CLM software automates and streamlines each step during a contract’s lifecycle— through contract request, drafting, negotiation/approval process routing, execution, storage, compliance, and contract renewal/closure.

1. What is Contract Lifecycle
Management (CLM)?
Gartner defines contract life cycle management (CLM) software as “an application that
proactively manages contracts from the initiation stage through the award, compliance, and
renewal stages”.
Forrester notes that contract lifecycle management software is “the primary mechanism for
many companies to create, execute, and manage their contractual relationships with
counterparties”. No wonder then, that Forrester states that CLM has today become a
strategic software product for executives.
Simply put, CLM software automates and streamlines each step during a contract’s
lifecycle— through contract request, drafting, negotiation/approval process routing,
execution, storage, compliance, and contract renewal/closure.
What limitations and challenges of the traditional contract management process make CLM
platforms so essential for businesses of all sizes? We’ve rounded up the four main reasons
below:

2. 1. Inefficiencies due to the dependence on cost and time intensive manual processes.
2. Limited visibility to contracts and inefficient collaboration that slows down decision
making.
3. Inability to accurately mine critical contract data and effectively measure business
outcomes.
4. Traditional ways of managing contracts lead to increased risk due to lack of
standardization and the inability to ensure compliance to the approved process.
CLM platforms can help address these challenges. By integrating the fundamentals of the
contract management process in an easy-to-use platform, CLM software delivers time and
cost savings, better risk management, and improved business value.
Key capabilities of best-in-class CLM software
While sound CLM practices are critical for the success of any business, not all CLM tools are
created equal. Best-in-class CLM platforms will include a comprehensive set of specialized
capabilities, with AI being at the core of their functionality. Some major tenets and key
capabilities that you should look for are:
Contract Setup
• Anytime-anywhere access to contracts with a central repository.
• Improved visibility and insights into contracted terms.
• Complete audit trails with easy access to detailed records of changes, variations, and
more.

3. Auto-Extraction and Contract Analytics
• Ability to digitize contracts using AI to capture metadata, clauses, obligations, service
levels, and more.
• AI-powered analytics to identify missing clauses, deviations, and remediation
requirements across legacy contracts.
• Rich insights based on past performance data to drive future negotiation and draft
stronger contracts.
Contract Authoring
• Streamlined contract creation with self-service and guided contract assembly.
• Single-click drafting of simple agreements with contract templates and complex
contract packages (containing a hierarchy of documents such as MSA, SOW, etc.) with
smart tags to auto-populate metadata fields across multiple documents in a package.
• Risk mitigation through enterprise-approved clauses and template libraries.
Legal Review Automation and Streamlined Negotiation
• Automate the legal review process by using artificial intelligence to identify missing
clauses and clause deviations from preferred positions.
• Advanced workflows and collaboration capabilities, including Microsoft Word and
Outlook integrations, for collaborative redlining and negotiations.
• Highly configurable contract workflows with conditional fields and triggers.

4. • Integration with leading electronic signature (e-signature) tools such as DocuSign for
smoother contract execution and contract approval.
Obligation Management
• Ensure contract fulfillment tracking by monitoring contractual obligations against
performance metrics in real-time (this will also help to identify and measure any non-
compliance).
• Use prescriptive analytics to preempt issues and take corrective actions.
• Configure alerts and reminders for upcoming or overdue tasks and milestones.
Dashboards and Reporting
• Enhanced and on-time visibility through out-of-the-box, standard role-based
dashboards based on industry benchmarks.
• Configurable automated alerts and notifications for important upcoming events and
milestones.
Benefits of Using Contract Lifecycle Management
Software
There are more benefits to using CLM platforms besides throwing out the old file cabinet.
The contract lifecycle management process is often a manual, inefficient, and difficult one.
But with an integrated CLM platform, it doesn’t have to be.
Let’s review the main benefits to see why enterprises are increasingly relying on modern CLM
software solutions:

5. • Simpler, faster CLM process: The process of creating and managing contracts is made
far easier with CLM platforms. Equipped with configurable workflows, they allow you
to quickly draft new contracts, negotiate effectively and automate approval routing.
Once a contract has been executed, CLM software will keep you updated on
important dates and obligations related to the contract.
• Transparency and visibility into contract portfolio: Get convenient and timely access
to the most current document versions in a centralized contract repository. Intelligent
extraction powered by AI enables you to mine contracts for important insights by
converting contract documents into searchable digital objects.
• Risk mitigation and contract compliance: CLM platforms enable organizations to
drive compliance to the approved, standardized contracting process with built-in risk
controls, reducing risk from maverick contracting.
• Improved collaboration: By using CLM platforms, you break functional silos and
overcome time-wasting bottlenecks. Contract managers and employees from
different enterprise functions—such as procurement, sourcing, sales, commercial,
finance, IT, supply chain, and legal teams—see a notable uptick in productivity and
benefit from improved collaboration across various stages of the contracting process.
Further, you can collaborate better with external stakeholders like clients, vendors,
and partners.
• Increased business value: All business relationships are governed by contracts. CLM
programs enable you to stay on top of your contracts by ensuring that all contractual
obligations are met on time. You get exactly what was expected and agreed in the
contracts, enabling you to extract maximum value from commercial relationships.
• Integrations: CLM software easily integrates with adjacent enterprise systems such as
procure-to-pay, CRM, and ERP. This enables you to leverage cross-platform and cross-

6. technology synergies to create a single source of truth and also maximize value from
your existing tech installations.
SirionLabs is the leading, all-in-One Contract
Lifecycle Management Solution
SirionLabs is the leader in enterprise CLM recognized for its innovations and stands out for its
in-house developed and patent-pending AI technology. Its award-winning smarter
contracting platform, SirionOne CLM, automates the end-to-end contract lifecycle on a single
platform, connecting all enterprise teams and unlocking intelligence hidden in contracts.
SirionOne CLM stands apart from competitors in several ways:
• We offer an end-to-end CLM solution with integrated functionality for the entire
contract lifecycle including authoring, analytics, and ongoing governance and
performance management. No other CLM platform offers this breadth and depth of
capability.
• SirionOne’s smart AI-powered analytics technology works on neural-network based AI
(vs traditional rule-based AI), which is self-learning in nature and grows smarter and
faster with each contract processed.
• The platform delivers real and tangible business impact and ROI by driving business
acceleration, improving risk control, and enhancing revenue and savings in
commercial engagements.
• It’s an easy-to-use, intuitive platform that ensures a great user experience and high
adoption levels.

7. • It’s an enterprise-grade, secure and scalable platform that is easily integrable with
other enterprise technologies.
SirionLabs offers cutting-edge solutions for smarter contracting. The world’s largest
organizations trust SirionLabs’ AI-powered contract lifecycle management technology to
manage 5 million+ contracts worth over $450 billion across 70+ countries.
Contact us to schedule a demo, or to simply learn why leading enterprises select SirionLabs’
CLM platform.
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