Name: Contracting bottlenecks? transforming contract chaos into clarity for 2025
Uploaded: 2025-03-17T19:16:03.934Z
Duration: 29 min 14 s
Description: Contracting bottlenecks? transforming contract chaos into clarity for 2025

Transcript for "Contracting bottlenecks? transforming contract chaos into clarity for 2025": so much, and thank you everyone for joining us this morning. We're just gonna dive right in. Let me go ahead and share my screen here. And we're gonna get started with here. We're gonna get started. And before we jump into the platform itself, I wanted to discuss CLM maturity and what those critical capabilities are. We have them segregated out into six separate sections here, and the first one being our edocument section. Examples of edocument is creating a centralized, contract repository, also doing document classification and tagging. The next one is esignature, and that one's pretty straightforward, having that integration capability of having an esignature tool within your CLM solution. The next one is workflow automation. Examples of workflow automation is having customized approval workflows, renewals management, compliance, and risk management as well. The next one is authoring automation. So this is where you have the capabilities of redlining and collaborating. Also, automated contract creation, having a contract clause library, and contract templates. Followed by contract intelligence. This is where you're gonna be able to have contract reporting and analytics, contract risk scoring, and also being able to digitize your contracts. And then, finally, contract execution. This is where you'll have integration with enterprise systems either through APIs or through a built in iPaaS solution. Also, what we call data first capability, where you have access to the data that lives within your documents, not just the documents themselves within the repository. Also, examples of this are milestone tracking. The reason why I wanted to start with this is that in these six boxes, this is where you could consider the road to having that critical capabilities within a CLM solution. But this is also directly tied to what are your corporate objectives, your business strategies, and your business initiatives. And each one of those require, different capabilities within the CLM process. So it's important to map out where you need to go with your CLM maturity based off of those business initiatives. And from there, we could always discuss which one of these capabilities are required, critical, important, or nice to have. And if in the future you need any help or have any questions about, driving that value, always will be happy to discuss those as well. So from here, we're just gonna jump directly into Agiloft and our solution. And where I wanted to get started here is, you know, discussing and highlighting, how intuitive the contract creation process could be. And where we're gonna get started here is with someone who is a self-service user. So if you have users who need to, create their own contracts with preapproved boilerplate templates, guardrails that only allow them to, conduct certain functionality in the generation of a contract, this is where they'll be able to do this. So from here, this user could come in and create a contract. And as you could see here across the top, the workflow isn't defined yet because there's a possibility that they're gonna make a request for a contract that's self-service or one that needs to go over to a contract management team that they take their their basic details. They take their request, and from there, that centralized team will create the contract. So once they fill out the basic details, the workflow that's behind the scenes is gonna dictate whether or not this is gonna be a self serve contract creation or one that's gonna go to the contract management team. Everything you see here is completely configurable within Agiloft, and there's certain information that's prefilled out. The reason behind that, everything is based off of roles and permissions. So if you have users who are gonna make a typical request very often, we can have certain fields that are already prefilled out based off of their roles. But we always know, you know, that eighty twenty rule exists for a reason. So 80% of the time, they could be making requests for, let's say, an NDA. But from time to time, they might need an amendment or a contract request, for for other business needs. So within Agiloft, it's very easy for them to make modifications and adjustments based off of what the requests are. So here we could see, the basic contract details. It's already prefilled out for this individual. There's it's a new contract request. There is no parent contract. The contract type is a nondisclosure agreement. Here, they could enter a brief description, and there's instructions that are placed within the field so it guides them through this intake process. They could provide the description. They could provide the purpose. Do you wanna use your preapproved contact template? Also, who's the internal entity, and who's that counterparty? This counterparty information, this is a point of integration for us at Agiloft. So if you have all of your counterparty information within a CRM or an ERP system, we can integrate and pull that counterparty information from those other systems of records. In this case, what we're gonna do is pull it from the Agiloft companies table. So in this case, all I have to do is start typing out the name of that counterparty, and all of its information is gonna be presented here for us. And then I could assign a main point of contact for this, contract. And once I hit proceed, from here, it's gonna actually create that workflow for me. The system has identified that this is a self serve, request, and the workflow has been designed or defined. And then under additional details, it's giving the user, the information that is part of this contract so that they're aware of all of that key, contract terms and renewal information. In addition to that, there could be certain optional clauses that they might want to include within this contract. So here's where you're able to provide your users guardrails where they're able to take not only that standard boilerplate, but preapproved clauses that they have the options to include. We could have also pop ups so that it explains to them. If they choose yes, what does that actually mean for the creation of this contract for them? And then from here, you could create options for governing laws or have them by default, also