Gauge Your Contract Lifecycle Management Readiness [Checklist Attached!]

When legal operations leaders seek out CLM, they are usually coming from one of three places:

1. Scalability — They have outgrown the functionality of their current CLM and are looking for a more robust platform that can expand alongside their team
2. Consolidation — While undergoing the M&A process, for example, the need for consistent processes drives a reconciliation between two or more legal departments into one cohesive system 
3. Innovation — They are trying to deploy their first CLM 

When doing your research into your CLM-readiness, you will find yourself managing three categories of information. This includes: 

• Consolidating what you know
• Searching for answers to what you don’t know
• Coming up against what you didn’t know you didn’t know (or, in other words, realizing which questions you hadn’t yet thought to ask about your people and processes.) 

It’s best to start with what you know and expand your research from there, but it’s equally important that you find the answers to what you don’t know, and through research or with the help of a trusted partner, that you transform what you don’t know into part of your business case.

The best way to advance your knowledge and preparation?  Get the right people in the room, and be sure to ask the right questions. To  compose this crew of stakeholders and interested parties, you’re going to have to think about who touches your team— and because legal is at the very core of every organization— this is not going to be a small group.

You’ll need to seek experts from out all corners of your business, including:

• Legal
• Finance
• Sales
• IT
• Procurement

Gathering this information is a process, and although your stakeholders will understand that their role is to help you make the best decision for the company, you’ll win points and smooth out wrinkles by coming to them well-prepared. This means performing an internal audit to understand your starting point, implementation needs, deployment plan, supporting materials, and more. For example: 

• Are your contracts available as templates, and is there a process for making updates?
• Where do the contracts go after signature, and how does your repository handle updates to the contracts and security around access?
• What are your organization’s business clause and regulation requirements?
• What systems (if any) will need to be integrated? (i.e., ERP, CRM, SRM, etc.)
  

The list goes on and on. Together with our implementation partner, Morae, we’ve created a comprehensive checklist to help you gauge your CLM readiness and ensure that you have a deep understanding of your objectives. It is available for download here. 

If you have any CLM implementation-related questions, please visit: moraeglobal.com.