Discover What’s in Store for Contract Lifecycle Management in 2021?

As we’re already well into 2021, what are the new developments were excited about and engaging with our customers and partners on? As we jump headfirst into the new year, we rounded up our best predictions about what 2021 will bring to contract lifecycle management. From CCLM to machine learning and no-code software in the enterprise, the following quotes from our partners and internal leadership provide great insight into where the industry is headed.

Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)

Agiloft CEO Eric Laughlin recently said this about Agiloft CLM in an interview with Enterprise Times:

“Agiloft is a Contract Lifecycle Management solution that helps legal, procurement and sales, centralise their contracts, unlock the data within them, and build repeatable processes for authoring, negotiation, execution and obligations management. Our secret sauce is our no-code platform, which means we can configure to your company’s exact specifications with zero custom code. That saves time that implementation and absolutely saves heartache down the road because without knowing code, you can evolve the system as your department evolves.”

“The number one driver for implementing a CLM system will not be operational efficiency or maximizing profitability, it’ll be managing risks associated with compliance. Contracts contain all kinds of sensitive information. Whether it’s valuable IP, pricing information or confidential customer and employee data, not keeping contracts in a secure access-controlled system is a recipe for disaster. More companies will realize the real value of a well-integrated CCLM system is in mitigating security and compliance risks.”

For more information on Agiloft Contract Lifecycle Management visist our CLM page here.

AI and Machine Learning

While artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad and often over-hyped topic, 2021 will see real AI tools used for contract management in the enterprise. In a recent video interview with Agiloft partner Red de Firmas, Christian Thun, Agiloft VP of Engineering, recently described the AI and machine learning coming to the Agiloft platform via the Agiloft AI Core:

“We want to use AI to automate contracts and do metadata extraction, meaning you feed a contract document to the AI and it tells you what data is in there and then extracts it. You can do clause extraction, risk scoring, and you can classify a document. But this is only the first step because the platform can really do so much more. Just like with Agiloft, you can implement a CLM but then implement all the other systems for CCLM, the Agiloft AI Core gives you access to many machine learning models, modern ones on the big platforms (Amazon, Google, and Microsoft) and you can integrate them with the data in your Agiloft platform. With a few mouse clicks, you can train a new algorithm and use it to make predictions and then use the results from these predictions to automate your workflows.”

Alexa

Bridget Conrad, Agiloft VP of Professional Services, recently presented on the configurability of Alexa and how it will empower contract management in the enterprise. Here is a quote from her presentation:

“Alexa for Business now has a large ecosystem of business applications, including a host of phone and conference systems as well as Microsoft Office applications. Our integration with Alexa uses voice commands to reduce mouse clicks and keyboard strokes when you’re in the office and to allow hands-free connectivity when out of the office. We’ve added several Alexa skills in the upcoming release, but in true Agiloft fashion, we’ve also made it possible for customers to upload their own skills and to create whatever skills they need to make their system more efficient.”

Sourcing, Procurement and Legal

Contracts are a way of business and no contract exists in isolation within the enterprise. We’ve noticed how many companies operate without a clear view of the contracts and agreements the respective departments within an enterprise execute on and bring into the fold. This naturally increases complexity within the organisation as legal only finds out about a contract once sourcing has onboarded a new supplier and or customer. This creates risk by allowing multiple non-standard contracts being entered into whilst increasing the administrative workload to manage non-standard terms and conditions agreed to. “When we allow sourcing, legal and procurement to share an integrated platform to manage sourcing events including contract templates and standardised processes, we mitigate the risk of non-standard agreements and suppliers entering the fold,” says Gerhard Roux, Sales and Marketing Manager from Adaptive. “Through automation of sourcing events such as RFI’s, RFQ’s and RFP’s with supplier on-boarding, risk assessments and document collation we ensure that the new suppliers meet our customer’s standards and expectations for the items being procured. Our customers can now expedite their sourcing events whilst incorporating standard contract templates and processes to reduce their risk and increase their revenue realisation.

Conclusion 

As we embark on the exciting journey that 2021 will be, join us by reaching out to discover more detail around the technologies and applications that will shape your contract lifecycle management capability in your business.