confidentiality information. So everything you see here is completely configurable. These are just examples of how you could include optional clauses that are preapproved to give you more flexibility in the creation of your documents. And then from here, they're gonna generate the document with the information that's provided in the basic details along with those additional signatures. At this point in time, the user has the option to send out this document for signature. They have access to the document here. They could assign the internal signer and the external signers. Also, based off of your signing matrix, internal signers could automatically be assigned. But just to show you how easy it is to make a modification, you can choose from a drop down list. Also, for the external signer, you could use your search feature to identify them. And then in Agiloft, for example, we do have native integrations with both DocuSign and Adobe Sign. So from here, you could just go ahead, select the button, and send it out for esignature. Once all parties sign, that executed agreement is automatically gonna come back into the contract record where all the users will receive all those key players with this contract will receive a notification letting them know that the contract's been completed. Another option could be if your counterparty wants to receive an email of the contract before they sign. We're integrated with email as well, so they could send an email directly from the system. And if that counterparty decides to redline this document, you could always escalate this to the contract manager so that they could be involved in the process. And so just to recap, this is an example of having a request that's made, that is self serve where your users will be able to use preapproved templates, preapproved clauses in order to generate this document and really speed up that process. And then for the team that manages contracts at all at any point in time within the repository, they'll have access to see which teammates are making requests for NDAs, which NDAs are being, sent out for signature and receive. So there's complete visibility for all the key players who need to have access, to all documentation for all counterparties. Another option could be for someone who's just a requester. So if if you either have contracts that require, legal procurement or a centralized contract management team to review all requests, this is where we have our end user portal. With our end user portal, this is where users could come in and create a contract request, and it takes us into our dynamic intake form. This one's slightly different than the self serve because here, the workflow's already defined for them. They're a requester. So once they complete the draft, it's gonna be sent for review. And our intake form is dynamic. And what I mean by that is depending on what field level information is provided, new fields are either gonna appear or disappear. Also, in addition to that, on intake forms, there could be certain fields that are mandatory that are always gonna be part of every intake form, which is what we're seeing here. So, for example, for contract type, if I select a small construction agreement, in this section below, the small construction project details are new fields that are gonna appear for this contract request. This key information is not only gonna be part of this contract record, but any information that needs to go into your contract document will be pulled from this intake form and placed into the document to help automate and create efficiencies for your process. Also, another key factor with your intake form is to gather all of the key information that's required that the contract manager needs in order to complete the creation of that contract for that requester. This helps avoid unnecessary recontact with the requester, improving that, internal customer experience, and in addition to that, reducing the cycle time for the contract process. Another example here is if I switch this to a services agreement, we could see that the small details construction fields no longer are visible because they're not needed. And here, they could come in and fill out the requested information. Here, we'll just fill out the basic information. And once again, this counterparty information, we'll just be pulling it from our company's table in Agiloft. But once again, this is a point of integration for us. And so as a requester, I'm gonna go ahead and submit this for review. And my role here is done. But within the portal, one of the things that we offer is the capability for the requester to see all of their requests, what their current status is, and if there's any attachments that are being placed. From here, we're gonna go ahead and take over, as the contract manager, so we'll be switching roles here. And here, as a contract manager, what we're able to do from the repository is see all of the contracts that have either been assigned to us or that we need to do follow-up action on. One key point. Once the requester hits that submit for review, there are different ways that you could assign out the contract request to your different contract managers. You could either assign it out to, someone who's a subject matter expert in either a certain department or in certain contract type. Another option is that you assign it out to a pool of contract managers, and it could either be first come, first serve, or it could be a signed out round robin so that contract managers can't cherry pick which contracts they work on. From here, I'm just gonna jump into an existing contract to show you all that key information that exist within the life cycle of a contract. So from here, we're able to see all of the intake information that was provided by the requester. In addition to that, a contract manager could be responsible for additional fields that's not the responsibility of the requester. In this case, what we didn't see on the intake form was the contract start and end date, so that could be information that's complemented by, by the contract manager. And then once we have all of that information available for us, in this top section here, based off of field level information, it could help drive which optional clauses are gonna be placed within your contract template. Here, we're able to see different optional clauses, whether you select them from a drop down or ones that are selected automatically based off of field level information. So in this case, for insurance, this one is automatically assigned because the contract value is