Do you spend days manually looking for contracts?
Do you worry that you aren’t able to find risk and mitigate it? Are you finding it difficult to ensure alignment on contracting processes? Do you feel powerless in your role, juggling time-consuming, tedious, manual tasks from multiple executives with competing urgency?
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Imagine a work world where a harmonious symphony of streamlined processes, enhanced visibility, and empowered individuals has replaced the chaos of contract mismanagement.
Goodbye to drowning in paperwork, missing obligations, and dealing with disjointed systems; hello to less workload, better career development, and increased job fulfilment.
This is how you and your organization could look like in reality with the transformative power of Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM).
In a time where every penny counts and every second matters, changing how you work can change the entire organization. CLM empowers organizations to operate at peak efficiency, make informed decisions, foster collaboration, and navigate the complexities of the business world with confidence.
What are the consequences of contract mismanagement?
Have you already tried a CLM solution, yet still experience inefficiencies and increased risk while contracting? If the answer is yes, it may be time to level up your CLM solution. Contract mismanagement doesn’t just lead to inefficient processes or low morale, it could also have devastating effects on your wider organization.
Here are 7 ways contract mismanagement could harm your enterprise:
1. Workflows become convoluted, manual, and prone to bottlenecks, leading to delays in contract processing.
2. Increased risk of non-compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
3. Reporting becomes fragmented, inaccurate, and time-consuming, hindering decision-making and strategic planning.
4. Missed revenue opportunities, suboptimal pricing, and increased costs due to manual errors, renewals, or supplier negotiations that are overlooked or mishandled.
5. Contract data remains scattered across various systems or departments, hindering easy access, collaboration, and the ability to gain valuable insights.
6. Important contractual obligations such as renewal dates, deliverables, or payment terms may be overlooked or forgotten.
7. Organizations will struggle to adapt to evolving business needs, industry regulations, or market dynamics.
What should I look for in a CLM?
When considering CLM solutions, you need to remember that not all solutions are created equal. What’s important is that you find a CLM tool that has the capabilities you need to bolster your operations rather than hinder them.
What do these capabilities look like? When deciding on new vendors, take a look at their integrations list. For example, Agiloft’s Integration Hub is embedded right into the Agiloft user interface and allows users to freely flow data to 400+ apps such as Coupa, Oracle, Workday, and ServiceNow without onboarding a new vendor or implementing a new tool. It also allows your team the freedom to work in their preferred tools. Users can integrate with other essential business tools and systems, such Teams, Outlook, Salesforce, Tableau, and many more.
Flexibility and customization are also key features of a proper CLM. Flexible CLM platforms like Agiloft provide configurable workflows that can be tailored to align with team-specific processes and requirements. This flexibility ensures that the CLM solution adapts to the way teams work rather than forcing them to conform to rigid processes. Team members can follow customized workflows that reflect their preferred methods, optimizing efficiency and promoting a sense of ownership and engagement.
Lastly, you want a partner that can grow with you. Not many CLM solutions are able to easily scale along with the business. You do not want to be stuck with a solution that cannot be deployed beyond international borders, company divisions, or even departments. The right one can help you scale the enterprise, too, putting you in a better position to make strategic decisions that will benefit your business for years.
When the stars are all aligned, you’ll discover your CLM’s impact goes beyond just the business and will completely transform how you and your team approach work, too.
How can CLM help my business?
Implementing a CLM solution offers organizations a myriad of tangible advantages. Let’s delve into the transformative power of CLM and the advantages it brings to organizations in terms of time and cost savings, improved compliance, and enhanced risk management.
Time savings
Time savings are a notable benefit of CLM. Manual contract processes are notorious for being time-consuming and prone to delays. With CLM, organizations experience streamlined workflows, automated approvals, and standardized templates, resulting in faster contract creation, negotiation, and execution. CLM eliminates bottlenecks and reduces administrative burdens, allowing teams to allocate time and resources more efficiently.
Cost savings
Cost savings go hand in hand with time savings. Inefficient contract management can result in revenue leakage, missed renewal opportunities, and increased costs due to manual errors or non-compliance penalties. CLM mitigates these risks by improving contract visibility, enabling proactive renewal management, and facilitating compliance with contractual obligations. By optimizing pricing, minimizing errors, and reducing legal disputes, organizations can achieve substantial cost savings and protect their bottom line.
Compliance and risk management
CLM also enhances compliance and risk management. Compliance with legal and regulatory requirements is crucial for organizations to avoid penalties, reputational damage, and legal disputes. CLM ensures that contracts align with compliance standards by automating approval processes, tracking obligations, and providing alerts for key dates and milestones. Enhanced risk management comes through improved visibility into contract performance, mitigating risks associated with missed obligations, non-compliance, or unfavorable terms. CLM enables organizations to proactively identify and address potential risks, protecting them from financial and operational setbacks.
