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Negotiating from a Position of Strength

Darrin Poole - noemail@clmmatrix.com — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 21:00:00 GMT

Download the full version of this article here: Negotiating from a Position of Strength

Whether you wear glasses, contacts or have normal eyesight, we can all agree that being able to see is one of our most valuable senses. Words related to vision also command a place in our vocabulary as a means to describe our actions.

There is hindsight, foresight, limited vision, tunnel vision, losing sight of a goal, and when we can’t see at all we might get blindsided. In the corporate world, business objectives are defined by vision statements and an innovative leader is often referred to as a visionary. The preponderance of these types of words in our lexicon highlights the significance we place on sight.

Visibility is a highly powerful tool in being able to see and perceive what’s ahead. The better we can see, the better our chances of success. This also applies to the world of contract management where a lack of visibility can seriously impair the negotiation process, squeeze profits and raise the risk of non-compliance. So why settle for 20/20 vision when an automated contract management system can give you the ability to see much further down the road.

The Path Ahead – How 20/10 Vision Can Help You

A person with 20/10 vision can see twice as far as one with normal eyesight. That’s a very useful skill to help clearly see the path ahead, especially for a corporation managing thousands of contracts with varying lifecycle stages. This visibility is crucial to avoid the renewal of contracts that should be renegotiated, effectively handle audits or milestone reviews to avoid penalties and cost overruns, and to keep your negotiating team ahead of the curve and on track.

Contract management is a complex process on many levels, especially considering the sheer volume of contracts a corporation must negotiate, execute, store and monitor. In many ways it is the core driver of the business engine when you consider that contracts set the parameters for every relationship a company forms.

If your negotiating team is behind schedule and under pressure, the risks are raised for the execution of a subpar contract that opens the door for disputes, litigation, or non-compliance issues. Using an automated contract system not only ensures the capability to see when contracts need attention but also provides you with real-time visibility – the ability to easily view any aspect of your contract portfolio at any moment in time.

The Forest for the Trees – Perception and Focus

The typical corporate contract negotiation requires the collaboration of a number of functional experts across the enterprise. Sales and procurement are focused on pricing, finance on compliance, legal on the potential risks while IT and operations concentrate on technical specifications. All are advising on some aspect of the negotiation and each brings their specific expertise to the table. The problem is that each stakeholder inherently has their own perception which is only a piece of the puzzle and this can contribute to an inability to see the forest for the trees.

If the negotiation team is not working as one to move the process forward, or team members are waiting on each other – time will be wasted and redundancy will occur. Redundancy in work is one of the biggest and most unnecessary drains on corporate resources and dollars. An automated contract management system can bring focus to the negotiation, and help team members streamline their efforts and easily work in sync to expedite the overall process.

With a contract management program, your experts are virtually plugged into one central repository that stores all contract information and allows them to effectively collaborate and see the whole picture. This connectivity and workflow transparency allows for speedier resolutions of any bottlenecks and ensures the negotiation does not languish. The system moderates the process and helps team members stay on track with automatic alerts and approval notices. In addition, with a program that operates on a well known platform such as Microsoft SharePoint, even team rookies are easily brought up to speed since the user interface is a familiar one.

The Whole Picture – Hindsight, Foresight and Insight

The backbone of a successful contract negotiation is solid business intelligence. If you are using a mediocre or even worse, a medieval manual contract management system, you are squandering valuable time and corporate resources. You are more than likely to be operating in the dark and employing a seat-of-the-pants method to keep up with your contractual obligations. Time is wasted on compiling research. Tracking down past history and notes can bog the team down in addition to costing money. Your negotiators also have less time to focus on negotiation strategies and goals which can lead to even more losses in the form of a less than optimal deal. This puts you at a serious disadvantage and exposes the organization to margin and revenue leakage on both the buy-side and sell-side of your operation.

Using technology, such as a rules-driven contract management program, can provide you with an array of information management tools that can help your team collect and easily harness the data they need to effectively manage the negotiation process. With a simple query of the central repository, users can quickly see the whole picture and examine the entire contract lifecycle history including all emails, non-negotiable items, points of contention, topics to avoid and performance of the last cycle.

Hindsight gained from reviewing the past helps clearly identify lessons learned and contributes to having the foresight to help you capture potential opportunities or avoid pitfalls in the future. This knowledge arms your negotiation team with the insight and information they need to develop solid strategies and tactics to secure the best agreement possible while cultivating client and vendor relationships.

The Results – Seeing the Difference

In a contract negotiation, there is your team and their team – the question is which team is going to lock in the most beneficial deal. The costs of revenue leakage, non-compliance penalties and margin erosion can quickly compound if contract negotiations are mismanaged.

Negotiating from a position of strength empowers your team to influence key expectations and convince the other side to see things differently. With the proper tools to manage the contract process, your negotiators will come to the table knowledgeable, prepared and confident. Every dollar saved or made when applied to thousands of contracts can significantly improve your company’s financial performance.

With today’s executives facing relentless pressure to boost profits, what is it worth to secure the results generated by the power of enhanced contract visibility? A contract management solution is transformational and you will see the difference contracting excellence can make as well as yield a three to ten-fold return on your investment. That’s a win-win deal.

24-Jun-11 4:00 PM

CLM Benefits for Pharmaceutical Companies

Darrin Poole - noemail@clmmatrix.com — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Automated Contract Management Provides Substantial Benefits to Nektar Therapeutics

CLM Matrix system exploits Microsoft SharePoint platform.

By: Rebecca Cazares, Nektar Therapeutics

This article was originally published in Pharmaceutical Commerce magazine:

Rebecca Cazares is Associate Director, Contracts Management, at Nektar Therapeutics (San Francisco; www.nektar.com), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a pipeline of drug candidates that utilize its PEGylation and polymer conjugate technology platforms. Its product pipeline consists of drug candidates across a number of therapeutic areas, including oncology, pain, anti-infectives, anti-viral and immunology.

24-Jun-11 10:00 AM

Stuck in Traffic? Take the Tollway.

Darrin Poole - noemail@clmmatrix.com — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Download the full version of this article here: Stuck in Traffic? Take the Tollway.

Contract workflow travels through an organization’s system much like cars make their way around a city.

If your contracts are stuck on the freeway in five o’clock traffic, stopped at a red light, or lost on a backstreet, you are wasting valuable time and using extra gas. That costs money. So why let your contracts meander about or get mired in gridlock when they can take the tollway?

Tollways, composed of a series of passenger lanes and toll booths, can be considered a contained system with a set of rules that ensure streamlined travel. Vehicles approaching a toll booth are routed into lanes depending on what category they fall into. Their speed of passage and the amount of service required are based on whether they have an EZ Pass, the exact change, or need to stop for full service.

In the contract management world, businesses also need rules to categorize requests and determine the best route for their transactional traffic. Corporations with automated contract lifecycle management systems are the ones that will be the most efficient, competitive and profitable.

80-20 Rule – The Value of Segmentation

The contract lifecycle begins with a request. When a request is received from a customer or vendor, what parameters best determine the type of negotiation, appropriation of human resources, or other activities that are needed to process the ensuing contract?

