What is Contract Lifecycle Management and its Process?

What is contract lifecycle management and what are the best processes to manage contract management?

Behind the scenes of every organisation, there’s a never-ending stream of document workflows, contract lifecycle processes and agreements. How you manage this operational infrastructure helps your organisation to keep moving forward. In this blog, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the contract management process — so your organisation can implement a contract management solution that promotes productivity, inspires clients and drives revenue:

• What is contract lifecycle management?
• What is the contract lifecycle management process?
• What is a contract lifecycle management system?
• How to know if you need CLM?
• What to consider when evaluating a CLM solution or CLM software
• Best practices for implementing CLM

What is contract lifecycle management? 

Gartner defines contract lifecycle management (CLM) as the “applications used for managing contracts from initiation through ongoing management and eventual renewal or termination.” In simpler terms, contract lifecycle management refers to the methods you use to prepare, sign, store and act on your business agreements. 

Contracts are used in every department and industry—by organisations of any size. Here are a few types of contracts that may be involved in your contract management process:

• Purchase orders
• Sales contracts
• Loan documents
• Real estate contracts 
• Lease agreements
• Employee offer letters 
• Change orders 
• Non-disclosure agreements

As they travel through your organisation and between acting parties, many documents require multiple drafts, legal reviews and signatures. Traditionally, these administrative tasks were conducted manually—a contract was printed out, signed with pen and ink, scanned and sent back to the sender. Today, advanced contract lifecycle management solutions help businesses manage agreements digitally, which increases transparency across the organisation and streamlines every stage of the contract management process. 

What is the contract lifecycle management process?

From drafting to signing, contracts navigate a predictable path through nearly every organisation. But without a clear understanding of the contract management process, many businesses have trouble identifying areas in their internal processes that are ripe for improvement—where time can be saved, errors avoided and revenue captured. 

Contracts are one of the first places to look when searching for ways to promote efficiency within your organisation.

Here are the 5 stages of the CLM process:

1. Document generation

Document generation is the first step in every contract management process—and includes any of the initial drafting and information sourcing procedures that are required when a new document is created. 

Many times, the process starts by locating an existing version of a document that needs renegotiating, updated language or a new, secure storage location. Next, you might make a copy and adjust the agreement’s terms or pull in new information—like names, addresses, product pricing or terms and conditions. 

2. Routing and negotiation 

Next comes the contract approval process. After you're done with the initial preparation of your agreement, where does it go—and how does it get there? The routing and negotiation stage of contract management accounts for any workflows that are involved in the sending, editing and negotiating of a newly generated agreement— with both internal and external stakeholders. 

Routing and negotiation are where many contracts spend a significant portion of their life. As a result, it’s an area of the process where optimisation can have a significant impact on your organisation’s operational efficiency. If you rely on manual management of your contracts, emailing versions or tracking changes can quickly weigh your organisation down and make lifecycle management more complex. Fortunately, there are easy ways to simplify even the most complex contract management workflows—which will be covered in greater detail in the following section. 

3. Document signing 

Document signing accounts for a small sliver of the document management process—but it’s arguably the most important step. The legality of every contract depends on a secure, verifiable signature. 

For centuries, pen-to-paper signatures served as the sole document-signing solution. Today, since business is regularly conducted online, requiring manual signatures can create major bottlenecks in the contract management process. These days, electronic signatures make it easy to execute documents from anywhere in the world in an instant—creating a quick, seamless remote document management experience for all counter-parties.

4. Integration with Systems of Record

A crucial, time-saving step in every successful management of the contract lifecycle process requires integrating your CLM solution with your other Systems of Record. Automatically pre-fill contracts with information from existing data sources (like contact info or product pricing), and reduce the number of unnecessary administrative tasks required to move contracts forward. 

An integrated CLM solution also makes it easier to act on completed agreements. For instance, an e-signature sent to HR from a new hire may automatically trigger the next step in the onboarding process—sharing materials like tax forms or training resources. 

