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Matrix Software - Product Demonstration

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:00:00 GMT

Matrix Software - Product Demonstration
Start Date: 18-Mar-10 1:00 PM
End Time: 18-Mar-10 2:00 PM
Location: Live Meeting Viewing
Speaker: Steve Chunn

Event Details:

CLM Matrix offers an inside look at emerging product features that are creating competitive advantages for many companies looking to standardize, streamline and automate their contract management process.

Please join us for an informative look at CLM Matrix's software solutions as we discuss key features and functions that will make your life easier and more productive. These one-hour sessions will include time for question and answers and an opportunity to request more detailed information from a CLM Matrix representative.

To access the meeting, please click the following link:

https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/clution/join?id=Z57JKK&role=attend

Audio for the session can be accessed by dialing: 1-616-597-8000 Passcode: 176643#

Live Meeting Viewing

https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/clution/join?id=Z57JKK&role=attend

SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 - White Paper

Darrin Poole — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:00:00 GMT

To read the full white paper contents click here: Business Productivity at it's Best.

Abstract

This paper shows how two products, Microsoft® Office and Microsoft SharePoint®, contribute to the powerful architectural design of the Microsoft Business Productivity Infrastructure (BPI). The BPI stack approach suggests that only by thinking at a capability level (for example, “What do users want to do?"), and then adding the right aspects of capability in each place (client, server, and services), can we create desktop applications that also deliver rich server and services capabilities to information workers.

This paper describes how the 2010, 2007, and 2003 versions of Office work together with the 2010, 2007, and 2003 versions of SharePoint technologies. Although we provide an overview of Office and SharePoint features working together in past versions, this paper focuses on the integration features of the Microsoft Office 2010 experience with Microsoft SharePoint 2010.

The scenarios outlined in this paper show examples of how the power of SharePoint 2010 and related servers can be combined with capabilities of one or more Microsoft Office 2010 applications to deliver rich, intuitive, and easy-to-use capabilities directly into the hands of desktop users.

The scenarios cover the following value areas:

Collaboration Without Compromise
Bring Ideas to Life
Anywhere Access
The Practical IT Platform

The paper concludes that to realize the best user experience with Office and SharePoint integration features, organizations should upgrade client programs to Office Professional Plus 2010 and server technologies to SharePoint 2010.

Introduction

Microsoft Office has always been about automating tasks and providing people with choices for how they get things done at work, at school, and at home. When Microsoft Office products were first introduced, they helped people move beyond manual processes and tools to automated processes on computers. Over time, Microsoft Office has evolved and is now the primary vehicle by which people experience Business Productivity Infrastructure capabilities, such as collaboration and content management. Microsoft Office helps enhance business productivity by offering rich server capabilities that are tightly integrated into its user experience.

Many analysts support the notion of an integrated productivity environment for information workers. Gartner Group’s "Smart Enterprise", Forrester’s "Information Workplace", and Yankee Group’s "Extended Enterprise" frameworks all combine these capabilities to create the next-generation workplace for information workers. The introduction of Microsoft Office 2007 was the first time a solution of client, server, and service products, with tight design integration, could deliver the functionality that would have previously required 6–10 "best-in-class" products for a full BPI platform. The 2010 release of these products takes this integration to the next level by providing more flexibility in delivery and new capabilities to help save the business time and money.

The focus of this paper is to provide an overview of the specific capabilities enabled through Microsoft Office and SharePoint working together as key components of the BPI stack in the 2010 release.

8-Feb-10 7:00 PM

Mitigating Risks with CLM Matrix

Darrin Poole — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Download the full version of this article here: Mitigating Risks with CLM Matrix

When Hurricane Katrina honed in on the Louisiana Coast in the Fall of 2005, companies headquartered in New Orleans weren’t alone in their exposure to the impending destruction. CEOs in lots of places – Chicago, New York, London, Munich for that matter – had plenty to ponder as well. It wasn’t that these CEOs had branch offices or subsidiaries in New Orleans that they were worried about. They were busy trying to determine if any of their customers and suppliers were located on the Louisiana Gulf Coast.

Did they have customers who would fail to meet contractual obligations? Did they have a distributor in Slidell who got their product to key customers? Did they rely on a company in Houma to keep their supply chain intact?

In order to understand the risk to their business – and make a plan that would keep them operating – corporate officers needed access to all the contracts they had with companies where Katrina might wreak devastation, in this case from the Florida Panhandle all the way to the Texas Gulf Coast.

If they couldn’t get that information, they were sitting ducks.

With the typical Fortune 1000 company maintaining an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 active contracts at any given time, it’s virtually impossible to get an accurate assessment of risk exposure without an enterprise-wide system to manage the active contract portfolio. Finding every contract from the Florida Panhandle to the Texas Gulf Coast would be an intimidating task.

“Do you know where your data is? You start to care when there’s a natural disaster,” said Jeffrey Gordon, a professional negotiator and author of the Software Licensing Handbook. Because his client had contract lifecycle management in place, the company – in 20 minutes – was able to search through its entire portfolio and identify all of its contractors along the Gulf Coast and start planning for alternate operations. “We weren’t going to put up sand bags and block the water, but we could mitigate the risk,” Gordon said.

With the size and complexity of business today, the risks go much further than natural disasters. Contracts typically contain multiple terms and conditions that trigger cost penalties and potential liabilities, while Sarbanes-Oxley and other compliance initiatives have all but inserted government rules into contractual promises.

