Driving legal efficiencies and global contracttransparency with an integrated CLM platform

The challenge

“Most companies, even the big ones like Balluff right now, share the same pain points. They lack the global transparency of contract documents because companies are used to creating siloed solutions according to their departments and teams,” said Geronimo Fritsch, Group Head of Legal & Compliance at Balluff.

Gaining transparency over contracts was critical for a company that serves customers globally. Despite utilizing shared drives and collaborative software tools such as OneDrive and SharePoint, the legal team still faced difficulties in finding the right contracts. Versioning was an issue – the legal team struggled to distinguish different versions of the contract, whether it was the latest one or an earlier version.

Further complicating matters, contracts weren’t located in a single repository, making finding contracts and searching for content within the contracts time-consuming and inefficient. The legal team at Balluff wanted a tool to help them look for contracts quickly – one where you could type keywords to find specific contracts.e

The lack of visibility over the contracts also made access and approval policies more complicated. The legal team often faced problems figuring out who should have access to the contracts, who should be the approver, or who should even sign a contract.

These problems added up meant that legal had very little control over how contracts were managed. This created bottlenecks and inefficiencies in their processes, leading to missed deadlines and losing out on important revenue opportunities.

“We really see the advantage of an enterprise solution like Agiloft. We see an increase in global contract awareness and the ability to map contractual risks is invaluable.”

– Geronimo Fritsch, Group Head of Legal & Compliance at Balluff

After identifying the root of their contract management problems, Balluff set out to look for a comprehensive contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform that could provide transparency over contracts and drive overall efficiency of their legal processes.

To achieve this, Balluff prioritized the user experience. The first thing he looked for was a solution with APIs. Balluff was already working with various enterprise systems like SAP’s ERP system and Active Directory, and it was essential that the CLM software could seamlessly integrate into Balluff’s tech stack.

On top of that, they wanted an intuitive software for his employees to make their jobs easier. With Agiloft’s CLM platform, employees had immediate access and visibility to the organization’s contracts. Employees can set up personalized dashboards to track contracts, record progress, view analytics, and more. Finding contracts and clauses was also made easier with a search function that allowed for full text, thesaurus, and fuzzy searches.

Noticing how time consuming manual approvals are, the company also sought for a solution that could automate approval workflows

The solution

Before deploying any of the solutions in the organization, the company conducted a comprehensive analysis of their existing processes, with Agiloft providing consultation.

The first thing Balluff did was analyze and go through their existing contract types. “We really have to think about what kind of contract type we need for the company, since this contract type will be created for you. That’s the customization that Agiloft will give you. You can amend and adapt according to your needs,” said Geronimo.

Then, Balluff worked together with Agiloft to identify and establish efficient contract approval workflows. They also took this time to set up signature regulations according to department and country.

In its implementation, Balluff took a step-by-step approach. They began the pilot by deploying it to the purchasing teams in Germany first. Those involved were encouraged to adopt a trial-and-error approach so that employees could test the limits of the CLM platform’s intuitiveness and discover the software’s specialties. Since then, they’ve deployed Agiloft CLM across their offices in Europe and the Americas, with plans to introduce it to their Asian office in 2023.

The impact

For Balluff, the Agiloft CLM platform wasn’t just a tool that’s helped legal but a solution capable of supporting the whole enterprise. With the entire organization having access, other departments are looking into how they can benefit from the solution. According to the Group Head of Legal and Compliance, “We see everybody curious about Agiloft CLM. Finance, marketing, IP management – everybody’s thinking, ‘That’s a cool tool because I have access.’”

The increased transparency over contracts has led to increased global contract awareness and mapping of contractual risks. “The more countries the solution gets deployed to, the more you see contract documents that were signed in the past. From there, you can work out whether it’s something that can be worked with or needs removing. Or, identify parts of the documents that are more state of the art and less risk related.”

This visibility also provides legal with an overview of pending contract requests and status. “In the past, we had no clue what happened with a document. But now we know because it’s in the software, and we can follow up and track it, which is really helpful for the legal department.”

The enhanced transparency Agiloft CLM provided Balluff doesn’t just drive the efficiency of Balluff’s legal team but effectively gives them complete control over their legal and contractual processes. The legal team now provides standard templates for other edepartments to use, they can update approval and signature policies when necessary, and they have established defined responsibilities for contract owners.

“That’s a cool tool because I have access.”

– Geronimo Fritsch, Group Head of Legal & Compliance at Balluff

Challenges

Lack of transparency over contracts

Unclear approval workflows and policies

Time-consuming process to find contracts and clauses

Existing processes lead to bottlenecks and missed revenue opportunities

Benefits

Single repository for documents and contracts

Increasing global contract awareness and
contractual risk map

Automated notifications ensure efficient
and accurate contract negotiation and full
lifecycle management

Overview of pending contract requests
and status

Updated approval and signature policies

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