5. Search and analysis

After a contract is signed, the final stage in the contract management process involves storing it in a centralised, searchable location, where it can be easily accessed. Existing contracts are one of your organisation’s most important assets. It’s important to keep close tabs on completed contracts. For instance, if your contracts are tied up in unsearchable PDFs, analysing and amending your existing contracts as industry regulations evolve is next to impossible. 

Modern CLM solutions have features like contract analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to help instantly identify specific clauses and terms that are embedded in the language of existing agreements.

What is a contract lifecycle management system?

Contract lifecycle management systems are software applications that help organisations and departments manage contracts more efficiently. Unlike manual document management strategies, CLM systems are built to help you store and find contracts, supplier information, standard contract terms and contract templates with ease. Ultimately, contract management systems make managing contracts—and running your business—less work.

How does contract lifecycle management work?

At a basic level, a contract lifecycle management system is a suite of tools that makes it easier to manage your agreements. Historically, agreement management—from authoring and approval to routing and signing—required ongoing coordination between a number of internal and external actors and solutions. Contract lifecycle management works by bringing disparate operational processes together under one roof to create a seamless end-to-end agreement management experience. 

Centralised dashboards increase contract visibility and minimise the need for communication among parties. Automated drafting, routing and workflow management accelerate time to completion and reduces the risks associated with the manual transfer of data. Electronic signatures offer an efficient and secure way to approve business agreements—from anywhere, at any time.

Ultimately, it’s system interconnectivity that gives any enterprise CLM solution its might. Integrating every stage in the contract management process to create one simple System of Agreement promotes a secure, agile operational infrastructure—which makes life easier for you and your counter-parties.

How to automate contract workflows—routing, collaboration and negotiation 

End-to-end automation sits at the heart of every enterprise contract management solution. Automating each step helps simplify complex workflows—and enables a flexible, configurable document management system. 

For example, take the agreement approval process—which 53% of businesses cite as their biggest challenge within contract management. Sales proposals are typically drafted and then sent to various members of sales and/or legal teams via email. Feedback typically lands via email, too, creating a lengthy, reply-all thread that can quickly become, in a word, unmanageable. Additionally, some parties arrive late to the thread, resulting in changes to outdated document versions, which wastes effort, creates confusion, and can cause deal-jeopardising delays. 

Automating and centralising the contracting process from the outset accelerates the creation of efficient, secure contract workflows between sales and legal teams. Once a contract is generated, the contract management solution makes it accessible to all stakeholders, keeps it updated with real-time revisions and comments—and sends it through the right workstreams in a timely way, managing each step precisely and meticulously. 

Multi-system integration—connect the contract process across the org

Connectivity along all stages of the contract management process is critical. CLM solutions enable integration at the enterprise level by facilitating coordination between your organisation’s existing Systems of Record. 

Bringing client, patient or customer data online can be a painful process without the right tools. However, a CLM solution that integrates with other cloud-based management software (like Salesforce) provides the connectivity you need to automate your operational infrastructure seamlessly. Auto-fill contracts with existing client information and generate contracts at a moment's notice—securing client relationships and saving valuable resources at the same time.

Reduce risk—searchable contract repository, analytics

Email, as a business platform, is especially vulnerable to cyber attacks. Despite this tremendous vulnerability, almost 80% of contract management professionals regularly use email to share sensitive agreements. 

As more business moves online, organisations around the globe must elevate their cybersecurity awareness. In addition to streamlining operational procedures, the right CLM system can safeguard sensitive or private information with advanced encryption. Every document also produces a court-admissible, digital audit trail—providing contract management professionals and legal officials with full track-and-trace capabilities. 

Additionally, business security can benefit from CLM tools like document analytics and contract repositories, which help identify and minimise risks or compliance issues embedded in the existing language. For instance, as the London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR) ceased on 31 December 2021, ~$240 trillion worth of contracts need renegotiating. Manually searching through existing contracts to track-down risky language is overly burdensome and impracticable. Investing in integrated AI solutions and searchable contract repositories now will dramatically reduce the time and money your organisation spends on contract management down the road. 