“Without an integrated structure you expose yourself to risk at all stages of the process,” said Timothy L. Smith, principal of The Plaid Group, a business consulting firm that specializes in mid-size organizations in transition. “Contracts can easily end up in a black hole without systematic management.”

Financial, sales and legal executives struggle with a variety of issues, including:

• Lack of insight into business policy and contract processes when going into negotiation

• Difficulty understanding the cause and effect of various contract clauses

• Uncertainty regarding the impact of the contract portfolio on the future economic health of the company

• The potential for non-compliance with regulatory policies and procedures

• Legal exposure through inadequate or inappropriate wording or usage of terms and clauses.

Everybody’s Frustrated

The Plaid Group was called into a situation recently in which the client had developed a new product and outsourced the manufacturing function to an outside partner. A few months into the relationship Smith got a call from the client saying, “I want you to go over there and straighten them out.”

Frustration had built on both sides, with Smith’s client being unhappy about quality issues and the manufacturer saying it had “bent over backwards to meet a moving target of product specifications.”

If the client had contract lifecycle management in place, it would have been able to approach the negotiation phase of the relationship strategically and with more insight; it could have developed contract clauses that would have managed the expectations of both parties, Smith said. The Plaid Group guided the renegotiation of the agreement that put procedures in place that enhanced communication and made both parties accountable to the success of the relationship.

Internal Agreements

An increasingly frequent problem relates to internal agreements as companies grow to include multiple subsidiaries. “Companies that do business with their own affiliates almost always fail to adequately memorialize their deals because they think of themselves as siblings. We’re family,” Gordon said. “The contract isn’t for the marriage; it’s for the divorce.”

And when companies enter merger and acquisition agreements, the contents of the contract portfolio are particularly sensitive, he said. A search through the contract database of one of Gordon’s clients showed that the company had neglected to insert contract clauses that would have assigned existing business to a new owner in the event of an acquisition. “It was a last minute scramble,” said Gordon. “We had to quickly get an amendment to all those customers. A lot of letters went out.”

If the client had a contract lifecycle management governed by a policy-based contract initiation process, it could have anticipated the need to insert contract language that would assign business to a new owner in the event of an acquisition. In this case, the company lost 25 percent of its customers because they refused to transfer their business relationship.

Mitigating the Risk

Many leading experts say the risks of failing to manage the contract lifecycle are “almost infinite.” They cite:

• Companies overpaying millions on software maintenance by paying fee increases when they fail to monitor contract language that doesn’t authorize pay hikes

• Having to scramble to get critical services (e.g. technology support, telecommunications support) when a company fails to anticipate contract expiration dates

• Getting services and products they didn’t agree to buy but are obligated to purchase because they’re hidden in contract clauses.

By mitigating risk through visibility into an active contract portfolio, a company can help ensure the effective management of the process from initiation and negotiation to execution and expiration. “You can optimize your internal and external relationships and keep the company protected in today’s changing business environment,” said Bill Pugh, president of CLM Matrix, whose Matrix software has been developed with process best practices for a number of industries, including healthcare, insurance, financial services, entertainment, energy and high technology. “You can also reduce the company’s risk by proactively monitoring contractual rights and obligations,” he said.

The advantages of a full contact lifecycle management tool include:

• Standardized contract creation using contract clauses that include most favorable terms as defined by the company

• Enhanced collaboration through online negotiation and exchange of documents

• Faster approvals supported by automated workflow

• Global contracts visibility to support best practice information and instruction from legal, operations and finance

• Easier access to the contract repository with defined metadata that enables greater search and retrieval

• Enterprise risk management through reporting across clauses and terms.

“The transparency of the contract portfolio helps to simultaneously resolve the concerns of the entire executive team, said Pugh. It supports the financial officer responsible for the financial integrity of the company, the sales executive who needs to act quickly to bring in revenue while upholding the company’s business policies and brand, and the corporate counsel who needs to minimize legal exposure and litigation,” he said.

An Historic Opportunity

The economic downturn has slowed corporate spending, but as the climate improves, companies are looking forward to a new period of growth. This presents an historic opportunity for a company anticipating high growth to prepare for and invest in its future, said Pugh. “When the action begins – and it will – the company will have the capacity to harness the power – and the risk – of its contract portfolio through improved compliance and the ability to capture revenue and contain costs.”

26-Oct-09 8:00 AM

Defining a SharePoint Solution Roadmap

Darrin Poole — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:00:00 GMT

Download the full version of this article here: Developing a SharePoint Roadmap

When considering a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 solution, there are six major knowledge areas to explore. These SharePoint solution components should be considered when defining the SharePoint Roadmap. The feature areas are as follows:

Collaboration - Creating an environment that allows teams to work together by providing an intuitive, flexible, and secure capability for sharing information.
Portal - Delivering the capabilities to personalize the user experience of an enterprise website by providing individuality, security, and social networking capabilities.
Enterprise Search - Locating relevant data and content distributed across a wide range of sites, document libraries, business application data repositories, and other sources. Enterprise search also supports the location of appropriate resources to address specific questions.
Content Management - Creation, review, and management of content, regardless of the format of the content. Content management can include document management, records management, and Web content management.
Business Forms and Integration - Creation and implementation of forms that enable efficient business operations through the use of business process workflows. The forms are delivered via standard Web browsers and can be extended via the integration with databases and third party applications.
Business Intelligence - Delivery of business critical information using a wide range of solutions, including server based Excel spreadsheets, SQL Reporting and KPI tools, to assist in the decision making process.

