What is CLM? Discover the power of Contract Lifecycle Management

Contract Lifecycle Management, or CLM, is a legal tech solution revolutionising the way companies manage their contracts. Just when you think everything is under control, an important contract gets lost in a pile of paperwork, triggering a chain of urgent issues and complications. Can you afford to make mistakes, waste time and incur losses from failures in manual contract management? This is where CLM software comes in, a solution that turns chaos into order. Read on to discover how CLM can not only save your next big deal, but also radically improve the efficiency of your entire organisation.

In this article, you will find:

1. What is Contract Lifecycle Management or CLM?
2. Why should my company have CLM software?
3. Key benefits of CLM or Contract Lifecycle Management
4. Problems solved by CLM software
5. What is the contract lifecycle and what phases does it include?
6. Main features of CLM software
7. Who uses CLM in companies?
8. ROI of CLM software
9. Explore the benefits of Bigle next-generation CLM

What is Contract Lifecycle Management or CLM?

Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) is a type of software offering a comprehensive approach to contract management within an organisation, that covers the entire lifecycle of a contract, from the request through to its automated creation, negotiation, approval, compliance, electronic signature and up to expiry or renewal. Software such as Bigle's CLM provides a platform for managing the entire process, boosting efficiency and compliance in companies' legal operations.

This type of solution not only improves operational efficiency and reduces the risks associated with manual contract management, but also optimises negotiations and regulatory compliance. By integrating a CLM into their operations, organisations can ensure greater contractual consistency, improve responsiveness to legal and regulatory change, and gain valuable insights into performance and exposure to contractual risk.

■ You might be interested in: Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)

Why should my company have CLM software?

A company should implement Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software because it helps digitise contract management, centralise information and extract greater value from contracts through technology. As organisations recognise the strategic importance of their agreements, CLM becomes a key tool for improving efficiency, control and visibility across the entire contract lifecycle.

Beyond digitising contracts, how does a CLM improve management within a company? Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) improves business management by bringing greater transparency, control and efficiency to legal operations. By centralising all contract information on a single platform, legal and business teams can access an up-to-date view of the status of agreements, their terms, obligations and associated risks. This makes it easier for departments to collaborate, improves alignment with the organisation's strategic objectives and enables faster, better-informed decisions.

How does a CLM help protect contracts and ensure compliance? In a context of growing digitalisation, Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software helps protect the sensitive information contained in contracts through access controls, traceability and more secure document management. It also makes it easier to comply with data protection regulations and reduces the risks associated with manual contract management.

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Key benefits of CLM or Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)

At the heart of efficient contract management is the ability to control, automate and optimise every stage of the contract lifecycle. Implementing Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software allows organisations to reduce manual tasks, improve collaboration between teams and gain greater visibility over the information linked to their agreements.

• How does a CLM improve operational efficiency?

A Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution makes it possible to automate manual tasks and repetitive processes related to contract management. This helps reduce working time, standardise approval workflows and improve coordination between the teams involved in drafting, reviewing and managing contracts.

• How does a CLM help reduce contractual risk?

By centralising information and making it easier to track clauses, obligations and important dates, Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software makes it possible to identify potential breaches earlier, reduce human error and improve control over the commitments the organisation has taken on.

• How does a CLM improve collaboration between teams?

Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) makes it easier for different areas of the organisation to collaborate through centralised processes and tools for reviewing, commenting on, approving and managing contracts more efficiently. By connecting legal and business teams on the same platform, CLM improves communication, reduces response times and enables more coordinated contract management.

• How does a CLM guarantee the security and accessibility of contracts?

A Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution provides centralised, controlled access to contracts and related documents, ensuring greater protection of information. It also makes it possible to manage access permissions, keep track of actions taken and facilitate compliance with data protection regulations.

• How does a CLM provide greater visibility and control over contracts?

Thanks to dashboards, alerts and tracking tools, organisations can know the status of their contracts at all times, anticipate unwanted expirations or renewals, and improve oversight of their contractual obligations.