How to know if you need CLM

Every business can benefit from the simplicity and efficiency that an enterprise CLM solution offers. In fact, after implementing an enterprise CLM solution, businesses may realise a potential return on investment of as much as 365%. But how do you know if investing in a CLM solution is really suitable for your business? 

First, think about which departments would benefit the most from automation or more efficient operational procedures. Common use cases for CLM software include 

• Sales: Your business can only move as fast as your sales agreements. That’s why sales teams across all industries are reinventing their agreement processes to be more agile, efficient and customer-focused.  During the sales process, contracts define every major milestone—from negotiating and signing to billing and renewal. As a result, inefficient methods of contract management and storage (like email or Excel spreadsheets) can cost the average business up to 9.2% of its annual revenue. Not only does an effective contract management solution streamline the sales process and minimise operational costs, but it also improves the customer experience—driving revenue and greater client retention.    
• Legal: Legal review and approval is a crucial step in every contract’s journey, but it’s also traditionally one of the most time-intensive steps. According to a 2020 study conducted by Forrester and commissioned by DocuSign, 50% of legal professionals reported inefficiencies in their contract management process stemming from the manual transfer of data. Another 62% reported having to rework contracts due to errors regularly. The longer it takes for you to get an agreement finalised and out the door, the less business finds its way in. A successful transition from manual to digital contract management eliminates errors, ensures compliance and accelerates time to value. 
• Procurement: As the primary link between an organisation and its vendors, there’s enormous pressure on procurement to move quickly and maximise value. Procurement teams that rely on manual or paper-based contract management procedures introduce their company to inefficiencies and unforeseen costs—limiting the team’s ability to add value to your organisation. According to a 2020 Forrester survey shared with procurement leaders, top priorities are cutting costs and mitigating risks. Additionally, 84% of supply chain managers point to low contract visibility during the procurement process as their biggest challenge. Automated solutions for these concerns are readily within reach. 

Forrester research and interviews with DocuSign customers found implementing an enterprise contract lifecycle management solution can deliver significant potential benefits, including: 

• 20-day reduction in contract processing time 
• 83% faster time to value 
• Savings of £1,300 per contract on outside counsel
• Reduced risk exposure due to increased contract visibility, valued at £389,000 
• Reduced contract value leakage by identifying redundant vendor contracts and opportunities for volume discounting, valued at £1 million 
• Improved contract integrity

Throughout an organisation, optimised procurement workflows translate to lower costs, stronger compliance and more visibility across the board.

Deloitte Legal recommends piloting CLM Technology as a first step for a CLM transformation. By piloting CLM on a small scale and proving its success, it can then roll-out to a wider audience with buy-in and support from key stakeholders.

What to consider when evaluating a CLM solution

Once you decide to update your CLM solution, your decision becomes: What makes one CLM solution better than another? Let’s start by considering what contract management software is designed to accomplish: 

1. Increased visibility: Provide a 360-degree view of the entire contract management process from start to finish. 
2. Reduced operational costs: Save time and money with pre-approved templates and standardised workflows.
3. Minimised risks: Lower risks by introducing analytics, security and track-and-trace capabilities into the contract management process.
4. Improved compliance:  Enhance operational, contractual and regulatory compliance with clause libraries and artificial intelligence. 

When evaluating CLM solutions, you’ll want to select a system with features that ensure the above goals are met. Here are some common features to look for in your next CLM software:

• Flexible, configurable workflows: Defines, deploys and maintains contract workflows at the enterprise level with ease—creating a faster path to value and lower total cost of ownership as processes change. 
• Document generation: Creates preconfigured templates and auto-populates contracts during the drafting process with pre-approved language or CRM data. 
• Collaboration and negotiation: Promotes transparency in the routing process. Enables parties to send contracts for review, track changes across multiple versions and maintain a secure, digital audit trail to hold all actors accountable for their role in the approval process. 
• Clause library: Stores pre-approved clauses and fall-back language to eliminate in-depth legal reviews on every document. 
• Centralised, searchable repository: Stores, tags, and organises contracts in a single, searchable location—with permission controls. 
• CRM integration: Seamlessly integrates with your other Systems of Record, such as Salesforce or another CRM system. For instance, integration helps automate the document generation process—auto-filling new agreements with existing CRM data. 
• Security: Complies with your industry’s regulations, e.g., SOC 2, HIPAA, TRUSTe and FedRAMP. 