Building the SharePoint Roadmap

Building a successful roadmap involves three areas: People, Process, and Technology. Business processes represent the way we capture information, organize and store the information, and, ultimately, use the information in our decision processes. The technology functions include all system components that make up the SharePoint solution. However, even the best technologies and logical business processes will fail if the user community does not readily adopt them.

The SharePoint Roadmap helps set a vision for a SharePoint project and defines how that vision will be achieved. The goals of the roadmap are to help the business users understand their needs and how SharePoint will help achieve their goals. In developing the Roadmap, a number of topics are addressed

SharePoint vision: Work with senior managers to align the SharePoint vision with business goals.

• Governance: What is needed to allow all departments or parties to help define and implement the SharePoint system?

• Determine desired features: What functionality is needed?

• Prioritize features: Determine the complexity and importance of each feature.

• Technology gap analysis: Understand and document what technologies are needed for the overall solution.

• Roadmap: Define in text and chart format what will happen over the next 18-24 months.

SharePoint Roadmap Benefits

The intent of the SharePoint Roadmap is to define a SharePoint vision aligned with business goals and then create a structured approach to building a SharePoint solution that meets those business needs. The SharePoint roadmap provides the following benefits:

Aligns your SharePoint solution to the business needs and strategy.
Defines governance with input from multiple organizations.
Leverages your company's users to define the most important SharePoint applications and features.
Defines what technology is needed (and when) in order to make the SharePoint deployment a success.
Helps ensure your SharePoint and integration projects are on track to achieve technical and business objectives.

At the conclusion of the Roadmap development, your organization will be able to develop a plan for a successful SharePoint implementation. This plan will help your organization:

Gain a better understanding of the business background and expand your knowledge of the business and user requirements necessary to complete this project.
Define the functional, content, and management needs of the SharePoint solution to drive future phases of development.
Map the business requirements to the SharePoint architecture being developed to assess what components can be leveraged in this initiative and what gaps still exist.
Create an implementation roadmap that maps the user requirements to phases of the project and defines the phase timelines and deliverables. This roadmap will also be used to estimate the remaining phases of the project.

Developing a SharePoint Roadmap will ensure that your organization will be able to align the business goals with the capabilities provided by SharePoint. Engaging the business to define the desired functionality of the SharePoint solution is the one key activity to a successful implementation.

Agree? Disagree?

Have your own roadmap? Share your thoughts and opinions at the blog for Infonomics, Information at Work.

Alan Weintraub is a Principal, ECM Solutions, for Perficient. Alan has extensive experience in all phases of Enterprise Content Management solution implementations. He has worked as a Research Director at Gartner, focusing on the Content and Document Management markets and a consultant where he designed and implemented document management systems. Prior to his consulting experience Alan engaged in technology management for major pharmaceutical companies. He has over twenty five years of experience in the information systems profession.

About CLM Matrix

CLM Matrix is the market leader in Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software solutions on Microsoft Office and SharePoint technology platforms. Our solution extends the functionality of traditional contract management software by adding features such as:

· Rule-based document creation

· Clause libraries

· Policy-based approval workflow

· Automated reminders and alerts

· Real time user defined reporting

· Integration with legacy enterprise software

· Contract compliance tracking

· Multi-language capabilities

· Support for global environments

· Fully configurable to specific process and document types without code (wizard driven)

©2009 CLM Matrix, LLC. All rights reserved.
CLM Matrix makes no warranties, expressed or impolied, in this summary.
CLM Matrix is a registered trademark of C-Lutions, LLC.
Other product names may be trademarks of their respective companies.

23-Jun-09 4:00 AM

How Contract Lifecycle Management drives Real ROI for your SharePoint Investment

Darrin Poole — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Download the full version of this article here: How CLM Drives Real ROI

SharePoint® is one of the hottest products in the enterprise content management (ECM) and collaboration spaces. Why are organizations implementing SharePoint? Is it because Microsoft™ has done a great job at describing the benefits of using SharePoint or is it all about a technology looking for a problem to solve? Finding the real benefit for implementing SharePoint is not necessarily about the capabilities of the technology, but how those capabilities align with the needs of the business.

One of the toughest questions I am often asked when first discussing a SharePoint project is to differentiate the hard versus soft benefits of SharePoint. This is often quite difficult to answer as a large number of the benefits can be categorized as soft as they address the need to find the right information and collaborate more effectively with others in the organization. Assigning hard dollar savings is not a simple task for these types of benefits. So how do you develop real dollar ROI benefits for SharePoint? One way is to look for a SharePoint-based solution that addresses a business need that can result in cost savings or cost avoidance.

One such solution that has proven to yield hard ROI benefits is Contract Lifecycle Management.

In today’s complex business environment, many organization’s contract management processes are defined by fragmented procedures, labor-intensive activities, limited visibility into contract terms and conditions, and ineffective compliance management and governance. Today’s processes are very manual and prone to inconsistencies and errors. These operational inefficiencies lead to lower margins and increase legal and regulatory business risks as many companies fail to honor the obligations defined in their contractual agreements.

Mis-management of contracts can cost a company millions of dollars in lost opportunities and additional fees. Organizations that have undertaken a contract lifecycle management project
have done so to address some of the following issues:

Fragmented internal procedures
Undefined workflow
Labor-intensive processes
Poor visibility into contracts and terms
Ineffective compliance and management
Inadequate performance analysis

Contract Lifecycle Management is a framework of policies and technologies that allow organizations to create, negotiate, and manage the legal documents that are used in the course of running a business. These technologies can include document management, records management, imaging, collaboration, email management, search, and workflow and business intelligence. SharePoint and Office 2007 can provide an excellent platform to solve this business issue.

