Transforming contract chaos into clarity with Agiloft’s core capabilities

E-document. E-signature. Automation. Integration. Reporting. These are just a few of the critical features that are considered when assessing a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platform’s overall maturity. Each of these distinct CLM capabilities might raise the question: How can you effectively map your CLM maturity roadmap to these diverse business needs? To answer this question, let’s look at how Agiloft’s core capabilities affect the contracting process. 

The ideal contract creation process

Agiloft’s industry-leading CLM platform simplifies contract creation through intuitive self-service, employing pre-approved templates and guided workflows. The system intelligently routes requests, determining if user-level handling is sufficient or if escalation to a contract management team is required, ensuring efficient resource allocation and proper oversight. 

Agiloft’s core capabilities allow for customized pre-filled fields based on user roles, streamlining routine tasks while accommodating exceptions. Users retain control, modifying requests as needed, balancing automation with flexibility for compliance and efficiency. Agiloft further minimizes user effort by automatically populating basic contract details and integrating with CRM/ERP systems for seamless counterparty data retrieval. 

Upon request submission, Agiloft initiates workflows based on contract type. Self-service contract requests trigger automated workflows, providing essential contract details and customizable optional clauses with compliance guardrails. This flexibility allows users to tailor contracts within pre-approved standards. 

Finally, Agiloft integrates with e-signature platforms like DocuSign and Adobe Sign for efficient document generation and signing. Automatic internal signer assignment based on pre-defined matrices and automatic contract storage upon execution ensures transparency and efficient lifecycle management. Counterparties can receive the contract directly via email, with escalation options for redlining. 

Swifter, easier contract management

Agiloft offers two primary request pathways: self-service and requester-initiated. Self-service empowers users to generate documents, such as NDAs, using pre-approved templates and clauses, significantly accelerating the process while retaining full visibility into all requests and document statuses.  

Alternatively, the requester-initiated workflow, accessed via an end-user portal, caters to contracts requiring Legal, Procurement, or centralized review using a dynamic intake form with a pre-defined workflow, ensuring all drafts are routed for review upon completion. 

Intake forms that adapt to user needs

Agiloft’s dynamic intake forms streamline request submission by adapting based on user input. Fields appear or disappear based on selections, ensuring only relevant information is collected. Mandatory fields remain consistent across all requests. For example, selecting a “small construction agreement” prompts the appearance of specific construction project details. This approach ensures accurate data capture to automate and accelerate the contract documentation process. 

These intake forms gather all necessary information for contract managers, minimizing follow-up inquiries and improving internal customer experience while reducing cycle times. Switching to a “services agreement” removes construction-specific fields and displays service-related ones, while counterparty information can be pulled from existing tables or integrated systems. 

Once submitted, requesters can track their requests’ status and view associated attachments within the portal, providing transparency throughout the process. 

How CLM helps contract managers

From a contract manager‘s perspective, Agiloft’s core capabilities provides a centralized repository displaying assigned contracts and required follow-up actions. Contract requests can be assigned to managers based on expertise, department, or contract type. Alternatively, requests can be distributed to a pool of managers via a first-come, first-served or round-robin system. 

Within a contract’s lifecycle, managers access the requester’s intake information and can add further details, such as contract start and end dates. Based on field-level information, the system dynamically determines and displays relevant optional clauses. These clauses can be selected manually or automatically, driven by specific criteria like contract value, ensuring accurate and compliant contract generation. This automated clause selection based on data input streamlines the contract management process. After gathering necessary information, contract managers can generate and attach the initial contract version.  

Agiloft’s core capabilities: the right tools for the job

Agiloft leverages generative AI to create summaries of key contract points, which can be stored at the field level for reporting and sharing. These summaries are customizable based on contract type or departmental needs. 

Agiloft’s industry-leading CLM platform also tracks document versions, highlighting changes between revisions; even if track changes are disabled in Microsoft Word. Added text is underlined in red, while removed text is struck through. Upon execution, the final PDF is automatically stored in the contract record. And speaking of Word, Agiloft integrates seamlessly with it, allowing users to access contract data and pre-approved clause libraries directly within the application.  

