Companies implement a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) system with grand ideas. They expect to use their new systems to generate new agreements, have a central repository for all contracts, and to run reports on the rights and obligations within contracts across their universe of agreements. CLMs do contain these features, but without careful maintenance, data grows stale, documents are incorrectly labelled and tagged, and users get frustrated and work outside of the system instead. Contracts Administration services help avoid these pitfalls and ensure that companies get the most value out of their new investments.

Structured Data Enables Strategic Action

One of the best features of a CLM is the ability to create structured data from contracts text to run reports across all agreements. You can easily identify a subset of agreements with less favorable terms (e.g., payment terms that are net 90 vs. net 30) and target these groups for amendment. The downside of this feature is that it requires consistent human review to make sure that data is entered correctly into the system. Unless there is one person at a company whose first job is to review and tag newly executed contracts, the data gets stale fast. 

Using a Contracts Administration vendor solves this problem; you have a team of contracts reviewers reviewing agreements and updating attribute fields on a regular basis. This approach guarantees that contracts are reviewed within a set period of time after execution. The reports run across your CLM will always reflect all current information in the contracts, rather than on a delay or with some documents or attributes missing altogether.

Consistency Reduces Risk

A collaborative approach also ensures more consistency in the tagging process. A dedicated team that reviews all contracts can ensure that terms and attributes are tagged the same way in all agreements; using the contracts requestor or originator to do that review often results in disparities in the way information is captured in a system, as different people tag the same attribute in different ways. This frees up internal resources to work on more high-level assignments, rather than spending time keeping your CLM up to date.

Contracts Administrators also help keep new agreements in compliance with corporate standards. A Contracts Administration team reviews draft agreements against a playbook and makes sure that all the terms in the agreements are in line with any clause requirements, including acceptable fallback language. Any contracts that include terms not in line with the playbook can be escalated to the proper channels for decision. This allows for more guardrails around newly executed contracts so that they do not include terms that legal would disapprove of.

A well-managed CLM is only as effective as its adoption. A Contracts Administration team can serve as a help desk for users. The team can resolve requests, serve as a data steward by eliminating duplicate documents and counterparty names, and validate new account creation. This makes the system easier for internal users to navigate, rather than using workarounds or avoiding the contracts management system entirely.

Maximizing the ROI of Your CLM

Using outsourced Contracts Administration services allows clients to maximize the value of their investments in CLMs by keeping reporting fresh, enhancing the user experience, and enabling stronger compliance and obligation management.

Learn more about Epiq Contracts Solutions. 


Beth Anderson, Senior Director, Contracts Solutions, Epiq
Beth Anderson has over 18 years of experience in contracts review, abstraction, and analysis. Beth has managed contracts reviews in connection with M&A due diligence, financing transactions, and Contracts Management System implementation projects. Beth works with clients to understand their specific business needs and builds targeted processes to provide useful and meaningful data from their universe of contracts. Prior to joining Epiq, Beth was the Director of Lease Abstraction Services at Realogic Analytics, and she began her career as an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom. Beth has a B.A. from Carleton College and a J.D. from Georgetown University.