Understanding the typical lifecycle of a contract will easily show how SharePoint can meet the needs for not only creating a contract, but managing the terms of the contact once it has been approved.

Using SharePoint and Microsoft Office can provide the capabilities to meet the lifecycle needs for creating, reviewing, approving, and managing a contract. These include:

Automated technology using Word for contract creation and formatting based upon contract request.
Automated, collaborative workflow for approvals, notifications, and reminders. These workflows can be based on terms of the contract.
SQL-based digital, historical contract summaries of information pulled directly from the contract Word document for quick research.
Role-based contract monitoring and tracking portal.
Advanced SQL reporting capabilities for contract trend, performance, compliance, and governance analysis.

By implementing Contract Lifecycle Management on a SharePoint platform, an organization can realize:

Standardized contract creation using contract clauses.
More effective collaboration through online negotiation and exchange of documents.
Faster contract approval and signing with automated workflow.
Global contract visibility for best practice sharing.
Standardized contracts that include the most favorable terms, as defined by the company.
Risk management through reporting across clauses and terms.
Risk mitigation through control of contract language and documents.

Looking at some examples of why organizations implement a Contract Lifecycle Management solution will demonstrate the benefit areas and the type of ROI that these organizations expect to receive. A pharmaceutical company implemented Contract Lifecycle Management to address
their need to better manage their contractual relationships associated with their clinical trial procedures. Many of the contractual relationships stipulate penalties for non-compliance and regulatory procedures require annual audits to ensure the company executes within the contractual guidelines. The Contract Lifecycle Management solution provided visibility into their active contract portfolio helped them insure that they were effectively meeting the required legal and financial obligations.

An entertainment company required a Contract Lifecycle Management solution to manage the numerous types of contracts related to a movie production. These contracts were often very complex with many different clauses that were dependent on the individual negotiation. Missed contractual obligations could result in millions of dollars in late fees and penalties. The company implemented a Contract Lifecycle Management solution that standardized the contract
clauses and provided automated alerts and triggers to reduce the possibility of financial penalties and ultimately improve the company’s bottom-line performance.

These two examples show typical results that will yield real, measurable ROI that can be used to justify the SharePoint investment. Contract Lifecycle Management can help your organization transform contracting from a costly, paper-based process into an efficient, technology-enhanced
“system” that will allow your organization to not only manage the entire lifecycle, but also manage the actual terms of each contract.

Alan Weintraub is a Principal, ECM Solutions for Perficient. Alan has extensive experience in all phases of Enterprise Content Management solution implementations. He has worked as a Research Director at Gartner, focusing on the Content and Document Management markets and
a consultant where he designed and implemented document management systems. Prior to his consulting experience Alan engaged in technology management for major pharmaceutical
companies. He has over twenty five years of experience in the information systems profession.

15-Jun-09 4:00 PM

Policy-centric Control in the Contract Management Process

David Montgomery — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Download the full version of this article here: CLM Policy-Centric Controls

THE CONTRACT LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT (CLM) MARKET has evolved over the last 30 years. In fact, one may view it as a growth from rudimentary contract document editing to content management, and to the inclusion of full life-cycle management. The recent focus has been to define the overall business process encompassing contracts and implement this process with the aid of technology — beyond word processing and storage frameworks. With this process-centric view, buyers in the public and private sectors have been seeking applications to help their business organize their procedures, track their approvals, and manage their contract repositories. However, this trend is, interestingly enough, developing beyond a process-centric perspective. Buyers in the market are now embracing the desire for technology to help them manage and enforce their business policies. CLM buyers have become policy-centric.What is the difference between process-centric and policy-centric? To understand this difference, it might be best to first understand the contract evolutionary picture; that is, over time how technology has addressed the business needs around contract creation and administration. Figure 1 on page 26 demonstrates the evolutionary picture as different periods of evolution, each period defined by having cer-tain characteristics.

The Creation Period First, there was a need to simply help a business create a contract — to write it down on paper. Early on, contracts were hand-written. The tool of choice was a pen, a writing implement to permanently mark obligations between two or more parties. This was time-consuming, and reproducing copies was laborious and error-prone. Then the typewriter was invented, improving read-ability and making it easier to reproduce copies with the aid of the mimeograph. With the advent of computers becoming business tools, word processing applications provided a way for contracts to be created and saved. Editing contracts became much easier. Formats and styles were designed to better structure contracts. Locating existing contracts and formats, implementing busi-ness policy, and productivity was frustrating, difficult, and time-consuming.

The Organization Period Once contracts had an easier way to be created, the business need became one of organization. File management systems provided a way for businesses to organize contracts into storage groups, directories, and folders. Yet, with this, a need developed to address the problem of locating a contract once it was stored on a floppy disk or one of the many storage directories. Content management systems then surfaced to meet this need, providing a way to associate attributes with each contract so that one could locate all contracts that have a given set of key attributes, for example. Many of today’s businesses find themselves still struggling through this period.While contract location issues eased somewhat, problems remained with implementing business policy and productivity. A new issue started to surface as well — tracking terms across multiple contracts.

