TL;DR
- Strong redlining and version control determine how efficiently teams negotiate and manage risk.
- Scalable complex approval workflows foster the movement of contracts without bottlenecks while maintaining compliance.
- Effective clause library management and the right cloud and on-premise deployment choice drive long-term governance and flexibility.
Why Redlining, Approvals, and Clauses Matter in CLM Evaluation
When evaluating contract lifecycle management software, many solutions can start to seem very similar. It's just a part of analysis paralysis. However, granular evaluation reveals key differentiators between contract management platforms that can make or break an investment.
Key features affect speed, risk, and consistency in contracts. Therefore, legal teams and contract managers should seek automated, AI-based, and comprehensive features for redlining, approvals, and clauses.
What to Look for in Redlining, Approvals, and Clause Governance
Redlining and Version Control
You will want advanced redlining and version-control features that make the process easier and more auditable.
AI-powered surgical auto-redlining replaces suboptimal clause language with your organization's preferred language in a digestible and easily trackable way. Your ideal solution should also support real-time concurrent document collaboration with dates, names, and times accounted for for auditability and visibility. Moreover, there should be numbered version tracking. For a more tech-stack-inclusive experience and flexibility, the solution you evaluate should include both a robust native document editing interface and seamless Microsoft Word integration.
Make sure your contract management platform has the features above and more to optimize language and promote the utmost visibility.
Complex Approval Workflows
In the old days, complex approval workflows were a source of worry, making contract management teams feel like they were wobbling on a house of cards.
Modern contract management platforms include rule-based workflow routing that depends on contract value, risk variables, department, and more. Organizations should seek a solution that supports parallel or sequential approvals depending on the situation. Users of leading CLM solutions can assign ad hoc approvers and escalation resources when a task is not completed on time. What's more, diversified alert types and workflow reporting support visibility, accountability, and faster execution.
Ditch workflows that rely on manual emails and confusing spreadsheets in favor of something better.
Clause Library Management
Clause library management is critical to maintaining a single source of truth for language consistency in contract management.
Your contract management software of choice should support a centralized repository for standard, fallback, and alternative clauses with rules-based clause insertion. Additionally, AI-powered clause playbooks support strategic, consistent contract negotiation and review. Clause ownership and enforcement prevent any tampering from unapproved personnel.
Deployment Considerations
Any CLM provider worth its salt should offer both cloud and on-premise deployment options.
Deployment flexibility matters for a variety of reasons, including for:
- compliance with regulatory environments.
- meeting internal security and governance standards.
- addressing geographic and performance needs.
- supporting business continuity and disaster recovery.
- promoting scalability as organizations grow.
The CLM software you select should support:
- multiple deployment options to meet various IT strategies.
- on-premises control with perpetual licensing.
- SaaS hosting through the contract lifecycle management software provider.
- data centers for internationally agile contract management.
Key Takeaway
AI-powered redlining and version control, support for complex approval workflows, clause library ownership, and deployment flexibility are four core areas that set strong contract lifecycle management providers apart from weaker ones.
We at CobbleStone encourage a holistic evaluation of the system's delivery capabilities, rather than just feature-checking.
Takeaway task: Shortlist CLM vendors and avoid rework later by using the criteria outlined in this blog post.
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*Legal Disclaimer: This article is not legal advice. The content of this article is for general informational and educational purposes only. The information on this website may not present the most up-to-date legal information. Readers should contact their attorney for legal advice regarding any particular legal matter.