How will CLM impact my team?
Inefficient contract management can be a bane for you and your team members. You’ll find yourself in situations where legal demands are increasing, but your processes aren’t getting any better, leading to overwork and lowered morale. Without the right intervention, eventually, your team members may burn out and leave the organization altogether.
The right CLM can have a profound impact on team performance, boosting productivity, fostering cooperation, and creating an environment conducive to seamless teamwork.
But how? First and foremost, CLM improves productivity by streamlining contract management processes. With automated workflows and standardized templates, teams can create, review, and approve contracts more efficiently. CLM eliminates manual, time-consuming tasks, such as searching for documents or manually tracking contract statuses, allowing team members to focus on value-added activities that drive results.
Integrations also play a pivotal role in enhancing team collaboration. Sophisticated CLM platforms can integrate with other essential enterprise technologies, giving your team the freedom to work with their preferred tools. This enables team members to access and share contract-related information and communicate in real-time effortlessly within familiar work environments.
One of the standout features of CLM is the ability for team members to collaborate in real-time within a single platform. With shared access to contract documents and a centralized repository, team members across the globe can work together on contract creation, negotiate terms, or review and approve contracts simultaneously. Real-time collaboration eliminates delays, reduces miscommunication, and fosters a sense of cohesion among team members.
By providing a unified platform, CLM eliminates the need for multiple versions of documents circulating via email or shared drives. This prevents errors, ensures that team members are always working on the latest version, and prevents version control issues. The ability to make simultaneous edits and provide feedback within a single platform facilitates efficient and effective teamwork, saving time and reducing the chances of errors or misalignment.
How will CLM improve my work (and life)?
1. Reduced work stress
Ultimately, leveraging a powerful CLM solution can also lead to a drastic improvement in your work life. We all know that manual contract management can be a nightmare – searching for documents, tracking deadlines, and dealing with complex approval processes. But with CLM, that stress fades away. Say goodbye to drowning in paperwork and administrative headaches, and say hello to the happier, stress-free version of you.
2. Improved career development
The time you gain from eliminating tedious day-to-day tasks leaves you more time to focus on high-value activities that can drive your professional growth. CLM empowers you to expand your skill set, take on new responsibilities, and contribute more to strategic initiatives instead of repetitive tasks. Additionally, the exposure to the end-to-end contract management process and the insights gained from CLM’s visibility into contracts can deepen your understanding of legal obligations and contract best practices, making you a more valuable asset to your organization. CLM opens doors for career advancement and positions you as a proactive and efficient team member.
3. Peace of mind
How many nights have you lost sleep over potential missed contract deadlines or making a costly mistake? With the automation and organization provided by CLM, you’ll ensure accuracy and compliance with contractual requirements. CLM gives you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters to you.
Real-life success stories: Utopian workplaces powered by CLM
Still not convinced how CLM can transform your organization? Don’t just take our word for it. Hear what our customers have to say.
1. Portland Community College
“Agiloft has just really been a game changer for us. We’re finally being proactive rather than reactive with our stakeholders” – Michael Matthews, Procurement and Contract Services Manager at PCC
With the help of CLM, the largest higher-ed institution in Oregon reduces time spent on contracts by 50%.
2. Young’s Holdings
“I can find agreements in minutes. That, to me, is phenomenal,” – Susan Koch, Senior Corporate Paralegal, Young’s Holdings
Since implementing CLM, Young’s Holdings’ Legal, Procurement, and Marketing teams are accomplishing more work than ever before in less time.
3. Health Catalyst
“The Agiloft implementation has standardized contract generations and approvals, and we’ve freed up valuable resources and enabled transparency and visibility across the organization,” – Brittany Lees, Business Systems Architect at Health Catalyst
Integrating CLM and Salesforce has standardized Health Catalyst’s contract generation and approvals, freeing up valuable resources and enabling transparency and visibility across the organization.
4. Klein Tools
“There are some contracts – especially if it’s on our own paper, and other party is already reviewed – once I push it out for e-signature, I stamp my approval, the external third-party signs, and we’re done with it within 60 seconds,” – Melody Smith, Assistant General Counsel at Klein Tools
Agiloft CLM helped optimize and speed up Klein Tool’s processes, leading to cost savings.
Conclusion
The case for CLM is clear. With the right partner, CLM doesn’t just drive value for your organization, but impacts every aspect of the workforce, from a departmental level right down to the individual.
A CLM utopia represents much more than just the tangible benefits like unlocked new efficiencies, uncovered cost savings, and streamlined operations. CLM can also boost employee morale, lessen your team’s workload, empower them, and drive overall job satisfaction. These benefits many not all be easily quantified, , but their impact is priceless.
Want to learn more about CLM? Read the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant report on CLM as well as our blog posts, case studies, webinars, and whitepapers. The more you know, the more effective you will be at making a CLM decision.