Intake form data is automatically populated into the contract document, and the Agiloft contract assistant plugin provides access to the clause library, enabling efficient contract negotiation without switching between applications. Users can search and filter clauses, streamlining the process of adding pre-approved language. 

A clause for celebration

Agiloft’s core capabilities include a pre-approved clause library, accessible within Microsoft Word, allowing users to easily find and insert clauses via scrolling, searching, or filtering by type. This ensures readily available access to approved language during contract negotiation. 

The clause library also categorizes clauses as “standard” or “fallback.” Once clauses are incorporated into a contract, Agiloft’s contract clauses table tracks all included clauses and their modifications. This includes the original clause, the current version, and any approved changes made during negotiation. This tracking enables future analysis, facilitating updates to the clause library, such as creating new fallbacks or modifying standard clauses, to improve negotiation efficiency. 

Flexible contract review options

Moving onto the approval stage, approvals can be automatically generated based on clause modifications, routing to subject matter experts as needed. Alternatively, teams can collaborate directly within the platform using a dedicated collaboration tab, adding notes and notifications for reviewers. 

For internal and external (counterparty) collaboration, Agiloft facilitates email communication with customizable templates and free-form messages. All email correspondence is tracked within the contract record, providing a comprehensive audit trail. This integration ensures that counterparty replies and attachments are automatically incorporated into the record, notifying relevant team members of updates and facilitating efficient negotiation. 

Following negotiation, Agiloft automates the approval process with workflows triggered by contract type and conditions like contract value or specific clauses. This ensures that relevant stakeholders, such as finance or compliance, are automatically included in the approval chain, eliminating manual selection. 

Approvers receive notifications and can approve contracts through various methods: directly within the contract record, via Teams or Slack notifications with approval links/buttons, or through email. Agiloft’s email approval feature includes a mobile-friendly “thumb-sized” approval button and configurable email content with attachments like the contract and an AI-generated executive summary. 

The summary highlights key changes, such as added clauses, enabling approvers to quickly identify deviations from pre-approved templates. Approvers also have visibility into the entire approval workflow, seeing who has approved and who will approve next. 

Following the approval process, Agiloft facilitates seamless e-signature workflows, similar to the self-service model. A key feature is the inclusion of cover letter information, allowing approvers to access crucial details before signing. This ensures informed decisions and streamlines the final stages of the contract lifecycle. 

Once the contract is fully executed, Agiloft’s automated lifecycle management takes over. The system tracks the contract’s status, updating it from “signed” to “active” based on pre-defined rules and the contract start date. The fully executed agreement is automatically stored within the contract record’s attachments tab, and all relevant team members receive notifications. This automated tracking and notification system ensures transparency and keeps all stakeholders informed throughout the contract’s active period. 

Searching, reporting, and dashboards

Agiloft offers powerful search and reporting features, enabling users to efficiently locate and analyze contract information. The platform supports both quick and saved searches, catering to ad-hoc inquiries and recurring needs. Quick search allows keyword searches across contract metadata and attached documents, leveraging OCR technology for comprehensive retrieval. Notably, it also supports AI-powered analysis of third-party contracts, extracting key terms and assessing risk. 

Users can refine quick searches with filters, such as contract amount and company, narrowing results to specific criteria. The system displays search results with previews and relationship views, revealing interconnected contracts. Saved searches, designed for frequently accessed data, provide quick access to predefined queries, like contracts expiring within 90 days. 

These saved searches form the basis for generating reports, which can be scheduled for automated delivery to relevant teams. Reports can be visualized as charts and accessed directly from contract records. Agiloft further enhances data accessibility with customizable dashboards, displaying key performance indicators and contract lifecycle stages. Users can drill down into dashboard elements for detailed information and utilize filters to refine views. Dashboards also provide task queues and contract status views, streamlining contract management workflows and providing a centralized hub for contract related actions. 

Want to see Agiloft’s core capabilities in action? Check out our on-demand demo, “Contracting bottlenecks? Transforming contract chaos into clarity for 2025.”