As many know, the 80-20 rule in business states that approximately 80% of a company’s revenue comes from 20% of its customers. That means those customers who fall in the 20% category are highly prized revenue generators and warrant special treatment. The rule is based on the discovery of Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who, in 1906, found that 80% of the wealth in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. His observation, now commonly known as the 80-20 rule or Pareto’s Law may be applied to many situations. This is not a ground breaking concept by any means, but what happens when this tried and true principle is applied to contract management?

The business model for an 80-20 contract lifecycle management system involves segmenting or categorizing your contracts based on the value of the transaction. Your primary resource allocation should be focused on the 20% of your contracts that are worth the most to the bottom line. A transaction’s value may be defined either in terms of a dollar amount or the projected value of a customer or vendor relationship. For a highly valued customer or a prized multi-million dollar contract, there is no doubt that any company would gladly invest in deploying a sales team or bringing in legal counsel to negotiate the deal. However, transactions with a smaller value need to be executed in a low cost manner that uses minimal resources or there will be losses in productivity and profitability.

Right out of the gate, companies need the capability to easily identify where contracts fall along the value spectrum. An automated, rules-driven contract management system generates a highly efficient process where potential contracts are appropriately categorized during the request phase and seamlessly routed based on a set of pre-established criteria.

Go, Go, Go – EZ Pass

EZ Pass is the fast lane where vehicles with a sticker on their windshield zip right through the tollbooth. Any contract that is simple, easy and straightforward would be routed into this lane. Your company certainly does not want an attorney who is getting paid $300 an hour to review a $50,000 standard contract. Instead, greater efficiency is achieved by having the legal team create a standard template with the appropriate clauses and language for a transaction that meets this type of criteria. Any contract that falls within the predetermined parameters would be automatically executed and processed using minimal resources. Volume centric contracts with large transaction numbers but low dollar per transaction value are what a company really wants to segment into this fast lane.

A Little More Time – Exact Change

Drivers who pull into the exact change lane must stop and put in their toll while they wait for the gate to go up. The primary point being that the process takes a little more time. Contracts that are somewhat more complex, like a higher dollar volume transaction or one that may require some sort of non-standard terms and conditions would fall into this category. In this case, an automated contract lifecycle management system provides a template that can be easily modified. With a simple click, the sales team can easily select and insert the appropriate clause from a list of non-standard items that legal has drafted and pre-approved. Sales personnel can indeed make an “exact change” in the contract language with little time wasted before the gate is raised and the contract zooms on to the next destination. The legalities are managed and the sales cycle is shortened which not only boosts productivity but also improves the bottom line.

Need Some Help – Full Service

Drivers who need a receipt or change at the toll station have to stop for a little extra service. In our automated contract model, this category is reserved for the most complex situations or the most valuable customers and transactions. Perhaps the contract is being executed on third party paper and the legal team may need to negotiate specific language and terms. Or it could be a high dollar transaction, that warrants unique terms with iterative back-and-forth redline negotiations. In this lane, you are allocating your more highly paid human resources on your higher valued, more complex agreements.

Who Benefits from the Model?

Businesses that need to respond in different ways to a range of diversified market segments stand to greatly benefit from automating their contract system to categorize requests based on value. A prime example is a high tech software or hardware manufacturer that sells to thousands of consumers in addition to small businesses and large corporations. A rules-driven approach allows such companies to set the parameters that will automatically segment contracts at the point of request to ensure their contracting resources are proportionately allocated.

The model also applies to the financial service industry where a company may cater to a spectrum of clients ranging from small investors to larger institutions. These industries need an automated contract lifecycle management system in order to be effective in a high volume arena as well as take care of high dollar clients that require more complex contracts. Profit margins are protected and the result is an efficient process that deploys human resources such as sales, legal or finance only when specific preset criteria are met and conditions warrant

The Model in Action – Health Insurance Industry

In 2013, the recently passed healthcare legislation will flood the insurance market with approximately 30 million new policy holders and force dramatic changes on the way the industry conducts business. Underwriters and insurance staff will no longer have the time or luxury of the using the normal labor intense process to review a policy request. The need to adapt to legislative changes will force a new business model on the industry and companies will have to find a lower cost method of qualifying and provisioning customers.

Companies will have to offer these policies at a price point that allows them to effectively compete for that business and make insurance for the masses more affordable. They must capture the request, provide a quote, qualify the policy holder and convert the quote into a policy in a very cost effective manner.

In the tollway paradigm, the consumer that requires a lower cost policy would be routed to the EZ pass lane. They will be able to make an online purchase of a no frills “policy in the box” at a set price point. Prospects segmented to the next lane would make an online request but meet such predetermined criteria that now the company would have an inside sales person speak to them.

In the full service lane, a client such as a small business would be considered a higher value transaction that merits additional attention.

The bottom line is: to profitably serve this range of customers, it will be necessary to implement some form of rules-driven segmentation model that automatically categorizes and routes requests. With the enactment of the new legislation in the coming years, the health insurance industry will certainly be adopting this model.

Life in the Fast Lane

Today’s world is changing at a highly accelerated pace. One only need look at the phenomenon of social media to see how a technologically-based concept can have a rapid and unprecedented impact. The deployment of high tech solutions such as those applied to the contract process are a must if companies are to successfully adapt to evolving market conditions. Using an archaic contract management system is like driving on a congested old highway that cannot handle the increased volume of traffic that comes with growth. The result is damage to productivity and the bottom line.

When you view a portfolio of current and prospective clients, what are the criteria that define the threshold of how to engage with them? The more labor intensive the actions are, the more costly the process is. The dynamic exchange initiated in the request process can be effectively managed by a rules-driven contract engine so both high volume and high dollar transactional needs are easily served without hurting profit margins. Just like an efficiently run tollway, an automated contract lifecycle management system provides the infrastructure that will segment your traffic, streamline your workflow and allow you to take the fast lane to success.

10-May-11 5:00 PM

Contract Lifecycle Management - Build vs. Buy

Tim Sparks - noemail@clmmatrix.com — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Download the full version of this article here: Contract Lifecycle Management - Build vs. Buy.

Over the past 10 years we have had the opportunity to implement approximately 100 contract lifecycle management (CLM) projects. All were SharePoint-based solutions for both buy-side and sell-side applications at companies big and small, public and private, and in over 15 different industry verticals. Through our experiences we have observed that the most successful CLM projects have several common attributes including:

The organization’s contract process is fully understood and well documented.
The organization has selected a specific area for improvement to deliver quick wins with meaningful results.
The organization has cross-functional support for the CLM initiative.

Deploying a contract lifecycle management solution is a project that for many companies has a return on-investment measured in weeks versus years. As the old adage says, “anything worth doing, is worth doing well” – the first time. So why not give yourself the benefit of learning from what others have done well and avoid the traps and pitfalls that plague unsuccessful projects.

