How Contract Management Evolved Over the Years

Contract management was not always as seamless as it is today. It took years of spotting gaps and adapting ideas to arrive at a process that uses the latest technology to improve CLM. The evolution of contract management begins with the need to move from manual contract storage to digital.

Presenting the Founders – Digitizing the Contract Repository

After spending years printing out contracts and storing them away in filing cabinets, enterprise teams saw the light and realized it was time to go digital. They put their copy machines to good use, adding scans of their agreements into local drives at the office.

This was time-consuming and left contracts—and the data they contained—siloed and not easily accessible across teams. Plus, even digitized,  just storing the documents in a contract repository had no positive impact on how teams set up, authored, or negotiated agreements.

Ramping Up – Improving Contract Authoring

Years passed, and enterprise organizations needed a way to move faster and make contracting more cost-effective. Teams realized they needed to automate contracting tasks to meet evolving business demands.

Legal teams improved how they completed contract authoring tasks by setting up standardized templates within contract repositories and using the database to put together first drafts. This combatted the issues that stemmed from long, tedious contract lifecycles and freed up time team members could better spend elsewhere.

However, there was still much room for improvement in how other colleagues across the business accessed and leveraged the data within their contracts, particularly post-signature.

Saying Goodbye – Ditching Traditional CLM

Various teams within enterprise organizations started manually making notes in CRM systems and setting reminders regarding renewal, deadlines, and obligations for each client post-signature. While this slightly improved search functionality and vendor management, it took a lot of work to maintain at scale.

Plus, manual contract management still left room for:

• Invoicing errors
• Poor vendor experience 
• Increased costs
• Subpar collaboration
• Delayed deals
• Dismal communication

As organizations needed a way to extract, structure, and track contract data, as well as vendor performance, teams moved away from traditional CLM platforms. Instead, they invested in ones that offered new technology and greater capabilities. 

Automating Actions and Data – Introducing AI

Artificial intelligence transformed the contracting landscape. Modern CLM software leverages this technology to redefine the role of contract management as an enabler of internal and external collaboration.

Enterprise teams across all functions can now use AI to expertly manage contracts pre-signature, during negotiations, and post-signature to turn them into living documents. With this new technology, stakeholders across the entire organization can access the accurate, aligned data they need to drive incredible value.

They can then use the data accessed via AI contract analysis to:

• Reduce Risk — Use vital data points to make informed security, compliance, and operation decisions.
• Boost Revenue — Avoid value leakage and ensure your contract management practices contribute to a solid bottom line.
• Increase Efficiency — Reduce the time spent drafting contracts, reviewing language, and finding relevant data.
• Strengthen Supplier Relationships — Minimize disputes with shared contract and performance data accessed through role-based dashboards.
• Secure Intended Business Outcomes — Improve compliance with contract terms and drive performance of contract obligations.