From paper to performance:  How CLM transforms higher education contracting 

Changing regulations impact nearly every sector of business and society, and higher education is no exception.  

Many areas of society are being impacted by new policies and changing regulations, with higher education being one of them. In today’s evolving landscape, higher education institutions face mounting pressure to do more with less while navigating regulatory shifts, budget constraints, and increased public scrutiny, all while managing a highly decentralized operating model.

Amid this complexity, contracts are the invisible threads holding everything together, yet they’re often handled in ways that create risk, inefficiency, and blind spots across departments. From housing to research to athletics, contracting has become mission critical for colleges and universities. This blog explores how modern Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platforms can bring visibility, control, and agility to higher education institutions and why now is the time to transform how contracts are managed campus-wide.

The problem at hand

Think of higher education institutions like a business with many smaller business units that are independent of each other, yet dependent on the centralized corporate headquarters. Each department has their own types of contracts, and the centralized layer has its own unique aspects with federal and state regulations, accreditation, and audit requirements. Manual contracting processes can slow down the entire machine from top to bottom. And if the system depends upon a lean Legal and/or Procurement team, well, good luck. 

Without a centralized repository of contracts that connects all departments, administrators lack the visibility they need to operate the institution efficiently. If someone needs information on research obligations or how a new policy affects their department, they have to wait for someone to look it up for them and hope it can be found. If a higher ed institution is undergoing an audit, they have to hope that they are able to locate all of the contracts associated with the auditor’s request. And if all someone needs is to create a standard agreement for a new adjunct professor hire, they have to wait on a strained resource to generate the contract.  

The solution 

A way to control these types of internal and external pressures is through CLM.  

CLM software solves contracting challenges by: 

• Centralizing visibility and control with a “single source of truth” for all contracts with role-based access across departments.  

• Standardizing pre-approved templates and clause libraries and automating approvals, reducing legal exposure with inconsistent terms. 

• Automating reminders for renewals and obligations while reducing cycle times for grants, vendor agreements, and partnerships. 

• Improving decision making with better data to identify cost savings and underutilized agreements while supporting strategic sourcing and vendor management 

How CLM software can help with higher ed institutions 

CLM can solve many contracting concerns for higher education professionals. With a robust CLM platform, you can easily handle what can be considered the lifeblood of the operational and financial control of your institutions: your contracts.  

As an institutional “control panel” of sorts, CLM software can become: 

• A financial visibility tool for CFOs – With fewer tuition dollars, reduced state funding, rising operating costs, and pressure to do more with less, that is more volatility in revenue forecasts. 

• A risk mitigation platform for Legal – When enrollment drops and budgets tighten, every contract matters more. Missed obligations, non-compliance, undesired auto-renewals, and unfavorable terms become unacceptable risks.  

• A governance system for leadership and boards – With greater scrutiny comes greater demand for transparency, accountability, and compliance.  

• An efficiency engine for Procurement and Operations – With centralized contract data, identification of redundant vendors, underused services, and auto-renewals that no longer align with enrollment levels provides better negotiation leverage and eliminates unnecessary spend. 

Real-life success stories: CLM at work in higher ed 

The largest institution of higher learning in Oregon, Portland Community College (PCC), was struggling to keep track of its contracts. They had no centralized contract repository, instead relying on mail and spreadsheets to track their contracts. PCC had a database, but only one person knew how to use it, and with their eventual departure from the institution also came the loss of institutional knowledge. Contracts were sent to unauthorized vendors; staff struggled to produce basic reports, and contracts and finance worked in siloes. Delays and blind spots were the norm for the contracting process.  

By implementing Agiloft, PCC experienced a litany of benefits, including: 

• Increased visibility into their contract workflows 

• $36,000 saved in annual procurement dollars 

• A more than 50% reduction in time to contract Access to all contract information from a single dashboard 

• The ability to view contract history, status, and related contracts with a few clicks 

PCC was also able to customize their workflow templates without taking up IT resources or incurring any extra costs thanks to Agiloft’s no-code flexibility. The organization took a scaled approach to implementing Agiloft, starting out slow and growing a need to control overall cost. And PCC has continued to grow in facilities and enrollment, and Agiloft is able to grow right along with them.  

The future of higher ed 

Don’t depend on spreadsheets and emails. Just as higher education is preparing the youth for tomorrow’s world, higher education itself should be prepared as well. CLM software can bring higher education unity in contracts and organization while ensuring obligations are met, and the most is made of the agreements entered. With the robust capabilities that the Agiloft CLM can provide, it is also the contract management solution that can flex, change, and prepare with your educational institution for the future.  

  Learn how Agiloft can make a difference at your higher ed institution. Start a conversation with us today.