Recently, we have observed an interesting trend developing in the CLM market. Now, fully one half of our inquiries share one of two experiences:

INTERNAL BUILD - they have tried and failed to build a contract management system themselves, or
GO LIGHT - they licensed an entry level product and either have outgrown the product or discovered that its functionality falls short of what was really needed.

Feedback from organizations from both categories is consistent. They express frustration that they have wasted considerable time and money with little to show for their investment and they have now renewed their search for a technology solution to help them better manage contract performance. Unfortunately, these organization’s experiences are both predictable and avoidable. Let’s explore both situations using real-life examples and then examine how these situations can easily be avoided.

Internal Build

Situation

Fourteen months ago we had an inquiry from an organization that was beginning a strategic CLM initiative. They assigned internal resources to work part time to define the requirements for their targeted contract process. Their primary high level objectives were to create an online web portal for self-service contract initiation, route the contract for approval electronically while enforcing business rules and policies and create real-time visibility into the status of each contract. Initial vendor reviews were performed, demos were given, questions submitted, proposals requested and then a final vendor was selected.

After some discussion, the organization decided that building a CLM solution internally would be slightly more cost effective than licensing one off-the-shelf. After all, how hard could it be? This company chose to build their own system using 3 technologies: Microsoft SharePoint Server, InfoPath, and an off-the-shelf workflow tool. The IT team proposed that they could build an equivalent CLM tool in 3 months or less.

The team proceeded to pursue this strategy and after more than a year, while spending 2-3X more money than projected, they rolled out their internally developed CLM solution to their internal customer. End users unanimously and immediately rejected the system stating it was not user friendly and did not address their needs. The rest of the story involves several employees forced to polish resumes, unhappy internal customers, significant political capital being exhausted and a renewed search for an off-the-shelf CLM solution.

Debrief

We have found organizations who think that they can build a CLM system themselves generally assume that they can build a CLM system for $85,000 to $150,000 with 2-3 developers in about 3-5 months. While these numbers might sound compelling to the organization, there are three questions that most of these organizations admit later that they failed to ask themselves:

Deep Technology Experience - Does the project team have the requisite solution development technology experience?
Track Record of Success - Does the project team have a history of successfully developing solutions on test, on budget and on time?
Deep Domain Experience - Does the project team have multiple iterations of contract lifecycle management solution development experience?

Unfortunately, most of these organizations have admitted later that they now realize their team was unqualified and their organization’s desire to “save” money clouded their ability to be intellectually honest about the probability of success. Incidentally, answering “No” to any one of the three questions above should be considered a warning sign that the odds of success are not in your favor.

Conclusion

Inexperience = Risk - It is possible to develop a workable CLM solution successfully. Unfortunately, based on feedback from organizations who have attempted to do so, we have found most are not staffed sufficiently with experienced resources and they tend to underestimate the complexity, risk and cost of taking on an internal CLM development project.
Parts ≠ Whole - Cobbling together (read as integrating) a collaboration product, a workflow product and a document assembly product is not the same thing as developing a CLM solution. Each of these products was designed to do certain things in general but nothing in particular. CLM solutions are designed to solve specific and unique CLM challenges faced by organizations.
Look In The Mirror, Again – Having the intellectual honesty to know what you know and know what you don’t know is important. Organizations must also have the humility to seek outside help when their expertise and/or capacity does not match their project requirements and objectives. Most organizations would never consider building their own word processor or spreadsheet program. Building your own CLM solution is more complex by an order of magnitude.

Go Light

Situation

Every week we have organizations who describe how they manage their contracts with spreadsheets and email. Some have recently moved on to an entry level CLM product that offers a static repository, simple reporting and status indicators. These customers usually ask detailed questions about specific pieces of functionality within our solution. The questions tend to include areas such as alerts, workflow, business rules, document assembly, and integration with legacy systems.

As a matter of practice for understanding their needs, we ask why these areas are of such importance. The responses, which were originally unexpected, have become routine as it has been repeated over and over. These organization thought they had made an informed vendor selection decision to license a simple CLM product only to discover the product’s limited capabilities do not allow it to grow with their evolving needs. Unfortunately for these organizations, the product may be good but it was not a good fit for their growing needs.

Now, after a short period of time they are back in the market exploring alternative solutions.

Debrief

Our observation of what these organizations have in common is that they initially failed to fully examine and define their requirements prior to selecting a CLM system. Without a full understanding of the business problem they are trying to solve, it is difficult for these organizations to match functionality with requirements. Consequently, any solution appears to work. Having failed to understand their own requirements, these organizations also find themselves in the same predicament of having invested considerable money and time with little if any value created for the organization.

Conclusion

Define Requirements First - Among the first steps with any project is to define the business problem, objectives and key drivers so that project requirements can be developed. Only then will an organization have the information needed to begin the search for a solution that fully accomplishes solving its business needs.
Gather Information – Gather data on the market, vendors, products, features/functionality, implementation experience, etc. from credible sources. Information quality always trumps quantity. Domain experts can be spotted easily as they will first seek to understand your organization’s unique requirements. Websites and customer references are good sources of information. Be wary of information provided by those using negative selling techniques, claiming to be a domain expert, or have a conflict of interest with the information they provide. Remember making an informed decision based on accurate information is imperative.
Cheap Is Not Always Cheaper – Contracts play a strategic role in an organization. Companies wanting a “quick and easy” win may grasp at something unsuitable for their real needs. Buying the least expensive product is seldom the low cost alternative when considering the full lifecycle cost and retooling required if the original product cannot grow with the needs of your organization.

Contract Lifecycle Management, now more than ever, is positioned to benefit from 3 macro trends. CLM technology has just recently caught up with the need, organizations are realizing there is a better way, and the need for compliance and governance has never been greater. Through preparation and proper due diligence your organization can realize the benefits of applying technology to your contract lifecycle process.

24-Mar-11 9:00 AM

SharePoint & Office 2010 - Business Productivity at It's Best

Darrin Poole - noemail@clmmatrix.com — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:00:00 GMT

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. Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 are designed to provide people with a set of capabilities that span across Client and Server, often without the users even realizing that both are involved.

Many analysts support the notion of an integrated productivity environment for information workers. Gartner Group‟s “Smart Enterprise,”1 Forrester‟s “Information Workplace,”2 and Yankee Group‟s “Extended Enterprise”3 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 interoperability, could deliver the functionality that would have previously required anywhere from six to ten “best-in-class” products for a full BPI platform.

The 2010 release of these products takes this interoperability 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.

To continue reading the whitepaper in it's entirety, click here.

15-Mar-11 11:00 AM

Getting Legal, Finance and Sales to Play in the Same Sandbox

Darrin Poole - noemail@clmmatrix.com — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 20:00:00 GMT

Download the full version of this article here: How to get Legal, Finance and Sales to Play in the Same Sandbox.

Back in the day, the sandbox was a place where you could play and have fun. But we can all remember occasions when not everyone played nicely together. After all, there were no rules and as such our encounters may have included a little sand throwing, toy taking or territorial shoving. No great harm done. But in the business world, sandbox skirmishes can result in damage to an otherwise productive environment, be immensely costly in terms of profitability and leave you exposed to risk.