• What analysis and reports can CLM software generate?

Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) makes it possible to generate customised reports on the status, performance and risks associated with contracts. This analysis provides relevant information for identifying opportunities for improvement and supporting more strategic decision-making.

• How does a CLM help with regulatory compliance?

Centralised contract management makes it easier to track regulatory requirements and helps organisations comply with local and international regulations, reducing the likelihood of penalties or non-compliance.

What problems does Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software solve?

Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software addresses a series of critical challenges that organisations face in contract management, providing solutions to common problems. Here are five of the main problems it solves:

• Disorganisation and difficult access to documents: many companies still store contracts in physical formats or disorganised systems, making it harder to access important documents quickly when they are needed most and increasing the risk of misplacing them or creating security gaps. CLM centralises and digitises all contracts, enabling fast, easy access while improving searchability and document security.
• Manual errors in contract management: manual contract handling is prone to errors, from simple data entry mistakes to critical omissions in terms and conditions, or forgetting key events and dates. CLM automates many of these tasks, reducing the likelihood of errors and ensuring greater accuracy in contract management.
• Compliance and regulatory risk: staying compliant with local and international regulations is a constant challenge. CLM software is designed to help monitor and ensure regulatory compliance throughout each contract's lifecycle, standardising the application of new compliance requirements or renewal deadlines.
• Inefficiencies in contract tracking and execution: tracking the progress of multiple contracts throughout their lifecycle can be complex and prone to delays, particularly in larger organisations. CLM provides a platform for automating manual processes, eliminating inefficiencies and monitoring contract status, ensuring deadlines are met and the necessary actions are carried out at every stage.
• Difficulties in contract collaboration and approval: coordinating between multiple parties for contract review and approval can be slow and complicated. CLM facilitates real-time collaboration, allowing stakeholders to review, edit and approve documents efficiently and virtually, speeding up the whole process and improving communication between teams.

What is the contract lifecycle and what phases does it include?

The contract lifecycle covers every stage a contract goes through, from its request and drafting to signature, subsequent management, renewal or termination. This cycle can be divided into two main stages: pre-signature and post-signature. Within these stages are seven main phases: request, document automation, negotiation and collaboration, review and validation, electronic signature, repository, and management of obligations, risks and renewals.

PRE-SIGNATURE

1. Request

A formal request to start drafting or managing a contract. This phase makes it possible to centralise legal requests, assign files to the relevant teams and organise the necessary documentation and templates from the outset.

2. Document automation

Creating and generating documents using templates and automated processes. Automation helps reduce manual tasks, minimise errors and speed up contract drafting, including entering data through questionnaires and validating information.

3. Negotiation / Collaboration

Exchanging comments, changes and proposals between the parties involved. This phase makes it easier to collaborate on the document, track version history and compare changes, without needing to download documents or install additional tools.

4. Review / Validation

Reviewing the contract before it is formalised, to ensure it meets legal requirements, internal policies and agreed conditions. Approval workflows and task assignment help coordinate the involvement of the different people responsible.

5. Electronic signature

Formalising the contract through electronic signature. This phase makes it possible to manage signatories, track the status of the signature and preserve the evidence associated with the process, including the audit trail and document archiving.

POST-SIGNATURE

6. Repository

Centralised storage and organisation of contracts and their associated information. A structured repository makes it possible to control access, run advanced searches and consult documents along with their metadata and relevant information related to companies, representatives, assets or other entities.

7. Obligations, risks and renewals

Managing the information and commitments arising from contracts once they have been signed. This phase makes it possible to identify contractual obligations, risks and contingencies, generate reports and track expirations and renewals through automatic alerts and notifications.

What are the main features of CLM software?