The Processing Period In recent years, a business need has developed for technology to help in the overall process involving the creation, organization, negotiation, approval, signing, and execution of a contract. This process-centric view includes needs for better visibility into the contracting process, better standardization of procedures and content, improved collaboration among the employees involved, and improved quality in customer relationship, risk management, and audit discovery. Contract Lifecycle Management technologies grew to meet this need by delivering capabilities to define processes. Businesses achieved better visibility into contracting operations and they now had a vehicle to standardize their procedures and track-related activities. By centralizing these operations, employees can better collaborate and monitor the details. Several CLM vendors provide process-centric solutions. Most do so by delivering a fixed process and associated set of data items that once implemented provide answers to business needs, so long as the business follows the process procedures established by the CLM vendor. The better CLM vendors determined that businesses should be able to establish their own process with their own data terminology, and not be bound by fixed contract terms and procedures. As such, they provide solutions that are more agile to better adapt to the true needs, by allowing a way for businesses to employ process improvement techniques on their contracting process, change their process when a change is warranted, and allow a business to grow with the solution and the solution to grow with the business.Contract location issues continue to be solved, and productivity metrics improve by putting in place standard, repeatable contracting processes. However, implementing business policy, and ensuring such policy is followed, continues to plague solutions in this period.

The Controlling Period The market has entered the “controlling” period of evolutionary need. Businesses with defined processes are realizing that these processes and procedures are implementing business policy. This is an important addition in perspective. Not only are businesses concerned about following a prescribed process, the one that is defined by operational standards, they also understand that policy governs how these processes should proceed. Businesses want technology to help them implement policy and implement how that policy must govern the process, its detailed steps, the associated approvals, and the correct contract type being produced. The implications of this policy-centric perspective is that CLM vendors need to develop technology that allows for policy definition, not simply process definition; policy integration in process definition in data capture and in contract creation.So now let’s look at answers to the question, “What are the differences between process-centric and policy-centric CLM solutions?”

A process-centric view states that data needs to be collected. Typically, a human needs to “make sure” that the correct data is collected, resulting in potential rework and quality errors. A policy-centric view guarantees that the correct data is collected at the correct time in the process, and this data is used to determine which business policies now apply.

A process-centric view states that approvals are required. Typically, a human determines to whom an approval request should be sent. However, this too is error-prone, as occasionally evidenced by the wrong level of approval being granted and not discovered until after the contract is executed. A policy-centric view guarantees that the correct level of approval is obtained at the correct point in the process, because this view executes business policy.

A process-centric view states that a contract needs to be created at some point in time. Typically, a human would obtain a contract template for what he or she thinks is the correct contract type; and/or would obtain additional clauses and place these clauses in the template. Manual contract construction is a flawed approach because business policies are inconsistently followed, and there are issues in clause and contract quality and versions. A policy-centric view states that the correct type of contract is created containing the correct clauses in the correct document location and which clauses are required given the situation at hand; for example, making sure a specific clause is included or not included in a contract with the prescribed approval in place.

Summarizing, a process-centric CLM solution helps to make sure a process is executed correctly. A policy-centric CLM solu-tion makes sure business policies and processes are executed correctly. Have you ever been faced with the question, “Okay, I have completed my task, what’s next?” or “This is a special situation — who needs to approve it?” A solution built around a policy-centric core will evaluate the situation and take the user to the appropriate policy-driven next step, and make sure that appropriate policy-driven approvals are in place before continuing. As such, a policy-centric solution guarantees the correct policy is enforced. In fact, and more importantly, it is the policy statements that dictate which process to follow to begin with.It is straightforward to understand why business needs policy-centric CLM solutions. This level of control is a must for a business trying to completely address the need to improve their overall contracting process. Without technology that delivers policy-centric capabilities, human decision-making remains required for adherence to policy, and therefore, the potential for human error and policy mishaps exist.What specifically does this mean for a CLM solution? Such features go beyond process definition and go well beyond solutions that deliver only a predefined set of rules to be leveraged in a process (such as e-mail notifications or expiration date alerts). A robust policy-centric CLM solution should provide the capability to:

Define policy rules in the terminology of the business, with the agility to define any combination of rules to be applied when and where such implementation is dictated by policy;
Integrate policy rules within the process such that the process proceeds down the correct path according to the business policies;
Integrate policy rules within the process such that the correct data, contract attributes, and negotiated decisions are captured at the correct time and are captured fully and completely;
Integrate policy rules within the contract creation process to guarantee the correct contract type is created, and the applicable contract content (and only the applicable contract content) is contained therein; and
Change policy rules when and if corresponding changes to policy occur within the business, and have these policy changes take place without the need for software redeploy-ment or custom software development. Essentially, this capability directly infers that a business can define their own policies within the solution and not be bound by out-of-the-box rules hard-coded into the software.

The Fulfillment Period A future period of evolution presents a vision in which the technology directly fulfills the established policies and carries out all contracting activities without the need for human intervention, unless human intervention is warranted. With the technology of policy management and rule-driven controls put in place by the controlling period of evolution, it is not a stretch to envision such policies and rules to be at the core of an expert system; expert in both contracting process and contract documentation creation.One could say we are at the beginning of this evolutionary period in the contracting process, at least from a technology perspective. Total contract fulfillment is achieved during this period of evolution.

Imagine a concept of operation dealing with “sell-side” contracts, where a sales department representative logs in to a contract expert system. An initial set of questions is asked, and based on the answers, the contract expert system performs certain activities, asks more questions, obtains the necessary approvals, and builds the appropriate contract from clauses stored in a clause library.
Imagine the contract expert system implementing business policy perfectly, with no error in execution. If a specific clause is required for a situation, then the clause is included in the contract at its correct location, automatically.
Imagine a legal staff not being troubled with “standard” contracts, thus having time to use their skills more effectively on only the more tedious, out-of-the-normal-policy contracts. The contract expert system also would be able to use nonstandard clauses in a contract build, defined as clauses that deal with concessions, discount levels, service levels, and other situations that are not a part of a standard contract build, but are clauses that have approved language and are selected usually through negotiation based on the characteristics and terms of the contract. And if special approvals are required, the contract expert system will obtain approval before inserting the clause into the contract build.

