Adding signatures to documents is one of those small but time-consuming tasks that can slow things...
Letter from the CEO - A Year of Progress for Smarter Drafter Pro
Our CEO, Steve Hantos, reflects on a year of product innovation, global expansion, and what’s ahead for 2026.
Hi everyone,
Before we close out the year, I want to share a brief update on where Smarter Drafter Pro is today and what we’ve delivered together in 2025.
In October, Smarter Drafter Pro was recognised in Legaltech Hub’s 2025 Competitive Analysis as matching the feature fulfilment of major international players. We weren’t placed in Tier 1 - not because of capability, but because we have only just begun expanding globally. That’s something we are actively addressing through our growing partner network (more on that below).
With that context, our progress this year centred on two themes: Continual Product Enhancement and Growth of our Partner Ecosystem.
1. Continual Product Enhancement
Before looking at the updates themselves, I want to reinforce a few core beliefs that shape our roadmap:
- If data already exists somewhere in the firm, it should never need to be rekeyed.
- Automation should sit at the heart of your tech ecosystem - whether you’re working inside iManage, launching from a workflow or intranet, or embedding automation on your website.
- Building automation should be simple. Teams should be able to create, maintain and roll out automation quickly, without friction or complexity.
These principles guided every improvement we made this year.
User Experience
We’ve made the product easier to use across the board. A clearer dashboard, improved navigation, early communication on upcoming changes, and significant updates to the Form Builder all help teams work faster, reduce overhead and maintain consistent, firm-wide automation standards.
Automation Capabilities
We strengthened the automation building blocks that firms rely on. Enhanced permissions, reusable components, smarter signature controls and centralised branding all reduce maintenance, lower risk, and support more efficient document creation.
Integration
We expanded our integration capability across both pre-built connectors (Actionstep, Unity, DocuSign) and advanced options like API access, Power Automate, deep links and webhooks. This lets firms embed automation directly into workflows, create matter-centric processes and avoid unnecessary manual steps.
Matter Record
We’re closing the year with one of our most important updates: the Matter Record.
It brings together the firm’s existing data so documents can be assembled with less rekeying, fewer errors, and deeper integration across core systems. This has been a major investment, and it sets the foundation for the next phase of data-driven automation.
For a full summary of this year’s enhancements is available here: https://smarterdrafter.com.au/blog/tag/product-updates
2. Expanding Our Partner Ecosystem
Our partner network grew significantly across Australia, New Zealand, the UK and now into global markets. This expansion is already helping us close the gap highlighted by Legaltech Hub - not in capability, but in international presence.
For customers, this growing ecosystem means:
- More access to trained consultants who understand both automation and your practice-specific needs
- Faster, smoother implementations
- Greater support for ongoing optimisation and firm-wide rollout
- Specialists who can guide you through complex use cases, integrations, and workflow design
This network is becoming one of our strongest assets, and it will continue to expand in 2025.
You can explore our partners here:
https://smarterdrafter.com/partners
Looking Ahead to 2026
We’re already working on several major improvements designed to help firms scale their automation safely and efficiently:
- Enhanced intake capabilities – the Matter Record will supercharge online instruction-taking. Client information collected at intake will be immediately available to all subsequent documents, reducing rekeying and lifting accuracy.
- Approved partner access – allowing firms to safely bring consultants into their environment when required, with simple controls to set permissions and remove access when the work is complete.
- Smarter use of unstructured data – working closely with technology partners to convert unstructured content into form-ready information. This will continue to drive down drafting time, reduce errors and increase financial yield on every matter.
There’s a lot to look forward to, and these initiatives will take us another step closer to delivering truly data-driven automation across the entire document lifecycle.
Thank You
Thank you for your support and engagement this year. Your feedback directly shapes our roadmap and helps us deliver the reliability, control and speed your teams need.
On behalf of everyone at Tensis, I wish you a safe and restful break.
We look forward to working with you in 2026.
Steve Hantos
Chief Executive Officer
Smarter Drafter (Tensis)
