The Crucial Link in Contract Lifecycle Management
The value of Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions is primarily based on their ability to standardize the contract authoring process through clause and contract templates and self-service wizards, and guide new contracts through a standard workflow through to signature and execution, according to an article published by Seal Software on its website.
Many CLM solutions have performed these process-oriented tasks, but some other critical functional requirements needed to meet everyday challenges in contract management still remain unaddressed.
“The challenge is that many organizations have tens of thousands of active (legacy) contracts that existed prior to a CLM implementation and likely reside across any number of file share drives, document management systems, personal computers and other types of “make-shift” repositories.” the article says. “This is sometimes due to nature of contracting, where the Procurement team has its requirements and solutions for contracting, the Sales team has theirs, Facilities has theirs, and the Legal team uses their own processes for managing various types of legal agreements. Add some M&A into the mix, where thousands of new contacts may be coming into an organization and the problem is magnified. Each legacy contract likely contains more exposed risk due to the typical ad hoc creation and negotiation process than any new contract being created through a new CLM system.”