Conclusion Business needs are shifting from process-centric CLM solutions to policy-centric solutions. This shift may be debatable, but it is logical given an appreciation in how contract activities and their supporting technology have evolved over the years.The shift to policy-centric solutions is just one step in the overall contracting evolution. The characteristics of the shift have been born from a need to ensure business policy is followed and policy management is in place. More than process management, policy-centric solutions ensure the right process is followed at the right time.

11-Jun-09 5:00 PM

Increased Efficiency is on the Horizon for Three Distinct Companies

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:00:00 GMT

CLM Matrix helps three clients standardize, streamline and achieve efficiencies. Dallas, Texas, USA, February 1, 2010 — CLM Matrix has recently signed agreements with three national companies to help increase their business efficiencies through superior contract lifecycle management. The diversity of industries shows the strength, flexibility, and robustness of CLM Matrix’s products. CLM Matrix is solving problems for: · A leading independent hotel investment and management firm that currently operates over 50 hotels in 17 states. Their goal was to improve operational performance by understanding the true value of each of their properties and conduct more efficient and effective negotiations via the contract process. The implementation of Matrix-Fast Track gave them a repository to store and manage their existing agreements. They also wanted to streamline and tighten-up the governing rights and obligations associated with each agreement. · A large...

Microsoft Contract Management Software Leader Announces 2009 Revenues Up 22 Percent

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:00:00 GMT

CLM Matrix shows an increase in sales through a trying economy. Dallas, Texas, USA, January 29, 2010 — CLM Matrix posts a 22 percent increase in sales over the previous year. CLM Matrix is a Microsoft Gold Certified software company that helps companies achieve greater efficiencies through improved contract lifecycle management. Their Matrix Software solution is 100% based on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and Office Professional productivity tools. “Efficiency and cost savings are easy sells even in this tough economy,” says Tim Sparks, CLM Matrix CEO. “When you create a rules-based process complete with a legal library and checks-and-balances, whether you’re managing thousands of contracts or hundreds, you’re going to be more efficient. Those efficiencies immediately translate into profits. And, C-Level Executives tend to like that.” The company has been focused exclusively on Contract Lifecycle Management since 2002...

Microsoft Contract Management company provides new data integration features

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:00:00 GMT

CLM Matrix introduces release 7.4 — providing enhanced data integration capabilities. Dallas, Texas, USA, August 14, 2009 — CLM Matrix has introduced their latest Matrix Software release 7.4. This release has wizard based functionality allowing easy integration with other “best of breed” software systems — thus eliminating duplication and errors. CLM Matrix is one of the fastest growing niche software companies focusing on efficiencies in contract lifecycle management. Without having to spend days, weeks or months of IT collaboration, this new release easily integrates with a company’s other systems such as sales, CRM, accounting or delivery. “Many of our clients are large companies with a variety of legacy systems. We needed to find a way to help them tie it all together. We cringe when we see duplication of data and processes. It wastes so much time and is prone to error,” said Bill Pugh, President of CLM Matrix. “Our goal...

Thanks to CLM Matrix, Contract Management Just Got Easier For 5 Companies Globally

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Electricity. Entertainment. Energy. Financial. Real Estate. Dallas, Texas, USA, August 14, 2009 — CLM Matrix has recently signed agreements with five companies doing business around the world to solve their contract management problems. The diversity of industries shows the strength, flexibility, and robustness of CLM Matrix’s products. The company is solving problems for: · A Canadian utility company that owns and operates power facilities. They needed a repository to store and manage their existing agreements. In so doing, they also wanted to streamline and tighten-up the governing rights and obligations associated with each agreement. Within several weeks of contacting CLM, they were able to install and begin using the company’s Matrix-Fast Track software. · A global entertainment studio is now using CLM’s Matrix-Enterprise system to create licensing contracts with multiple production cast and crews. It’s not uncommon for them...

Contract Management In 1.5 Seconds! From CLM Matrix

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:00:00 GMT

When your entire business is all about improving productivity, speed of the leader takes on a whole new meaning. Dallas, Texas, USA, August 7, 2009 — We’ve all heard the mantra — Do more with less. It’s on the lips of every executive and business owner. In an economy like we’re seeing today, inefficiencies are being exposed like hemorrhaging wounds — critical, and in some cases, life threatening for the company. Products and services that help companies become more productive and efficient are the cure. CLM Matrix is one such company. CLM Matrix’s contract lifecycle management solutions are getting a lot of attention from mid-market and enterprise level companies because they’re helping organizations get a handle on every aspect of the contract management process, including the myriad of business rules, decision rights, and deadlines that are involved. The life of a contract. In some cases it’s daunting, says CLM Matrix President, Bill Pugh. We often joke that an entire...

Solving Customers' Pain Proves to be Recession Proof for CLM Matrix

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:45:00 GMT

CLM Matrix announces best quarter in company’s history. Houston, Texas, USA, July 15, 2009 — Unstructured content is the new buzz phrase causing CFO’s and front line managers with bottom line responsibilities lots of pain. With user-friendly software like Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, companies are seeing more and more collaborative projects. And while organizations are reaping real benefit from this team synergy, there are real costs involved in managing the explosion of information being generated. CLM Matrix is one of the first companies to recognize the need to harness the power of SharePoint and take this popular software to an entirely new and manageable level. CLM Matrix uses the SharePoint platform as the basis for its powerful contract lifecycle management products. The CLM Matrix software takes all aspects of the contract process into consideration and helps companies cope with the staggering degree of detail, rules, options, and deadlines that have to be...