The failure to efficiently engage the workforce across the entire enterprise is one of the root causes of poor corporate performance. Instead of having a well defined organizational order, many companies find themselves functioning more in a state of organized chaos. Different business units, often located in different places, tend to operate autonomously and thus workflow between departments does not inherently flow smoothly.

Consider the contract management process. While legal, finance and sales may functionally play in the same sandbox, they are not involved in similar work nor do they share the same agendas or timelines. Each has their own business language and traits that make them experts in their respective fields. They may not intend to step on each other’s turf, but often lack the infrastructure, processes and tools that would foster collaboration. An automated solution can be a game changer by establishing common rules of engagement and profoundly impacting the way these cross-functional departments interact when creating contractual commitments.

There's a New Way to Play

No doubt, one of the most common sources of friction in companies can be found in the relationship between legal and sales. The frontline warrior in sales has a sense of urgency in closing the deal even if it means some last minute negotiations that change the standard contract language. They need the approval from legal now, and are certainly not focused on how their changes could expose the company to risk. That’s not their job. On the other hand, for legal, the company’s chief protector in charge of mitigating risk, deliberation requires time, and approval is not to be demanded at the eleventh hour.

A contract lifecycle management system minimizes this source of conflict by giving sales the power to build their own contract within pre-defined parameters. Specific terms, conditions and clauses can be drawn from a central library of executable templates with pre-approved legal language. Legal is not interrupted with last minute requests and can rest assured knowing they have pre-set the rules based on the company’s tolerance to risk.

If in the special case that a non-standard item needs to be evaluated, the contract system is self-regulating and automatically moves the request through your organization to seek, secure and monitor the approval process. Accountability is built in and a timely approval is ensured. Your business wins as you can be certain that a rogue sales agreement has not let any unidentified risk-laden contracts slip through the system, and the bottom line gets a boost since the sale is closed in the fastest timeframe possible.

In another part of the sandbox, finance executives are focused on planning, strategizing, tracking and ensuring regulatory compliance. Cash leakage from sales and supply contracts, cycle times of accounts payable and receivable, and resources wasted from duplication of work all can have a huge impact on the bottom line. The ever changing and often burdensome regulatory environment is always a challenge. With an automated contract lifecycle management system, finance executives can effectively and easily pinpoint costly leakages and have their finger on the pulse of the entire contract process from initiation to execution to expiration. Risks are under control, compliance is met and cash management is optimized.

The Power of One

The cornerstone of an exceptional contract lifecycle management system is the ability to leverage the power of one - one platform that connects the players across the enterprise and one central repository for storing and managing all contractual information. Best-in-class CLM systems create a virtual sandbox with defined borders, boundaries and rules of engagement that facilitate the timely sharing of information and seamless execution between departments.

The result is efficiency in carrying out individual and group tasks, even if your business units are spread out across the globe. Each department - legal, sales and finance - has the capability to have both the process control and access to the contract information they need in real time. Needless duplication of effort is eliminated, and your business can produce more with less as the workflow is automated and contracts move efficiently through the system.

Response time for implementing a contract is vastly improved because there is no waiting

for copies or information on contract status. Reports and tasks that used to take weeks to accomplish can literally be completed in hours. A centralized system also gives you the ability to be nimble and readily adapt to regulatory changes or respond to unexpected events outside the normal course of business.

Free To Do Business

Recent years have ushered in a sea of change in the business environment. Economic issues, regulatory uncertainty and even crisis situations have forced businesses to adjust to a different reality. More than ever before, performance and productivity count if you want to be competitive and gain an edge. Effective collaboration is no longer an option, but a necessity.

A contract lifecycle management system creates a new paradigm, a sandbox where playing well together is built into the core of the organizational structure and culture. Workflow between units is streamlined and relationships between departments and external partners can thrive. With your processes in place for maximum profitability, your risks under control and the teams within your enterprise working as one cohesive unit, valuable resources are freed up to deploy on important priorities like growing your business. The power is back in your hands. Where you go from there is your choice.

20-Feb-11 2:00 PM

How to Cost Justify a Contract Lifecycle Management Solution

Darrin Poole - noemail@clmmatrix.com — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:00:00 GMT

Download the full version of this article here: How to Cost Justify a Contract Lifecycle Management Solution.

We’ve all heard the ancient Chinese toast, “May you live in interesting times,” and few of us would doubt we’re living in them now. In this economic climate, it’s hard to justify large-dollar expenditures for business process solutions; but harder still to imagine continuing disorganized, outmoded “business as usual” procedures.

The desire for a full-bodied contract lifecycle management (CLM) system is usually triggered by an unpleasant (often recurring) event in the life of a company’s contracts: discovering (in after-action documents) that you left significant money on the table through overlooked incentives; or incurring a sizeable penalty for late delivery or non-compliance. Pain is often a driving factor in the search for a better way.

If you’re looking to achieve greater efficiency through contract workflow automation, this article will help you connect the dots in a way that wins over target stakeholders.

Anxious Diagnose and Describe the Problem with Your Existing System (or Lack Therof)

Throughout the diagnostic and exploration process, take the time to document your findings: for your own stakeholders and for potential vendors or consultants. Others will have their own way of approaching a potential new engagement and in formulating their recommendations – but your documented research may still save steps down the line.

Before exploring solutions to a process, get a really good feel for the present one. Sketch out the complete lifecycle or workflow of a typical contract – from beginning to end. How many people handle the document and when, in what order? Where is it reposed? Is it accessible throughout the process, or are multiple copies in circulation? Identify as many specific steps and players as you can in terms of sequencing of events.

Identify all the known difficulties with the process over the last year:

Where do the bottlenecks happen, and do they happen rarely or with some regularity?
How often does the company incur penalties for late delivery or other non-compliance
issues?
Are incentives or bonuses in multiple contracts being offset or contradicted by other clauses elsewhere in those documents?
What other additional opportunities might your organization be missing through neglect or mismanagement?
Are redundant systems in use, for filing and managing your present contract volume?
Other measurable or describable impacts you’ve observed within the contracting lifecycle.

Based on a better understanding of the present system and its shortcomings, now build a wish list of all the things you’d like to see in a CLM solution. You may not get all of them in any one product, but try to make your list as exhaustive as possible and prioritize them in order of greater to lesser importance. Such items as these:

Seamless interface with existing Microsoft/Windows applications
Central repository for all contract information
“Need to know” access coupled with robust security protocols
Turnkey report generation, easy to customize
Automated alerts and email notifications
Robust search capability
Clause-based versus template-based architecture
Ability to handle buy-side contracts, sell-side, or both, within one central contract repository.

Pause also to assess the political environment – where can you expect resistance or pushback in the promotion of a new CLM solution? Who (which people or departments) will be your natural allies in making a change and how can you leverage their influence? Who is most likely to feel threatened or anxious and how might those concerns be resolved or minimized?

Identify Potential Solutions and How They Fit with Your IT Architecture

Now you’re ready to take a moment to consider how a potential solution would fit within your IT application portfolio. Do a little “quick and dirty” research with one or two trusted allies in your IT Department to determine what makes the most sense.

