September 2021 - Investing in a CLM? What to know before you buy

September 27, 2021

September 2021 - Investing in a CLM? What to know before you buy

While Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platforms continue to increase in sophistication and popularity, they are still plagued by end-user dissatisfaction and low adoption rates that rob the investment of value. 

 

Some organizations require are a simple contract repository to improve storage, search and retrieval capabilities, while others need an enterprise system supporting complex end-to-end contracting workflows. In either case, the difference between success (happy end users, high ROI) and failure (frustration, low adoption, rework), boils down to proper requirements gathering and project management acumen.

In other words, you control your own fate.

Implementation of CLM platforms —even “simple” offerings—is a complex endeavor. These are not out-of-the-box solutions; rather, they require varying levels of customizations and implementation failures are often the source of dissatisfaction. But while post-purchase challenges can cause suboptimal results, our experience working with clients to improve their existing CLM implementations demonstrates that the roots of end-user dissatisfaction can begin to take hold before implementation even begins and may trace as far back as the initial planning and discovery phases.

There are some practical tips to follow for improving CLM implementations, expanding usage and user satisfaction, and increasing overall ROI. Among the things you must do:

  • Exhaustively understand your requirements and constraints
  • Improve stakeholder alignment and integrate attorneys as end users
  • Focus intently on the end-user experience (both legal and business), going beyond UI/UX design
  • Ensure robust change management protocols that begin with gathering requirements and continue through shortlisting, testing, customizations and configurations, implementation, rollout, and beyond
  • Incorporate rollout techniques that establish quick wins and buy-in

Aush Arsh and Sailaja Meesaraganda, both associate vice presidents at QuisLex, further discuss these tips in an article published recently by ABA Law Technology Today entitled, How to Improve ROI of Contract Lifecycle Management Platforms.

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