Microsoft Tier 1 Partner Eliminates Administrative Clog

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:15:55 GMT

C-Lutions announces that it has changed its name to CLM Matrix. Tim Sparks, Chief Executive Officer, made the announcement earlier this month and will debut the new name and website at the upcoming Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference July 13 – 16, 2009. Dallas, Texas, USA, June 29, 2009 — In today’s sales scarce, cash flow thirsty economy, companies are searching internally for ways to alleviate performance pressure. And, nothing can clog up a system faster than a complex contract. Think about this — the typical Fortune 1000 company maintains 20,000 to 40,000 active contracts at any given time.* Long Gone Are The Days Of Business By Handshake Today when companies make commitments and promises, they do so through contracts. The range of stakeholder groups managing these commitments can be staggering, resulting in a very complex decision-making matrix. The process can get bureaucratic in a hurry resulting in unwanted delays, poor management visibility, and transactional...

Action Packed Entertainment Studio Has Found Their Solution To Efficiencies and Improved Profits Via Contract Lifecycle Management.

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Dallas, Texas, USA, May 5, 2009 —One of the world’s most prominent character-building entertainment companies has chosen CLM Matrix and their Matrix – Enterprise software to help them meet contractual compensation obligations — potentially saving them millions in late fees and penalties. Because they are in the entertainment business, they have Lead Actor agreements with as many as 175 optional clauses with various obligations related to each clause. That’s a tremendous amount of information to keep track of. Says CLM Matrix President, Bill Pugh. By defining the workflow processes for each of their contract types, we were able to configure our software to the key business rules that would generate proactive notifications for key terms. This significantly reduced the amount of manual tasks needed and the automated alerts and triggers the software provides will reduce the financial penalties and ultimately improve the company’s bottom line performance. More About Matrix -...

Canadian Power Company Selects Matrix Fast Track To Improve Contract Governing Rights and Obligations.

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Dallas, Texas, USA, April 29, 2009 — CLM Matrix is pleased to announce one of Canada’s leading developers, owners and operators of independent power facilities as a client. The goal of this power company is to be the leading independent power producer in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. They recognized that one of the keys to achieving this relied on an effective and efficient way to handle the many contracts they’d be implementing. After analyzing their short-term and long-term goals, we determined they needed a repository to store and manage their agreements. Said Bill Pugh, President of CLM Matrix. Our Matrix – Fast Track was the perfect solution. It gave them the repository they needed along with the rules-based smart system which allows them to get a better handle on their governing rights and obligations. And, since our software is built exclusively on the Microsoft Office Suite, they can harness the power of SharePoint but keep implementation and training costs...

Preeminent Canadian Real Estate Company Improves Business Intelligence with CLM Matrix

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Dallas, Texas, USA, March 16, 2009 — A preeminent Canadian-based global property owner, manager, developer and investor, chooses Matrix – Fast Track to strengthen their business intelligence and become even more focused and profitable with their regional and super regional shopping destinations. With properties throughout North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia, this developer needed a systematic approach to the numerous customer portfolio interactions they encounter daily. CLM Matrix was able to quickly install their Matrix – Fast Track software giving them a central repository and a way to capture key terms and conditions that are standard elements to their major contracts. The amount of business intelligence they can now extract is significant. said CLM Matrix CEO, Tim Sparks. Within a matter of weeks they were up and running on this software and as a result, making better business decisions. Matrix - Fast Track is a fully scalable, enterprise class solution that...

How Do Matrix Software Solutions Work?

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:13:38 GMT

Standardize. Streamline. Automate. There are four key components that drive a successful Matrix Software implementation: (1) Your Work Elements: Matrix Software takes the individual components that are used to create contractual relationships and integrates them. The individual components include your people, processes, policies, and data elements. We work with you to define what's most important in each of these and how they add value throughout the contracting process. (2) Your Process Workflow: All business process flows are somewhat unique. CLM Matrix provides standard workflow phases and execution steps that you can use to model your unique contract management process. The process workflow serves as the basis for how the system will be configured to achieve greater operational efficiencies. (3) Your Wizard configurations: Matrix Software is a dynamic expert system that is highly configurable to your business rules,...

*Home Page - Tabbed Content

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:59:20 GMT

Matrix - Software v.7.4 CLM Matrix's contract lifecycle management software adds 26 functions to the SharePoint platform, making contract management far more manageable. Because of the increased importance being placed on managing contracts more efficiently, we leverage the power of SharePoint to standardize, streamline and automate the contract management process. Key Differentiators: Key Features: Matrix Software is a wizard-driven, policy-based contract creation and workflow approval system designed to dynamically build both standard and custom configured contracts based upon pre-defined business rules. The product is fully configurable without programming which allows organizations to work the way they want to work using Microsoft’s ubiquitous Office productivity tools. Built upon Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) Out-of-box serial, parallel and circular workflow Role-based contract portals for monitoring and tracking Advanced SQL...

*Home Page Case Studies

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:11:36 GMT

1. Increased Efficiency is on the Horizon for Three Distinct Companies

CLM Matrix has recently signed agreements with three national companies to help increase their business efficiencies through superior contract lifecycle management. The diversity of industries shows the strength, flexibility, and robustness of CLM Matrix’s products.