Do you have an existing Enterprise Content/Document Management solution that you need to integrate with? If so, conduct a quick Google search on some of the companies or software products you’ve heard about that integrate with that environment.
Do you have an existing CRM or ERP application that has contract management functionality you’ve already licensed or could purchase? If so, how well does the solution integrate with Microsoft Office tools you currently use for document creation and email notifications? And, how easily and dynamically can you modify the application as your business rules change?
What is your IT organization’s position on buying vs. building “departmental” application solutions? What’s your sense of urgency for getting something now (buy) vs. later (build)?

Put Legs Under Your Concept

Once you know more about the various CLM solutions and how they fit within your IT architecture, it’s time to synthesize your best recommendation for change. Here’s where you look for ways to quantify the costs and benefits, to help your company move from the “current state” of contract management within your company to the “future state” you hope to bring about.

To make an effective business case, be sure to consider hard costs and benefits (the things

that can be quantified) as well as soft costs and benefits (intangible items that can make or

break a project). Some of this information you can gather in-house; the rest from interviews with prospective vendors and others within your organization. How vendors answer your questions will be some indicator of how well they understand your business and the statistical benefits they’re able to document.

Hard cost (pricing) data, which will vary by vendor or solution, might include items such as:

Hardware
Software
Training (for users and for internal IT support staff)
On- and Off-site support services
Labor costs (contract or salaried with benefits)

In weighing hard (quantifiable) benefits of CLM, look at these key areas of potential “pain relief.”

Improved productivity and efficiencies. With a robust CLM solution, companies can see up to a 50% reduction in the front-end time associated with negotiating and approving contracts. They can typically pare 2 or more days from the typical 60 days sales outstanding. SEC filing times can be reduced from as much as 10 days to as little as 3-5 days per filing.
Risk and penalty reductions. Systematic monitoring of contract terms and conditions allows operators to recover 5-10% of a contract’s value in leakage: costs associated with missed deadlines, regulatory penalties, other failures of oversight.
Economies of scale. In a manual contracting environment, companies have to hire 1 more person to get 1 more unit of capacity. Streamlining and standardizing the contract workflow allows companies to expand their business exponentially.

Potential soft benefits include:

More transparency in the workflow; and speedier correction of any bottlenecks
Implementation of best practices which can enhance your company’s competitive position and its reputation within your industry
More effective handling of contract milestones, yielding an increase of contract renewals
Potential entree to new clients or customers as a result of your enhanced CLM capabilities

Invite the Vendor for a Visit

By now you should have a fairly clear picture what you’re looking for in a CLM solution, and which potential vendors or solution providers are the best fit for your company’s needs. Invite them (one by one) for a conversation. A good sales representative will ask questions about your process and workflow so the demo addresses the items most important to you.

Have your questions written down in advance, based on your research and cost/benefit calculations. Share any gaps with the vendor and see what help they can give you in filling in the blanks.

Having listened to concerns within your organization, ask potential vendors about a variety of

“best case” and “worst case scenarios.” The best solution providers know how to address the issues and challenges inherent in adopting a new solution.

The CLM Matrix Solution

As this diagnostic process shows, the best process outcome is to find a way to do more with less. CLM Matrix believes that companies can do MORE by spending LESS on inefficient, convoluted or duplicative processes. But before any solution can be implemented, be prepared to document the business case benefits that justify the overall project investment in a CLM software solution. And as we continue to live in these very interesting times, such solutions will make your company less susceptible to unpleasant contact lifecycle events in 2011 and beyond.

26-Jan-11 10:00 AM

Healthcare Reform: Dramatic Changes to Hospital Contract Administration

Darrin Poole - noemail@clmmatrix.com — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 16:00:00 GMT

Download the full version of this article here: Healthcare Reform - Hospital Contract Administration.

The ultimate challenge has arrived for hospital administrators with the epic legislation that will substantially alter the nation’s health care system. News headlines from March announced that the extended debates had given way to Congressional action. The massive overhaul is beginning to reshape America’s approach to insurance coverage and health care delivery.

Two bills – the Reconciliation Act of 2010 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – became law. They were heralded in on September 23, along with the consumer-oriented Patient Bill of Rights. It adds up to more than 2,000 pages of legislation that alters the cornerstones of health treatment and coverage. For hospitals and their administrators, that means dramatic changes in contracts with insurers, doctors and the federal government.

The executive director of the Kansas Hospital Association told of the uncertainties in a media interview. He summed up the sentiments of administrators in a single word: “anxious.”

The plan is anticipated to add health insurance coverage for an estimated 31 million more residents under the age of 65. However, the opposition has hardly been hushed. Legal challenges have been filed by officials in 21 states, and the outcome of the November elections could shift the balance of Congressional votes on crucial funding for the plans.

Those continuing uncertainties are further complicated by the varying dates for the phase-in of the plans themselves. The September enactment does not apply to employer-based coverage in existence before then. Those plans will not have to comply until January 1, 2014, unless they change certain terms of their policies, such as increasing co-pays and deductibles of employees. The Mercer national consulting firm surveyed 1,100 employers and found that slightly more than half are likely to retain their current plans in 2011.

The Patient Bill of Rights becomes effective at the start of the new plan year. For many people with coverage, that will begin on January 1, 2011.

Hospital administrators will need to renegotiate or amend existing contracts for the terms that began in September, as well as for several provisions that take effect in future plan years. For some, this will be a fairly straight-forward process. For others, particular those who do not have an automated contract system, it will be a nightmare.

Anxious to Attentive

Children’s coverage is one of the key areas of transition. Those under 19 years old can no longer be excluded for pre-existing conditions. Parents and guardians will also be able to use their health plans to get insurance for children or other dependents up to 26 years of age. Insurers also cannot require patients to have prior authorization before they seek care from pediatricians or OB/GYNs.

More changes target those of all ages with insurance coverage.

Cost-sharing, such as co-payments or deductibles, will be forbidden for routine preventative care. There will no longer be annual or lifetime caps on coverage payments for essential benefits. A new high-risk pool program may provide coverage for consumers with health issues who have been uninsured for six months or more.

Another standard of some current insurance plans – higher co-payments for out-of-network Emergency Room services – will be banned under the new regulations. Illnesses or unintentional errors on paperwork are no longer valid reasons for retroactive cancellations of coverage. In fact, policies can’t be cancelled unless those insured are first given the opportunity for an independent appeal. During that appeal process, insurers must continue to honor claims for treatment until the appeals are resolved.

Hospitals themselves may be subject to fines or barred from using collection agencies if they do not advise patients of free or discounted care options. More penalties are possible if Medicare patients are re-admitted for care that could have been prevented or avoided in previous admissions.

Eventually, medical institutions can expect economic benefits from the increase in patients. However, short-term fiscal health and survival will be difficult because hospitals themselves will be absorbing many basic costs in the transition. Administrators already know the acute problems associated with serving patients who have medical plan coverage that doesn’t fully compensate for the costs of care. Having more of these patients will further squeeze operating margins.

