whole list of workflow ideas — the opportunities are truly endless. You can’t go to an attorney and just say ‘what do you want to automate?’ You need to ask: what are the things you do every day that make you want to bang your head on a desk? What’s the admin work you don’t want to do? That’s where you find the workflow.
JULIE RICHER DIRECTOR OF LEGAL OPERATIONS BATH & BODY WORKS
How Mitratech Helps
Ready to build your own workflow automation business case? Explore how Mitratech TAP empowers legal, privacy, and compliance teams to automate high-volume processes, reduce risk, and accelerate outcomes.
About Bath & Body Works
Home of America’s Favorite Fragrances®, Bath & Body Works is a global leader in personal care and home fragrance, including the #1 selling collections for fine fragrance mist, body lotion and body cream, 3-wick candles, home fragrance diffusers and liquid hand soap. Powered by agility and innovation, the company’s predominantly U.S.-based supply chain enables the company to deliver quality, on-trend luxuries at affordable prices. Bath & Body Works serves and delights customers however and wherever they want to shop, from welcoming, in-store experiences at more than 1,770 company-operated Bath & Body Works locations in the U.S. and Canada, and more than 360 international franchised locations to an online storefront at bathandbodyworks.com
For further information, please contact:
Bath & Body Works, Inc.: Media Relations
Investor Relations, Tammy Roberts Myers
FAQ
Bath & Body Works needed to streamline a high-volume, highly manual privacy addendum process. The legal team was emailing agreements to vendors one by one, negotiating individually, and collecting wet signatures — a process that consumed attorney time and slowed compliance efforts. Workflow automation offered a faster, more reliable way to update contracts at scale.
The Legal Operations team performed a hands-on “go and see” analysis — shadowing the privacy team, mapping each step, and documenting where time and resources were being drained. This approach allowed them to quantify pain points, validate assumptions, and build a business case grounded in real data.
The team selected Mitratech TAP for its fast time-to-value, no-code designer, and seamless collaboration with implementation partner KP Labs. ROI modeling, strong peer references, and a successful security review reinforced TAP as the best-fit platform to automate and scale critical processes.
TAP automated key tasks such as distributing agreements, tracking vendor responses, managing approvals, and eliminating manual email chains and wet signatures. This gave the team centralized visibility, consistent workflows, and the ability to manage high-volume contract updates with far less administrative effort.
The legal team launched its first workflow within two days of signing the contract thanks to Mitratech’s no-code configurability. They reported 40 hours saved per privacy update, significantly reduced outside counsel spend, and consolidated incoming requests into a single, organized queue. TAP freed attorneys to focus on strategic, high-value work.
Start by deeply understanding your current process and gathering input from the people performing the work every day. Quantify your findings, tie time savings to business outcomes, and don’t wait for perfection — even simple workflows can unlock meaningful ROI and organizational confidence.
Workflow Automation 