Gartner Research evaluates software vendors based on 15 criteria to aid your search for the right CLM solution,  including touch points like market responsiveness and overall customer experience. See the latest Gartner CLM Magic Quadrant report.

Best practices for implementing CLM 

The benefits of automation are clear: greater operational efficiency, higher employee productivity and increased customer satisfaction. However, even thinking about the possibility of a digital transformation can be daunting. Many professionals don’t know where to start. Fortunately, there are a few simple steps you can take to move your business towards the efficiency of an automated contract management process. Spend less time pushing paper, and create a frictionless contract management process that reduces costs, accelerates revenue and enables your organisation to respond quickly to changes in the business environment.   

Here are eight easy steps to prepare for the deployment of an enterprise-wide contract management system, based on the experiences of hundreds of organisations: 

1. Begin at the executive level. It’s essential that all executives buy into the adoption of a new contract management system. Without enterprise-wide support, allocating resources for budget and training becomes an uphill battle. Clear communication and alignment at the highest level also inspire adoption throughout the organisation. 
2. Establish governance. Once leaders are on board, put together a qualified and diverse team to shepherd the implementation and execution of your CLM program. Strong alignment on the rules, practices and processes across the enterprise starts with the right team. 
3. Empower enablement and train your team. Successfully adopting a CLM solution at scale requires enabling and training workers across multiple departments. Help users get up to speed quickly and teach each employee how to use the new technology within the specific context of their role.  
4. Identify current processes—and visualise the future state. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there. Getting the full value out of your CLM system requires closing the gap between your current and future states. This starts with assessing your current contract management system to identify inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement. 
5. Define project success. Clearly defining what project success looks like for your organisation is a critical but often overlooked step in the implementation process. Stating the metrics and goals of your new CLM system at the very beginning enables you to demonstrate continued ROI as you grow.  
6. Start small. Even simple changes to enterprise contract management initiatives can yield quick ROI. So rather than tackle the entire implementation all at once, break it into bite-sized chunks. The added benefit of starting small—or introducing a minimal viable product (MVP)—is that it gives you the opportunity to learn as you go and leverage key insights down the line. Begin by prioritising high-impact, lower-risk use cases. 
7. Prioritise and migrate contracts. Migrating active legacy contracts and compliance documents is a primary concern for any organisation that is starting its digital journey. Even today, a significant number of businesses store contracts in filing cabinets—which makes finding and digitising contracts a challenge. Collaborate with your vendor to create a plan for migrating documents onto a new CLM platform. 
8. Test robustly. Who knows what they want to get out of your new CLM more than your business’ subject matter experts? Get the most knowledgeable people within your organisation involved in the contract management testing process. Properly configuring your CLM solution through rigorous testing saves time on roll-out and reduces project risks.  

One of the challenges in CLM projects can be the length of time projects take from business case through to live deployments. In this article, Deloitte Legal look at how to accelerate CLM implementations and blueprinting methodology.

Are you ready to automate your agreement lifecycle?

Are you ready for process automation that makes it easy to manage the full contract lifecycle? Are you ready for greater visibility into risks and opportunities at a lower cost than manual contract management?

Contract management offers an opportunity to cut back on the processes that slow business down. Stay agile and promote company-wide efficiency with an enterprise CLM solution; it all starts with a business case. Here’s more on how to hit the ground running with management of the contract lifecycle.

Additional reading: 

4 Key Benefits of Contract Automation

Contract Lifecycle Management 101

How to Hit the Ground Running with CLM

How to Drive End-to-End Business Process Automation at Scale