Over the long term, the federal government believes that the costs from millions of newly insured Americans can be covered through increased efficiencies by hospitals. That will increase the challenges for administrators already confronting a patchwork maze of public and private insurers, and complicated mechanisms for paying the costs of teaching and conducting patient care research.

To stay solvent, hospitals will need to explore new methods to cut even more costs and maximize efficiency. Emerging solutions that enable greater collaboration among employees, suppliers, partners and the patient community offer such opportunities to achieve greater efficiencies. This can be particularly true in establishing an effective contract lifecycle management system that provides the transparency and reliable data to make the best decisions when negotiating new or renegotiating existing agreements with suppliers that drive the majority of a hospital’s operating expenses.

Attentive to Efficient

Workflow-driven contract lifecycle management systems can provide what is typically missing in most public and private hospitals – an accurate view of the big picture in end-to-end processes involving contractual dealings. That is essential in preserving and strengthening fragile operating margins. Managing contracts on a daily basis can mean everything in controlling expenses in all working relationships. That goes for doctors, medical schools, imaging systems, pharmaceuticals, medical supplies and equipment, as well as food services, maintenance and other support functions.

Establishing automated alert notifications for contract expirations and renewals can enable administrators to avoid being locked into unfavorable terms and conditions and higher prices that can cripple the best efforts at improving operating efficiency during this crucial time.

A rules-based contract system also reduces the financial and legal exposure associated with the newly established regulatory policies. Administrators will be able to ensure compliance with policies to advise patients of free or discounted care options by automating these rules into the workflow process for admitting patients and establishing coverage levels. Billing and administration already account for one-quarter of the entire budgets for typical U.S. hospitals. Thomson Reuters released a report last year that the average American physician needs eight hours every week to deal with the demands of paperwork. That is in addition to the 1.66 clerical workers now required per doctor.

Administrators can reduce those labor costs and simplify complex issues through an automated process driven by defined policies and procedures. Contact management systems that capture key contract metadata offer a single, searchable, management contract repository to store, monitor, and manage legal agreements. Solutions that provide enterprise-wide visibility into the entire history of a contract can make all the difference in enabling administrators to negotiate from a position of strength and set sustainable rates.

These systems can be invaluable in providing hospitals with intelligence to forge favorable agreements and ensure solid compliance with the resulting terms. Audits and related performance monitoring can mean that hospitals get the most out of their contractual relationships.

The massive changes in America’s approach to health care are arriving. Hospital Administrators should investigate collaborative workflow contract management solutions to better prepare for the vast challenges and uncertainties ahead.

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)

To learn more about CLM Matrix and our award winning software solutions, please visit clmmatrix.com or contact us directly at 1.800.961.6534.

27-Nov-10 10:00 AM

Contract Management Implications for Oil and Gas Companies

PennWell Corporation - noemail@clmmatrix.com — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 19:15:00 GMT

MACONDO - Things will never be the same again.

Six months since an explosion ripped apart the Transocean Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and it seems the US and the world are still dealing with the repercussions – financial, legislatory, environmental, economic. Pipeline asked a random selection of commentators for their opinion of the current situation.

Alan Herbst of US-based strategic energy advisors, Utilis Advisiory Group, commented on the shifting face of energy companies, following the disaster: “In this environment, bigger will be better and I would expect to see consolidation amongst GoM players. There will be new Federal regulations enacted now that the MMS has been broken up. Corporate Governance should change. Energy firms will need to have sympathetic public figures, Board members who understand safety and increased use of "whistle blower" lines to change the operating culture to one where safety comes first.”

Mario Almonte, PR specialist and renowned political blogger for the Huffington Post said that for BP, the Gulf of Mexico disaster was not just a huge blow from a public relations perspective, but also from a financial one.

“Yet, none of these are insurmountable obstacles, and in several years BP should have regained its balance and re-emerged as strong as ever. The unfortunate truth of the PR nightmare for BP was that its CEO, Tony Hayward, continuously stumbled in responding to media queries - and therefore exacerbated a situation that already had Gulf Coast residents, and the country, raw with emotion.

“Ironically, in becoming the lightning rod for criticism of BP, Hayward also helped greatly contain public and media criticism - everyone was focused on Hayward, seeing him as the source of BP's problems - rather than blaming the entire company for its response and handling of the disaster. Now, with Hayward out of the public eye, the public and the media seem less motivated to go after the corporation, allowing BP to quickly begin rebuilding its brand and resuming its position in the industry.

“What is also helping BP regain its footing is the fact that, from an environmental perspective, the damage the spill did to the Gulf is inconclusive. For every scientist who calls it the biggest environmental disaster of our time, there is another, equally respectable scientist who says that most of the oil has evaporated, bacteria are eating what remains, and nature is returning to normal.

Click here to read and download the entire article.

26-Sep-10 2:15 PM

Contract Management Workflow - Let's Get Physical!

Edward Pecelli - noemail@clmmatrix.com — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Download the full version of this article here: Contract Management Workflow.

Healthy organizations are not that different from healthy bodies. To become a top performer, you have to stay in physical form, and doing so requires work. You don’t become a marathon runner by sitting on the couch and thinking about getting in shape. Is your company operating at peak performance? Or are you falling behind deadlines and missing obligations with your vendors and customers?

Perhaps your business is in need of some strength training – tightening and enforcing policies to get more out of your operational processes. Or, maybe it could use some cardio work - trimming down and streamlining processes to ensure you’re spending an efficient amount of time and resources managing your contracts. Or, perhaps your business just needs some old-fashioned discipline for better managing your contractual obligations.

Many companies are now looking to improve their workflow processes to better manage their contracts. Why? Because contracts spell out your organization’s obligations - such as who is buying from you and who you're buying from, when and how to remit payments, and when the agreement is scheduled to expire or renew. More efficient contract lifecycle management begins with understanding the information required to execute and manage each contract and the related obligations.

Information: the building block for strong contracts

When it comes to gathering multi-departmental information and putting together a contract, the data must be solid and accurate. Any negotiated terms should be clearly stated with consensus agreement. The quality of your information serves as fuel to keep your contracts moving in the right direction.

When information that goes into your contracts is poorly constructed, outdated, or inaccurate, your business will find itself vulnerable to employee error, missed deadlines, poor customer service, and even financial loss or regulatory non-compliance.

Being able to manage obligations is the most important benefit of having accurate information in your contracts. Whether you're dealing with vendors or customers, having clear and direct access to terms and conditions helps organizations better understand their overall business risks and upside opportunities. Some key questions to consider are:

• What are the approved standard vs. non-standard contract terms?
• What are the business policies that drive what goes into a contract?
• What are the non-negotiable terms that we must protect?
• What information or language is needed to ensure regulatory compliance?

It is equally important to understand the order in which contractual commitments are established during the negotiation process. Most companies have both internal procedures and regulatory policies that they have to follow before finalizing binding commitments with suppliers, customers and partners. These procedures should be managed as a logically sequenced workflow with checks and balances to ensure that all policy requirements have been met.