2. Microsoft Contract Management Software Leader Announces 2009 Revenues up 22 Percent

“Efficiency and cost savings are easy sells even in this tough economy,” says Tim Sparks, CLM Matrix CEO. “When you create a rules-based process complete with a legal library and checks-and-balances, whether you’re managing thousands of contracts or hundreds, you’re going to be more efficient."

More CLM Matrix News

Hospitality Contract Management Software Solutions

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:45:30 GMT

Reduce operating expenses and mitigate risks while improving compliance and productivity. The hospitality industry has been significantly impacted by the recent economic downturn, forcing properties to reduce their expenses to offset lower occupancy rates and revenues. While the industry has developed specific software solutions to optimize room sales and manage revenues, the same cannot be said for managing operating expense and driving cost savings. Most operating companies with multiple properties lack the visibility into the specific costs and contract terms of each property’s buy-side and sell-side agreements. Moreover, these companies lack the ability and resources to search both electronic and manual documents repositories to get a real sense of the legal and financial risks. As a result, the industry is missing an opportunity to achieve the efficiencies needed to improve operating profits. Many companies cannot answer these basic questions regarding the...

Contract Lifecycle Management Associations

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:54:36 GMT

CLM Matrix maintains active relationships with a number of leading industry associations. These organizations provide thought leadership and access to information that allow companies to enhance their operational performance. International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM) IACCM provides a global forum for innovation and collaboration in trading relationships and practices. It offers unique insights to the purpose and contribution of the contracting and relationship management process in both public and private sector. For more information, please visit www.iaccm.com. National Contract Management Association (NCMA) NCMA is the leading association promoting the contract management profession in both the public and private sector. The organization provides the structure, name recognition, and products directly and through chapters to contracting professionals worldwide. Established in 1977, the organizations flagship publication,...

CLM Matrix - Office Locations

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:53:31 GMT

United States

Corporate Headquarters

CLM Matrix

4808 Forest Hill Drive

Suite 2G

Flower Mound, Texas 75028

Phone: 800-961-6534

email: sales@clmmatrix.com

Europe, Middle East & Africa Region

London Office

55 Station Road

Harpenden

Hertfordshire AL5 4XE

Phone: +44 (0) 2070 960 920

email: bsparks@clmmatrix.com

Asia Pacific Region

New Zealand Office

Contract Forge, Ltd.
Unit N, 86 Bush Road
Albany, Auckland

Phone: +64 21 858 970

email: tim@contractforge.com

Contract Management in Europe, Middle East and Africa

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:06:02 GMT

CLM Matrix serves the Europe, MIddle East and Africa (EMEA) region via our offices in London, England. Our Managing Director, Bob Sparks, manages our customer and partner relationships for this region.

Please complete the contact form below and one of our resources will respond to you promptly.

You may also contact Bob Sparks directly with an immediate inquiry.

Bob Sparks

Managing Director - EMEA

Office: +44 (0)2070 960 920
Mobile: +44 (0)7919 696 160

Contract Lifecyle Management using SharePoint Server 2007

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:17:00 GMT

Contract Lifecycle Management using SharePoint Server 2007

CLM Matrix Harnesses the Power of SharePoint with its Matrix - Enterprise and Matrix - Fast Track solution offerings. CLM Matrix is the leading Contract Lifecycle Management software company built exclusively on the Microsoft Office and SharePoint Server technology platform. We provide full lifecycle capabilities from initial request and initiation to contract closure and monitoring with automated workflow approvals and alerts along the way.

To learn more about how we can help standardize, streamline and automate your business process, please contact us.

Click here to Schedule a Live Demo.

Healthcare Contract Management Software Achieve Greater Operational Efficiency

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:16:33 GMT

Provide the Best Patient Care, Reduce Operating Costs, and Mitigate Risk CLM Matrix works with some of the leading healthcare companies to provide the best patient care, reduce operating costs, and mitigate risk to the organization. Improving the process of negotiating and managing contractual obligations with various suppliers, physician groups and support organizations can significantly impact a large hospital's operating performance and enhance its competitive market position. As is true in most industries, the key to profitability in the healthcare industry is achieving operational efficiency. The majority of today's public and private hospitals have never defined end-to-end processes for their major contractual relationships that significantly influence operating margins. Most organizations lack visibility into the specific rights and obligations of their buy- and sell-side agreements and go through labor-intensive efforts to search both electronic and manual document...

Contract Lifecycle Management perspective for Business Executives

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:12:06 GMT

In today's complex environment, many companies are challenged to do more with less. Often times, the less implies tightening operating expenses and reducing overhead, including headcount. CLM Matrix believes that companies can do MORE by spending LESS time plodding through inefficient processes and struggling to understand how their business is performing against contractual rights and obligations. There are four key benefit areas that our Matrix Software contract management solutions can help your organization achieve: Standardization: Address the need for contract process and structure standardization while lowering administrative and legal costs associated with establishing and managing strategic relationships. Speed: Collapse contract creation and negotiation cycle times by up to 50% or more and reduce DSO with back-end integration with existing ERP systems. Business Intelligence: Optimize buy or sell side contracts through increased transparency and deeper...

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noemail@clmmatrix.com — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:31:41 GMT

Objectives:

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Release Date: 12-Mar-09 5:31 PM
Expiration Date: 12-Jun-09 5:31 PM

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2009-03-12T22:31:41Z

Instructor: Instructor

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