under a hundred thousand dollars. So one key fact here is that you could take field level information to help drive those optional clauses that go into your contract. Once you have all of this information, you could create and attach that first working version of the contract. And, also, another key capability that we have is the ability to leverage generative AI throughout the workflow. And here's an example where we use our GenAI prompt lab to create a summary. This summary that's created here, let's say that there's 10 key points that need to be passed along to either management or approvers or needs to exist within the contract record so you could reference this at any point in time. We're placing this extraction at the field level. And once information is captured in the field level, you're able to then track this information, place it in reports, and share it with different team members. And this templated setup that we have here could be modified and have unique ones for each contract type or department based off of what your business needs are. And then down below, here, we have an example of where, we had a couple of versions of the document where the older version gets superseded and grayed out. The newer version that gets redlined either internally or by the counterparty during the negotiation process is being tracked. We're able to see the naming convention gets updated with each revision. Once the contract gets fully executed, that PDF comes automatically back into the contract record. Also, if you need to see any markups and quickly see what are those differences between that first version to that next version, we're able to quickly identify that Even if the counterparty turns off track changes while you're working in Word, you're able to see those modifications here. If information is added, it's underlined in red. If it's removed, it's stricken out in red as well. And then, also, while you're working on the contract itself, we're fully integrated with Word, so you're able to work in Word. And here, you could see information that was placed on the intake form is automatically placed within the contract itself. So all of these key items are tagged within your contracts. So you have the counterparty information, the start date, and those optional clauses that we included below. Also within Agiloft or within Word, we have an Agiloft contract assistant plug in where you're able to sign in with your username and password or with single sign on, so you automatically integrate with Word. And what we're able to do here, just one example, is on this right hand pane, you have access to Agiloft while you're working in Word. So you don't have to toggle between screens or work on multiple screens when reviewing a contract. In this case, what I wanted to highlight here is having access to your preapproved clause library. So here, you're able to see all of the preapproved clauses. So you could either scroll down this list and identify that clause that you wanna include. You could also search for it, at this top section here or filter it by, clause type. So all of this information is readily available while you're working in Word and negotiating contracts. And within the clause library, you're able to say this is a standard clause, this is a fallback clause. And with clauses, once they get included with within the contract, What we do in the contract record is have a contract clauses table that keeps track of all clauses that are part of this contract. More importantly, we keep track of any modifications that are done to these clauses. So we have the original clause. We also have the current version of that clause and all clauses that get approved during that negotiation process. So in the future, you're able to do analysis of these clauses that get approved so you could make updates to your clause library, whether you want to create a new fallback to help speed up your negotiation cycle time, or if you wanna make updates to your standard clause. And when it comes time to get approvals to contracts, you could either have them automatically generated. As you could see here, do these clauses require approvers from subject matter experts? Or another option for the team is if you don't want clauses to automatically be sent out for approval if they get modified, you could collaborate with different team members. So we have a collaboration tab. You could ask them to review the contract. You could put in the notes that are displayed here in the contract record with a date and time stamp, and that collaborator will receive a notification for them to jump into this contract record and review. Another option that you have here is that you could send it for internal collaboration via email, and this is how you would also send it to the counterparty for for the negotiation process. Here we have, either free form emails or you could use a preapproved email template. So once again, creating efficiencies in your process and streamlining the process. And down below, we show all the email communication history, that occurs with this contract record. So not only does this help you out for an audit trail, but it also lets all users know who has this contract been communicated to, when was it sent, and it's fully integrated. So when the counterparty replies back with their red lines, their email's automatically gonna come back into this email communication history. Any attachments that they have will be placed in the attachments tab, and those key players will be notified, letting them know there's an updated version of the contract for them to review. The next step once that negotiate process is complete is to send out for approvals. The way that Agiloft is built out, workflows are back bone. So you could have workflows automatically assigned based off of your contract types and, more importantly, based off of certain conditions, whether it's, let's say, for example, contract amount. Once contracts are worth or over a certain threshold, let's say finance needs to be included in the approval process, or if certain, language is included in the contract, someone from compliance needs to review. Those conditional approval steps will automatically be included within your approval process. So that way, your team doesn't have to worry about, am I including the right people to approve this contract? And when it comes to approving contracts, approvers will receive a notification letting them know that they need to approve of contract, and there's a couple of different ways that they could approve. The first one here is that