While all of this sounds easy and straight-forward on the surface, the devil is in the details when it comes to modeling efficient workflow processes that effectively manage the creation, execution and monitoring of contractual agreements.

Strengthening your People's Performance with Good Processes

Having a well-defined workflow process to drive your contracting efforts provides greater visibility and transparency while protecting the interest of each negotiating party. Maintaining focus on the desired outcome allows each resource to execute the defined tasks in a collaborative environment.

A well diagrammed workflow process should document how each piece of the information flows through the organization. Formally documenting key business rules and policies that govern decision rights and approval authority help eliminate glitches and bottlenecks. Armed with a clear understanding of how information flows through their company, management can quickly address any slowdowns or inefficiencies. The organization becomes more nimble – and ultimately more profitable as result. This exercise clears communication lines between departments and answers questions such as:

• What is the information we need?
• Is that information getting to the correct people at the right time?
• Do we have the right people working on the right things at the right time?
• How can process improvements enable us to be more proactive (rather than

reactive) with our partners, vendors and clients?

Once accomplished, resources across an organization's operations, sales, legal and finance departments learn to collaborate better, reevaluating and improving how their business is done.

Improving your Contract Management Health with a Rules Engine

The newly defined workflow processes can then be automated using a policy-based rules engine that serves as a traffic cop for everything that flows through the contract management system. Specifically, the rules engine enables you to steer the contract process through your organization according to your specific business policies. It empowers end users and allows them to engage proactively when managing the iterative interactions involved in contract negotiations. A policy-based rules engine acts as a nucleus that makes sure all processes run smoothly, and that all parties involved with the contracting process work together.

Most companies who operate with manual contract management processes realize that they simply do not work – dates are missed, terms forgotten, and obligations fall through the cracks. A rules engine helps an organization focus on serving their customers and vendors needs rather than get caught up with time-consuming administrative tasks.

Automated contract management processes allow policies, procedures and rules to drive the workflow – freeing individuals to focus on more productive tasks.

Healthy contract lifecycle management execution equals a healthy company with expanding margins and a more productive workforce. With the right policies and processes in place, managing your workflow to create better contracts will improve your organization’s performance one contract at a time – and will better equip you to compete in the marathon of maintaining a successful business.

23-Aug-10 7:00 AM

CLM Matrix Heads To The Big Apple

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:00:00 GMT

DALLAS, Texas, January 1, 2012 -- CLM Matrix, the leading provider of Microsoft SharePoint based contract lifecycle management solutions, is pleased to announce it will be an exhibitor at this year's LegalTech Conference in New York City. As the largest and most important legal technology event of the year, LegalTech brings together thousands from the legal community in search of technology and best practices for the evolving business of running a legal practice or department. Now more than ever, legal organizations are being pressed to discover more efficient ways to initiate, create, negotiate manage and monitor contracts throughout their process lifecycle. New pricing models and the demand for innovation from customers are motivating legal firms to discover what is possible with the proper application of technology. Working with the legal team on all of its projects, CLM Matrix has developed next generation clause based document creation...

CLM Matrix joins forces with ARX for Digital Signatures

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:20:44 GMT

DALLAS, Texas, November 3, 2011 -- CLM Matrix, the leading provider of Microsoft SharePoint based contract lifecycle management solutions, is pleased to announce its partnership with ARX, Inc., the leading provider of digital signature solutions. The partnership will provide end-to-end contract lifecycle management with digital signature capability on the ubiquitous Microsoft Office/SharePoint technology platform. Organizations are realizing that they can no longer rely on manual ad hoc paper-based processes for their important documents, such as contracts. With the CLM Matrix SharePoint contract lifecycle management application and ARX's CoSign digital signatures, companies can now standardize, streamline, and automate their contracting processes through the signature approval stage. This enables paperless end-to-end document processes and saves time, routing costs and shipping time. CLM Matrix has seen customer requests for digital signature...

CLM Matrix - 2010 Calendar Year Highlights

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 01:00:00 GMT

DALLAS, Texas, January 5, 2011 - CLM Matrix, the leading provider of Microsoft Office SharePoint based contract lifecycle management solutions, today announced highlights for calendar year 2010. Highlights in 2010 include: Posted record revenue and profitability in calendar Q1 and Q2, ending 2010 with a double digit full year increase in year over year revenue and profitability. Marketing activities grew sales pipeline by 2x year over year including strong international growth with new customers in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines and strong near term prospects in EMEA. Performed a bi-annual review and update of its market leading CLM deployment best practices to further eliminate customer deployment risk for all projects while allowing projects to be delivered in half the time of other CLM vendors. Developed and deployed internally, as part of its Quality Initiative for Customer Deployment and Support, a Project...

CLM Matrix Sees Continued Growth With New Financial Services Client

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Australian Financial Services Firm Selects CLM Matrix to Automate Its Contract Lifecycle Management System Dallas, Texas, USA, September 22, 2010- CLM Matrix announces a new client relationship with a leading wealth management company based in Sydney, Australia. With over $114 billion in assets under management, the new client operates in Australia and New Zealand with selective investment management activities in Asia and a growing regional banking business. CLM Matrix's client was looking for significant improvements in two key areas: Access to information and enforcement of internal policies. With over 2,000 financial planners and more than 3,500 employees, the company's business intelligence and compliance needs are quite substantial. The client selected the Matrix-Enterprise solution based upon its intuitive, easy to use design and the ability to rapidly configure and automate their end-to-end contract workflow. Because the solution runs on Microsoft...

CLM Matrix Joins Microsoft in the Clouds

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:00:00 GMT

CLM Matrix's Matrix-Online solution is under evaluation testing as an Azure certified cloud-based application. Dallas, Texas, USA, July 29, 2010 - With over 10,000 customers signed up already for their Azure platform, Microsoft looks to have hit another home run in helping customers drive greater efficiency. CLM Matrix is following suit with their Matrix-Online solution, focused on streamlining the contract process for companies who need to better manage their existing obligations. Matrix-Online is a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering that runs on the Windows Azure and SQL Azure Platform as a Service (Paas). The solution provides a cloud-based contract management repository where companies can track, search and set alerts for all of your active contracts. No IT staff is needed, no additional licenses, access to all future upgrades and releases with minimal configuration. As Microsoft signs up additional customers on the Azure platform,...

CLM Matrix Primed to Help Microsoft Meet Their 2011 Goals

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:00:00 GMT

CLM Matrix's Contract Lifecycle Management Software harnesses the power of SharePoint 2010; providing efficiency solutions which will also spur growth in Microsoft's 2010 Business Productivity platform. Dallas, Texas, USA, July 27, 2010 - Back from the 2010 Microsoft Partner Conference in Washington, DC, CLM Matrix stands ready to help Microsoft achieve its goal of moving clients from Office '07 and '03 to the new 2010 platform. At the conference, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner announced that 63% of Microsoft's global desktop users were still using Microsoft Office '03 or earlier versions. This leaves tremendous opportunity for companies around the world to significantly improve efficiencies. Efficiency experts like CLM Matrix can't wait to help clients harness all that power. As a technology company, I understand the trepidation of upgrading software. But when we see the power of upgraded functionality like we're seeing with this new 2010...

