To most businesses, contracts are crucial. At the end of each day, it’s the contracts that bring in money and repeat business for your organization. 

Yet creating and managing all those contracts can be incredibly time-consuming, which is why more professionals are choosing to work with a contract lifecycle management (CLM) provider. The Forrester Wave CLM report showed how partnering with a CLM helps a company create, manage, and get the best business results from their contracts. It also details the areas in which a CLM vendor can add value, tracks some trends among CLM providers, and names Simplus’ partner, SpringCM, a DocuSign company, as a leader in the CLM market. 

In light of that exciting news, all of us at Simplus thought it was time to freshen up on your CLM know-how with an article that takes Forrester’s report into account. In this post, we’ll review what CLM is, why you need it, and how the Simplus and SpringCM, a DocuSign company, partnership is the perfect sherpa for your CLM needs.  

 

So… what is CLM, exactly?

Contract lifecycle management is “the process by which an organization can strengthen and tap into the value of its contract portfolio in order to shorten the sales cycle and reduce costs,” according to SpringCM, a DocuSign company. Okay, but what does that look like in reality for your business?

It looks like this: An intuitive service (the CLM provider) handles and tracks all the details of your contracts for you, so your business keeps focused on finding new leads and increasing income. A CLM provider such as SpringCM, a DocuSign company will standardize, automate, and track contracts from generation through renewal:

Get up and running quickly. Rather than building each contract from the ground up, you can rely on existing templates and imported customer information to reduce your job from hours to minutes. 

Smooth out negotiations. Stop emailing contracts back and forth and wondering whether the right version got attached. Contract changes are stored in one place and easily accessed by all stakeholders. Plus, your team always knows the status of an in-process negotiation. 

Stop chasing approvals. Finding the right person to approve a contract can feel like a wild-goose chase. CLM will automatically get the contract to the right person and allow for electronic approval to simplify the process.

Keep the ball rolling. CLM will automate the renewal process, so no client gets forgotten—and no revenue overlooked.  

 

Why you need CLM

The benefits of CLM are clear and impressive. You say there’s a solution that reduces contract approval time by 82% on average? Yeah, that’s worth signing up for. 

But there are still 85% of all companies using manual processes for contract management and missing out on the value of CLM. The Forrester Wave report identified six additional benefits that CLM delivers to businesses: 

An electronic repository for all of a firm’s contracts. This not only streamlines access, but it also keeps companies in compliance with any audit or government requirements. (Check out what SpringCM, a DocuSign company, has to say about compliance in the contract process)

Enforce policy compliance: Standardizing your process in a purpose-built tool ensures your resources can’t circumvent the policies. For instance, if a salesperson doesn’t have the rights to change payment terms, they are incapable of doing so.

Reporting and analytics. Firms can look at all their contracts, evaluate them as a whole, and report on trends.

Authoring and negotiating new contracts. A CLM system ensures that new contracts include all key data needed to meet legal and business requirements.

Contract management for source-to-contract or sales-lead-to-contract. A common UI that supports all stages ensures streamlined tracking and management. SpringCM, a DocuSign company, includes a clause library for quick construction of contracts, utilizes DocuSign for e-signatures, and easily integrates with CRM software. 

Integrating data into purchasing, order management, and invoicing systems. Price and offer terms are automatically entered into other systems to reduce any user error.

Linking contracts to results to improve language and processes. A big-picture perspective allows companies to identify issues and make changes as needed.  

 

Let Simplus and SpringCM, a DocuSign company, be your CLM sherpas

When Forrester Wave released its report two years ago, SpringCM, a DocuSign company, was an “emerging vendor” Now, SpringCM, a DocuSign company, has grown rapidly and reached the top ranking of “leader” with impressive speed. Forrester Wave commends the “very good usability, strengths in contract creation, contract approval (including workflow), and contract repository” of SpringCM, a DocuSign company, in particular. 

It comes down to simplicity. Contract management is a complicated process, but you don’t have to be the one dealing with all the moving parts. Simplus’ Advisory Services are skilled at re-engineering business processes, adopting change, and making sure new technology like CLM is aligned with. Together, Simplus and SpringCM, a DocuSign company, will work to reduce operational costs, free up time, and accelerate revenue—and make sure you understand every step of the process along the way. 

 

If you’re considering adding a CLM vendor to get more deals and increase revenue, contact Simplus today.