The features of Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software can vary, but a state-of-the-art solution should make it possible to manage the entire contract lifecycle from a single platform, automating processes, reducing manual tasks and providing greater control and visibility over contract information. Its main features include:

• Legal ticketing or request management. It allows a company's internal users, or its clients and collaborators, to request legal services and manage those requests in a unified and centralised way. It automates task assignment and makes it easier to track and prioritise legal requests, improving the organisation and responsiveness of legal departments.
• Automated contract creation (document automation). CLM uses automated templates, customised with predefined rules, to automate contract creation. Documents are generated from forms that automatically adapt based on the data entered and the user's specific needs, reducing the time and errors associated with manual drafting.
• Negotiation and workflows. The same CLM platform includes a module for negotiation of contracts, enabling multiple rounds of structured review and adjustment. It also integrates workflows or intelligent workflows that automate the approval process according to internal hierarchies and policies, ensuring every contract goes through the necessary reviews before signature.
• Electronic signature. The integrated electronic signature feature allows all parties to sign contracts remotely in a much simpler and more secure way, speeding up deal closing. This not only accelerates the process but also provides a secure, legally recognised method for executing contracts.
• Repository. CLM provides a centralised system for storing all of the organisation's contracts, making them easier to access, search and retrieve. It is one of the best ways to prevent documents from becoming scattered or leaked. It also includes alerts that automatically notify users of important dates, such as contract expirations, renewal dates and other critical milestones.
• Reporting. This feature makes it possible to generate detailed reports on various aspects of contract management, including status, compliance, performance and associated risks. Reports can be customised to provide specific insights and generate KPIs that help those responsible for managing contracts move their work
  forward for the business.
  

   

  

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What AI features should a CLM include?

In addition to CLM's own features, with the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI), a next-generation Contract Lifecycle Management solution should include new features linked to generative AI to further boost the contract lifecycle. Bigle's CLM includes a generative AI assistant that includes the following features:

• Summarisation: document review and synthesis, as well as summary generation.
• Legal Chatbot (Q&A): The question & answering feature provides answers to specific questions about a document.
• Generation: drafting of quality content, such as clauses or contracts.
• Translation: translates into multiple languages with high accuracy.

• Summarisation: makes it possible to review and synthesise contractual documents, generating summaries of the most relevant points to speed up contract analysis.
• Legal Chatbot (Q&A): makes it easier to query specific information within contracts using natural language questions, providing quick answers about clauses, conditions or obligations.
• Contract content generation: helps create legal texts, clauses or documents tailored to the user's needs, reducing drafting time and manual tasks.
• Legal translation: makes it possible to translate contracts and legal documents into different languages more quickly and accurately.
• Smart information extraction: automatically identifies relevant data within contracts, such as the parties involved, dates, key clauses or metadata, turning complex documents into information that is easier to manage.

How does artificial intelligence improve contract management?

Artificial intelligence improves contract management by automating repetitive tasks, speeding up document review and making it easier to access relevant information. This reduces time, minimises errors and helps legal teams make faster decisions throughout the contract lifecycle.

What tasks can AI automate in a CLM?

AI can automate metadata extraction, clause identification, summary generation, contract classification and information search. This means legal teams spend less time on manual tasks and more on strategic work.

How does AI help identify risks in contracts?

Artificial intelligence analyses contract content to locate relevant clauses, detect inconsistencies and make it easier to identify risks. This speeds up reviews and improves control over agreements.

How is CLM evolving with artificial intelligence?

Contract Lifecycle Management is evolving towards smarter platforms that automate processes, analyse information and help manage contracts more efficiently. AI is turning contracts into a source of data to support decision-making.

What are Bigle Libra's AI Skills?

AI Skills are a new generation of artificial intelligence capabilities built directly into Bigle Libra AI. Unlike a traditional AI assistant, which responds when a user makes a query, AI Skills are part of the Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) workflow itself and automate specific tasks throughout the entire contract lifecycle.

Why do AI Skills represent a new generation of legal AI?

AI Skills represent an evolution in the use of artificial intelligence in the legal field because they are not limited to analysing documents or answering questions. They are designed to anticipate, suggest and execute actions within the CLM platform, integrating natively into every stage of the contract lifecycle. This means artificial intelligence is no longer an external tool, but becomes a capability that works alongside the legal team, automating processes, reducing errors and increasing efficiency without needing to change the way legal professionals normally work.