CLM Matrix Now Operates on Powerful Microsoft 2010 Platform

noemail@clmmatrix.com — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Contract Lifecycle Management Company also included in Microsoft's Frontrunner Program. Dallas, Texas, USA, May 17, 2010 - CLM Matrix is fully compliant with and now operates on the powerful Microsoft 2010 Business Productivity platform, including Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 and Exchange Server 2010. All applications, especially SharePoint 2010, will heighten the power and fluid features of CLM Matrix's contract lifecycle management products. CLM Matrix offers clients an end-to-end solution to address the creation, negotiation and administration for both buy-side and sell-side contracts. Offering the new SharePoint 2010 as the platform for our products will be an incredible benefit to our clients, says Tim Sparks, CLM Matrix CEO. Using the muscles of SharePoint and the brain of CLM Matrix, our Matrix Software delivers a solution that can save clients a significant amount of money and reduce their compliance risk. As Microsoft's fastest-growing...

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...

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Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:51:20 GMT

Products How Do Matrix Solutions Work? Matrix-Enterprise Matrix-Fast Track Matrix-Online Microsoft SharePoint 2010 ROI Calculators View Demo Schedule Demo Services Technical Support Education and Training Best Practices Business Process Improvement CLM Productivity Workshops Industries Pharmaceutical Healthcare Oil and Gas Media and Entertainment High Technology Hospitality Resource Center Matrix Blog Matrix Forum Calendar of Events Web Seminars Press Releases Articles Case Studies Frequently Asked Questions RSS CLM for Execs Legal Executive Finance Executive Sales Executive IT Executive About Us ...

Contract Lifecycle Management Solutions from CLM Matrix

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:55:36 GMT

CLM Matrix... Is Your Contract Process People Ready? Standardize, Streamline and Automate your contract lifecycle management processes using software that connects, informs and empowers your employees to solve problems before they happen while providing the time to invent entirely new ways to create value. All built on the Microsoft Platform - which means minimal technical or user training. Build | Manage | Monitor Matrix-Enterprise is the most robust contract lifecycle management solution based on the Microsoft Office Platform. This is a clause driven, fully scalable tool for organizations who need to move into a policy management driven arena. Matrix-Enterprise uses a Smart-Contract document assembly engine to automatically create, assemble, load to the...

Contract Lifecycle Management Workshops

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:54:06 GMT

A Perfect Way to Jump-Start Your CLM Project CLM Matrix's depth of experience in helping organizations define and apply contract lifecycle management best practices to their contracting processes has allowed us to distill the process of understanding a customer's business and process down to more science than art. By applying our experience to your contract process we can quickly identify opportunities to apply best practices while eliminating the inefficiencies that may be present. Most organizations with whom we work intuitively know they need help but are unsure where to start. Below you will find programs developed to provide our clients a low cost way to jump start the contract process improvement process. CLM Productivity Workshop A CLM Productivity Workshop is a 2 - 3 day on-site exercise to define and understand a customer's business process while discovering...

Management Team

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:08:47 GMT

Tim Sparks, Chief Executive Officer Tim Sparks brings over 25 years of experience in sales, marketing, product management, consulting and executive management while working at and with startup companies and large multinational companies in the technology, oil and gas, trading and consulting fields. Prior to co-founding CLM Matrix, Tim was the president of 4111 Group, a firm specializing in business execution and strategy where he was responsible for client acquisition and partner strategy engagements with Fortune 1000 organizations. Previously, Mr. Sparks worked for 16 years at Koch Industries, the largest privately held company in the U.S., with over $110 billion in revenues. Tim served in a variety of leadership roles including: Worldwide Director of Human Resources; Managing Director of Koch's internal business execution consulting practice, the Market-based Management Capability; and General Manager of the Industrial Asphalt Division. Mr. Sparks serves on the Board...

Contract Management System Implementation

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 22:12:12 GMT

Implementation Partners who help you Standardize and Streamline your CLM Process. CLM Matrix works with a number of systems integrators and technology partners who are certified and knowledgeable in configuring and deploying our Matrix Software products. These partners are vital to ensuring successful software implementation projects that transform the way you manage your contracts. Many of our partners are also Microsoft Gold Certified partners and national systems integrators who can more effectively leverage their professional service capabilities in developing and deploying the entire Microsoft solution portfolio. The following partners work closely with CLM Matrix' professional services team to implement the Matrix system globally: Logica plc Logica is a business and technology service company, employing 41,000 people. It provides business consulting, systems integration and outsourcing to...

Contract Management Implementation and Technology Partners

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:34:46 GMT

Building Value Through World Class Partnerships Businesses want to buy and implement specialized solutions that address their unique business problems. CLM Matrix actively develops strategic partner relationships with other leading firms who help expand the value that our solution creates for our customers. We understand that best-in-class solutions and the ability to implement them on-time and on-budget are what create outstanding value for our customers. CLM Matrix and its partners bring to each project the technology, contract process consulting and solution implementation expertise to deliver rapid deployments and fast ROI's. The following technology partners work closely with CLM Matrix to enhance and develop features and functionality for the Matrix system: MICROSOFT CORPORATION Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses...

Healthcare Contract Management Software - Achieve Greater Operational Efficiency

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:58:42 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...

Contract Management Solutions for Pharmaceuticals

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:54:06 GMT

Many of today's leading Pharmaceutical companies are challenged to achieve greater operational efficiency, lower operating costs, and expediently bring new products to market. These objectives enable the primary goal to develop and distribute medical drugs that cure both known illness and yet to be diagnosed diseases. Bringing new products to market is central to a large pharmaceutical company's bottom line profitability and long term success. CLM Matrix provides contract lifecycle management software solutions that help achieve these objectives by standardizing, streamlining and automating the contract initiation, creation, negotiation and execution processes. Our solution accelerates time to market by eliminating process inefficiency and creating standards for collaborative document creation, retention and management throughout the IND process. Pharmaceutical Benefits Pharmaceutical companies who have...

Matrix-Online Contract Lifecycle Management

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:12:34 GMT

Enter, Find and set Reminders for Standard Agreements. Matrix-Online is CLM Matrix's contract lifecycle management solution to provide small to medium-sized businesses with a robust repository for managing their existing contracts. The solution comes pre-configured with a standard workflow and a comprehensive list of metadata that allows companies to enter key data from their executed contracts into the central repository. Once this data is entered, users can leverage the dynamic, real-time reporting features to search and query the database to find active agreements. No longer will you have to scan various shared drives or search through filing cabinets to determine what your rights and obligations are with your customers and suppliers. Because this is a hosted solution, access to Microsoft SharePoint and SQL Server come with the purchase price. CLM Matrix works with several leading hosting companies to provide scalable and secure...

Contract Lifecyle Management using SharePoint Server 2010

Tue, 24 May 2011 17:26:12 GMT

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2009-03-12T22:31:41Z

Instructor: Instructor

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