they could come directly into the contract itself, and they could select the approve button. They could also come in and say modifications need to be done. They could also receive a Teams notification or a Slack notification letting them know, there's a contract for them to approve along with a link or a button for them to approve. And then we also have email approvals. The first thing you probably notice is here is what we call our thumb size approval button. So if the person is working on a mobile device, whether it's their cell phone or a tablet, they could easily approve a contract from these devices or from their desktop as well. And everything you see here is completely configurable, the details that's provided in the body of the email, and then we're also able to place attachments. In this case, what we're placing here is the contract itself and an executive summary. What's great about this feature is that here, someone who's reviewing a contract for approval has all of the contract summary. This contract summary here was actually created utilizing our Jennifer I prompt lab, So it helps streamline that process for contract managers. They don't necessarily have to generate all of the language themselves. They could leverage AI in order to streamline their process. And what's being displayed here are just the markups that were done to their preapproved template. In this case, a new clause has been added that's not part of the typical layout, so they're able to easily identify what's different about this contract than that we normally have that's preapproved. In addition to that, they're able to see all of the approval steps, who's approving before them, who's approving after them as well. And then once all of the approvals are complete, as I showed earlier with that self serve model, we also have, the capability of sending out for signature. Another key thing that we're able to provide is cover letter information. So if the approver needs certain information included before they sign, that could be displayed to them once they receive, the document for esignature. And then once that contract has been completely signed, as you could see up here, the life cycle is being tracked based off of rules it's changed to signed. Once you get to the contract start date, it automatically, switches over to active, and that fully executed agreement, will come into the attachments tab here, and the team will automatically receive an update letting them know it's fully executed. That's what I had to show for the life cycle of a contract. The next thing I wanted to show you from the repository view is our searching and reporting capabilities. So from here, you're able to do searches in a couple of different ways. The first one is our quick search capability. So here, users could type in a keyword that they need a search for. When Agiloft conducts searches, not only are we searching for keywords that are in the field level within a contract record or metadata, we're also searching for all of, all of the documents that are attached within the contract records as well. Because we scan and OCR all documents that come in, whether it's on your own paper or third party paper. And, also, since I mentioned third party paper, if you work with a lot of third party paper contracts, we're able to drag and drop third party paper contracts into the intake form, utilize AI to extract out key terms and clauses, and then you could also leverage AI to do risk analysis of those third party clauses to see how closely they align with your clauses as well. But coming back to the search capability here, I typed in our text search, and then you're able to put in additional filters. So here, for example, I'm gonna add an additional filter, and I wanna see by contract amount. So I wanna see all of my contracts that have force majeure in it, and the contracts are equal or greater to, let's say, 300,000. Once I do that, you could see here that my search within the repository has reduced even more, now down to 13. And then I wanna see them all for a certain company. So here, I'll start typing in that company name. And right here from the repository, I'm able to see which contract it is. So here, it's this maintenance contract that fits the criteria for my search. I also have a preview of where force majeure is located here saying the latest attachment. And, also, another key point that I wanna call out is that within the repository, you have a tree view. So you could see if this contract has a relationship with other contracts. And as you could see, it does have a relationship with a master services agreement, but that search criteria doesn't apply to that master services agreement because it's grayed out. But it does show that a relationship does exist. So if you need to make a reference to that master services agreement, it becomes available for you here as well. Once again, this is our quick search capability. This is here, if someone asks a one off question of key information that needs to be found. Also, if you're conducting an audit, you're easily able to find all that key information from the repository. The other way that you could search within the platform is with a safe search. So if there's something that you're gonna search for frequently or if it's a frequently asked question that you receive, you could generate a safe search. We have a lot of safe searches that come out of the box, but you could also manage them, modify them, or create new ones if necessary. In this case, I wanna know all of my contracts that are gonna expire over the next ninety days. So here we could see all of those contracts that are gonna expire over the next ninety days really quickly, and this safe search is the foundation for generating reports. So if this is something that's important for me to see and I wanna share it with different team members, I could come in here to charts and reports. I could take a look at those contracts that are gonna expire over the next ninety days, look at the report view. I could jump into these contract records. But most importantly, from the generation of these reports, one of the things that we could do here is that we could schedule them out, and you choose the frequency. So whether it's daily, weekly, or monthly, you can have specific user teams that receive this report, and you could schedule this out so they just receive it on a timely fashion. And then, finally, to bring this, to another level, you're able to place that key information within your dashboards as well. So here, this upcoming contracts to expiration.