■ Discover Bigle Libra and the AI Skills already transforming contract management.

Who uses CLM in companies?

Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software is used by professionals involved in the management, oversight and analysis of contracts across various areas of companies. This includes roles focused on managing all types of legal documents, regulatory compliance, risk management, operational efficiency and strategic collaboration between departments.

What type of company uses a CLM

Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software is essential for companies handling a high volume of contracts that want to ensure and optimise efficiency and regulatory compliance in their operations. These tools are particularly valuable for large corporations and multinationals operating across multiple jurisdictions and managing thousands of contracts simultaneously. That said, it is not only large companies that benefit from CLM systems; medium-sized companies with complex legal operations also find these systems a crucial solution for effectively managing the contracts that are essential to their day-to-day operations.

In which industries is CLM used?

CLM systems are useful across all kinds of sectors, such as technology, telecommunications, consumer goods, health and pharmaceuticals, construction, and financial services and insurance, among many others.

Who can use CLM within my company?

Within a company, various roles can benefit from using a Contract Lifecycle Management platform, particularly roles related to the management of legal documents and contracts, whether internal or external to the company. Legal directors and in-house lawyers in every legal department, as well as managers and teams in Procurement, Sales, Human Resources, Finance or Marketing, benefit from the automation and efficient contract management features CLM offers.

Why is CLM the right software for your legal department?

Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software is a key tool for legal departments because it makes it possible to automate, centralise and optimise contract management throughout its entire lifecycle. By reducing manual tasks, streamlining processes and providing tracking of obligations, alerts and contractual risks, a CLM helps legal teams improve their operational efficiency, make more informed decisions and bring greater strategic value to the business.

ROI of CLM software

The return on investment (ROI) of CLM software is a crucial indicator for organisations looking to justify its adoption. Effective implementation of Contract Lifecycle Management results in significant savings, through greater security and efficiency in legal operations that help eliminate revenue leakage from contract processes. The improvements CLM brings can translate into increased operational efficiency and reduced costs, justifying the initial investment in CLM technology and shaping contract processes not just for the present but for the future.

This impact is backed by industry data. World Commerce & Contracting estimates that companies lose an average of 9.2% of their annual revenue due to poor contract management. Likewise, the E+H success story with Bigle shows a reduction of up to 70% in the contract lifecycle, from creation through to signature. In addition, Aberdeen Group notes that companies take between 10 and 25 days to close a contract when the process is manual, a timeframe that can be significantly reduced through automation and centralised contract management.

What should you consider when choosing CLM software?

Choosing Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software involves evaluating more than just a tool for storing contracts. The right solution should help automate processes, centralise contract information and improve visibility over the organisation's agreements. It should also adapt to the needs of the business and make it easier for legal teams and other areas involved in contract management to collaborate.

What should you evaluate before implementing a CLM?

Before choosing a Contract Lifecycle Management, it is important to consider factors such as ease of use, information security, integrations with other tools and scalability. An effective solution should allow for easy adoption by users and evolve alongside the needs of the business.

Why choose a CLM with artificial intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way organisations manage their contracts. New CLM systems go beyond storage and document management, helping teams identify key information, reduce manual tasks and make faster decisions. This is why, when evaluating a CLM, it is important to consider not only its current features but also its capacity to incorporate new, smarter capabilities.

■ You might be interested in: Libra, the expert AI in the legal field 

Explore the benefits of Bigle's next-generation CLM with AI

If you are interested in exploring how our AI-powered CLM solution can transform your legal department, we invite you to schedule a free, personalised demo with our legal operations specialists. Discover first-hand how our tool can adapt to your specific needs and help optimise your contract processes. Schedule a demo and start your journey towards smarter, more secure contract management. We look forward to helping you take full control of your contracts!

Request a free demo with Bigle's experts and discover our next-generation CLM platform