What Is Contract Lifecycle Management? CLM 101 Guide
Have you ever signed a contract and completely forgotten about it? Or worse, were you unable to find the contract when you really needed it? You’re not alone. In the whirlwind of day-to-day business, contracts often become buried treasure—valuable, but hidden or forgotten.
That’s where contract lifecycle management (CLM) comes in handy.
Contract lifecycle management tools and processes, like Worksuite’s contract lifecycle management software, keep your paperwork in order. They turn contracts into living, breathing assets that work for you (not against you). A missed deadline or an overlooked clause isn’t just an “oops” moment—it’s potentially thousands of dollars down the drain and a lawsuit on your plate.
Fortunately, we can help.
Below, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about contract lifecycle management to transform contract chaos into a scalable and reliable system.
What is contract lifecycle management (CLM)?
Contract lifecycle management is a comprehensive approach to handling contracts from start to finish. It encompasses every stage of a contract’s life, ensuring nothing gets overlooked, including contract execution and contract reviews.
It’s all about writing the contract, defining terms, and setting conditions. After contract negotiations and approval, the contract needs to be stored in a safe (but accessible) location like a central repository. While this process might sound straightforward, businesses and legal teams often face challenges that make managing contracts a headache:
- Tracking contract terms, deadlines and expiration
- Keeping tabs on the different stages and statuses of contracts
- Guaranteeing the necessary stakeholders are involved at the right times
- Meeting deadlines and avoiding costly oversights
- Maintaining consistency across different contracts
- Staying compliant with changing regulations and pushing out new versions as needed
- Extracting valuable insights from contract data
These challenges can lead to missed opportunities, unexpected costs, legal issues, and strained business relationships.
Stages of contract lifecycle management
Each stage plays an important role in turning your agreements from pieces of forgotten paper into powerful tools that drive your business forward. Let’s break down these stages and see how they work together to create a seamless contract lifecycle management process:
1. Contract creation and drafting
This stage involves identifying the need for a contract and creating the initial draft. It’s about clearly defining terms, conditions, and expectations. With Worksuite, you can leverage standardized templates to create contracts, maintain consistency, and reduce the time spent on drafting.
2. Negotiation and approval
Now, it’s time to fine-tune your agreement. This stage involves back-and-forth communications, revisions, and compromises. It’s where you iron out the details and ensure all parties are aligned. Worksuite streamlines this process by providing a centralized platform for discussions and version control, ensuring compliance.
3. Execution and storage
The moment of truth arrives: Contracts are signed, sealed, and delivered—or in the digital age, electronically signed and securely stored in a central repository. Worksuite’s digital signature integration makes execution easy, while our secure storage guarantees your contracts are safe and accessible when you need them.
4. Compliance and performance tracking
The contract is signed, but the work isn’t over. This ongoing stage is about making sure all parties live up to their end of the bargain. It involves monitoring deadlines, deliverables, and payment schedules. Worksuite’s automated contract alerts and tracking features help you stay on top of contractual obligations.
5. Renewal, amendments, and termination
As contracts near their end date, decisions need to be made. Do you renew, amend, or terminate? This stage requires evaluating the contract’s performance and your future needs. Worksuite provides insights and those important reminders to help you make proactive and informed decisions, supported by an audit trail that tracks all contract activity.
Benefits of better contract lifecycle management
Implementing an effective contract lifecycle management solution isn’t just about keeping your paperwork in order (though, it does do that). It’s a strategic move that can significantly impact your bottom line and streamline your operations:
- Reduced risk: Better visibility and control over your contracts help you avoid compliance issues, missed deadlines, and potential legal disputes.
- Increased efficiency: Automating routine tasks and streamlining workflows free up your team to focus on high-value activities rather than the headache of chasing down lost paperwork.
- Cost savings: Improved contract management can lead to better negotiation outcomes, fewer errors, and the ability to capitalize on volume discounts or early payment terms.
- Compliance: Stay on top of regulatory requirements and internal policies to reduce the risk of fines or reputational damage.
- Better decision-making: With all contract data centralized and easily accessible, you can make more informed decisions about renewals, terminations, and future agreements.
- Improved audit trails: Maintain a clear record of all contract-related activities, making audits smoother and providing valuable insights for future improvements.
- Greater visibility: Get a bird’s-eye view of all your contractual obligations and rights to help you better strategize and plan.
How to streamline CLM with Worksuite
Worksuite transforms your contract management process from chaotic to seamless. Here’s how our platform helps tackle each stage of the contract lifecycle and make your life easier.
- Effortless contract creation: Jumpstart your contracts with customizable templates and collaborative drafting tools.
- Smooth negotiations: Facilitate discussions with real-time editing, commenting, and approval workflows, ensuring a clear audit trail for all revisions.
- Secure execution and storage: Quickly sign contracts with integrated e-signatures and store them securely in our cloud with bank-level encryption for easy retrieval.
- Compliance and performance tracking: Stay on top of obligations with automated reminders and performance dashboards. Receive real-time alerts for any potential issues.
- Seamless renewals and amendments: Get proactive renewal notifications and easy amendment processes, leveraging performance analytics to guide your decisions.
Why use Worksuite’s CLM tools
With everything else you have going on, managing contracts can feel like herding cats. We get it—that’s why we built a one-stop platform to streamline contract workflows for both freelancers and businesses. Here’s how it helps:
- Unified ecosystem: Worksuite integrates contract management with talent pools, task management, invoicing, and payments, eliminating the need to juggle multiple apps and preventing information loss.
- Tailored for modern work arrangements: Our platform adapts to the needs of growing businesses and enterprises managing contractors, ensuring flexibility in today’s work environment.
- Streamlined onboarding: Easily create, send, and store contracts in one place, linked to project details and payment terms, simplifying gig acceptance and client management for freelancers.
- Transparent collaboration: With Worksuite, both parties have clear visibility into contract terms, project progress, and payment schedules.
- Automated workflows: Worksuite automates tasks like contract renewal reminders and invoice generation based on contract terms, reducing admin work and freeing you to focus on delivering results.
- Compliance made easy: Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and internal policies using Worksuite, reducing risk for both businesses and freelancers.
- Scalability: Our platform can handle everything from one-off projects to complex, long-term contract management for large teams.
- Data-driven insights: Gain valuable insights into your contract performance, freelancer relationships, and business operations. Use this data to make informed decisions and improve your processes.
Simplify your entire contract lifecycle
Contract lifecycle management impacts every aspect of your business relationships, but it doesn’t have to be a hassle. Worksuite streamlines the entire process, transforming how you work with freelancers, contractors, and partners.
From creation to completion, for one-off projects or long-term partnerships, we’ve got you covered.
Contact us to see how Worksuite streamlines your contract lifecycle management.
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