Setting up a contract lifecycle management (CLM) system can be a resource-intensive process. Choosing the right software and configuring it to the organization’s exact requirements can tie up resources for months. Instead of building a home for your contracts brick by brick, why not consider ready-made options? 

Throughout the years, Deloitte Legal’s experts have succeeded in streamlining or even bypassing the process of requirement-gathering, vendor evaluation and custom-building a “pilot version” when introducing a new contract lifecycle management (CLM) solution in a very simple way: introducing pre-packaged CLM systems, like Contractify. The accessibility and streamlined approach of Contractify’s platform lets you celebrate the go-live of a CLM in just 1 to 3 months after the first kick-off call.

This blog post outlines the process and the benefits of a pre-packaged CLM implementation and introduces the user-friendly CLM solution Contractify, which is especially suited for small to medium enterprises.

Implementation timeline

Instead of conducting a comprehensive and individual market analysis and vendor selection, Deloitte Legal’s experienced advisory team will help establish if Contractify is likely to meet your CLM needs with an initial questionnaire and a validation session.

The first month is all about design. Once the kick-off decision has been made, your organization benefits from Deloitte Legal’s pre-formulated contract data and access rights models, which can be adjusted to your organization with minimal amendments, such as naming business departments and agreeing on the list of contract types recognized by the system.

The second month’s focus will be on technical deployment. Contractify can tap into your Microsoft Active Directory for single-sign on. If desired, it can also connect to your existing CRM- or ERP-System to synchronize contract party data. In the pre-packaged implementation, Contractify will support your users with a versatile ad-hoc approval functionality that requires zero configuration effort. On top of that, the contract registration process can be accelerated by using the machine learning module ‘Ada’. Ada automatically extracts important metadata from contracts upon registration. This allows the user to add contracts to the platform more quickly, while reducing human errors. Deloitte Legal will provide you with a template CLM policy to document how Contractify should be used in your organization. For example, the CLM policy defines what contracts are in and out of scope for storage in Contractify. Deloitte Legal will also provide a template “run concept” document which covers topics such as the user onboarding and user support processes as well as other aspects integral for keeping your Contractify system relevant and operational on an ongoing basis.

The third month is for go-live and hypercare. User training will be provided in English language in up to three separate training sessions, along with a comprehensive user manual. Recordings of the training sessions will be made available so that you can re-use them for onboarding future users going forward.

When is a pre-packaged Contractify solution right for you? A self-help checklist.

Opting for a pre-packaged CLM implementation with Contractify will generally suit your organization if:

• You are a small to medium enterprise with an organizational structure of average complexity;
• You value a quick and cost-efficient implementation;
• You value cost transparency from the outset of the project;
• You are ready to generally adopt the robust, best-practice approval processes and streamlined data models that come with the package;
• You are looking for the core features of a CLM tool (document repository, deadline reminders, approval workflows, esigning) with an option to move into automated contract generation over time;
• You value a CLM system that will easily upgrade to future versions and requires only limited maintenance effort due to the absence of complex customizations.

Your organization will likely not benefit from a pre-packaged implementation if:

• You are a large-scale enterprise with a complex organizational structure;
• You are valuing a made-to-measure approach and a tool that exactly mimics your requirements and current work processes;
• Your organization prefers working with very established software vendors;
• You prioritize the specific benefits from running (and financing) a bespoke implementation project and a closely customized software solution;
• You are looking for a solution that strongly automates the contract creation phase.

Conclusion

Pre-packaged CLM solutions offer an attractive alternative to a fully customized CLM selection and implementation project. The Contractify solution offers a compelling set of functionality for small-to-medium firms and the ‘prefabricated’ Deloitte Legal approach gives you access to first-class advisory at a very competitive price-point. While not for those desiring customized solutions, the undeniable quickness and simplicity offer a high-value alternative.