March 27, 2025

 Rob MacAdam

law departments contracts best practices elm legal operations cost savings contracts lifecycle management

One of the most prominent categories in legal tech is Contracts Lifecycle Management (CLM). As my colleagues recently explained, the contracting function is a prime opportunity for law departments to increase the business and strategic value they deliver. Driven by the breadth of the ‘contracts continuum,’ the complexity of CLM systems has continued to grow. However, not all contracts management challenges require a full CLM system. Legal teams can often achieve major efficiencies by focusing on specific areas of the contracts lifecycle rather than implementing an all-encompassing solution.

The Case for Targeted Contracts Management

What makes a targeted approach – call it Targeted Contracts Management (TCM) – an appealing solution? The answer begins with the fact that CLM, by definition, is an end-to-end process that covers everything from contract requests and drafting to execution, obligation management, and renewal. As a result, many CLM systems typically integrate with platforms like Salesforce and DocuSign, ensuring that contracts are managed throughout their entire lifespan. However, the complexity of these full-suite CLM systems makes adopting them a long, difficult, and resource-intensive endeavour. That, combined with the expense of such systems, means that a positive return on investing in such a system will be anything but rapid – and this can become problematic as stakeholders grow impatient waiting for the system to demonstrate its value.

For many legal teams, the more targeted approach of TCM can deliver immediate benefits and rapid ROI —particularly in two key areas:

1. Contract review and negotiation (pre-execution) to ensure that contracts contain the right provisions, align with organisational standards, and allocate risk correctly. The goal is not just to close contracts but to close better contracts, faster.
2. Contracts repositories (post-execution) to store executed contracts in an accessible and searchable way, making it easy to track obligations, understand contractual relationships, and ensure key commitments aren’t overlooked.

By focusing on these areas, legal teams can streamline processes without the complexity and cost of a full CLM system. However, to achieve maximum impact in these areas, it is critical to understand what each one entails and the functionality required for the TCM approach to succeed.

Pre-Execution: The Need for Smarter Contracts Review and Negotiation

Contracts review and negotiation is a process that, at its core, is repeatable. When reviewing third-party contracts, lawyers typically:

1. Review the contract for key clauses.
2. Identify missing or problematic provisions.
3. Compare terms against internal playbooks and guidance.
4. Adjust wording to align with company standards.

This sounds straightforward, yet it can be incredibly time-consuming. Lawyers often perform these tasks manually, which leads to delays, inconsistencies, and deviations from established organisational standards. The result? Increased risk, longer deal cycles, and inefficiencies that can slow business operations.

A well-designed contracts review tool should help lawyers work faster without compromising quality. Key capabilities to look for include:

• Digitised Playbooks – The ability to embed organisational playbooks and standards directly into the review process via structured templates.
• Multi-Format Contract Uploads – Since contracts arrive in various formats (.docx, .pdf, .txt, etc.), the system should accommodate all commonly used file types.
• Contract Summarisation – A quick, AI-generated overview of the contract, highlighting its purpose and key provisions.
• Clause Tagging and Provision Extraction – AI-driven identification of critical clauses and missing provisions, making it easier to assess risk.
• In-Context Guidance – Providing playbook insights directly within the contracts review process, so lawyers can easily see standard and fallback positions as they work.
• Deviation Analysis – Highlighting where contract terms differ from standard playbook positions, assessing the materiality of those deviations, and suggesting changes.
• Integration with MS Word and CRMs – Enabling lawyers to review and edit contracts within their preferred drafting tools and CRM platforms, reducing workflow disruptions.
• Data Capture & Reporting – Tracking the most commonly negotiated clauses, deviations, and exceptions to inform future improvements to the playbook.

By leveraging these capabilities, legal teams can accelerate contract review cycles, enforce consistency, and reduce risk exposure – all without a full-scale CLM implementation.

Post-Execution: Contracts Repositories and Obligation Management

A contract’s value isn’t realised at signing—it’s realised when obligations are met, risks are managed, and opportunities within the contract are leveraged. Despite this, many organisations still struggle with basic contracts storage and retrieval.

It’s not uncommon to hear, “I just need somewhere to store contracts and find what I need when I need it.” After extensive negotiations, executed contracts often disappear into a black hole, making it difficult to track key terms, obligations, and renewal dates. This creates compliance risks, missed opportunities, and unnecessary business disruptions.

A good contracts repository should do more than just store documents. It should provide visibility, searchability, and automation. Essential features include:

• Centralised, Secure Storage – A single source of truth for all contracts, with access controls based on user roles (e.g., legal, procurement, finance).
• AI-Driven Metadata Extraction – Automatic identification of key contract terms, obligations, renewal dates, and risk factors.
• Advanced Search & Filtering – Searching by contract name, metadata, and full text, with AI-powered contextual search.
• Contract Relationship Mapping – Visualising parent-child and sibling relationships (e.g., MSAs, NDAs, amendments, SoWs).
• Obligation Tracking & Alerts – Assigning obligation owners, tracking key dates, and sending proactive reminders.
• Renewal & Expiry Management – Notifications for upcoming contract renewals to prevent lapses or missed renegotiation opportunities.
• Document Viewing & Collaboration – Viewing contracts without downloading, with features like side-by-side contract metadata and clause tagging.
• Analytics & Reporting – Providing insights into contract volume, risk exposure, and key obligations, helping legal teams drive continuous improvement.

With the right contracts repository in place, legal teams can reduce risk, improve compliance, and ensure that executed agreements deliver on their intended value.

The TCM Verdict Is In

As outlined above, legal teams don’t always need a full-fledged Contracts Lifecycle Management system to drive meaningful change. In many cases, the TCM approach—focused on improving pre-execution review and post-execution visibility—delivers the greatest impact with the least disruption.

By optimising how contracts are reviewed and negotiated, legal teams can accelerate deal velocity while maintaining control over key risks. And by implementing a smarter contracts repository, they can ensure obligations are met, risks are mitigated, and business teams can easily find the contracts they need when they need them.

So before committing to a full-scale CLM solution, ask: What immediate improvements could we make today that would have the biggest impact?

If you’re interested in seeing how Elevate ELM helps legal teams streamline contracts review and post-execution management, stop by booth 1324 at Legalweek 2025 for a chat.