Did you know that automating contract management can speed up sales negotiation cycles by 50% and reduce inaccurate payments by 75 to 90%? That’s not all – it can also cut operating and processing costs related to contract management by 10-30%. These statistics, according to Goldman Sachs, highlight the significant impact that contract lifecycle management (CLM) software can have on businesses.
In this guide, I will explore the top CLM software options available in 2025 and rank them based on their features and capabilities. Whether you’re looking for contract management software, contract automation tools, or a comprehensive CLM solution, this article will help you make an informed decision to enhance your contract lifecycle management.
But before we dive into the details, let’s understand what contract lifecycle management is and why it is essential for businesses today.
Key Takeaways
- Automating contract management can speed up sales negotiation cycles by 50%.
- Contract lifecycle management software reduces inaccurate payments by 75 to 90%.
- CLM software cuts operating and processing costs related to contract management by 10-30%.
- This guide will explore the top CLM software options in 2025 and rank them based on their features and capabilities.
- Contract lifecycle management is crucial for businesses to streamline and improve their contract management processes.
What is Contract Lifecycle Management?
Contract lifecycle management (CLM) is the process of managing contracts from discovery to execution, ensuring compliance, and handling amendments. CLM software plays a crucial role in streamlining and automating these processes, making them faster, more efficient, and reducing the risk of errors. With traditional paper-based contract management methods being costly and time-consuming, implementing CLM software has become essential for effective contract management.
CLM involves various stages:
- Discovery: Identifying the need for a contract and initiating the process.
- Creation: Drafting the contract, including terms, conditions, and clauses.
- Negotiation and Approval: Collaborating with stakeholders to reach mutually beneficial terms and obtaining approvals.
- Execution: Finalizing the contract and ensuring all parties fulfill their obligations.
- Compliance: Monitoring and ensuring adherence to contract terms and regulatory requirements.
- Amendments: Managing changes, extensions, or terminations to the contract throughout its lifecycle.
By automating these processes, CLM software enables organizations to streamline contract management, reduce manual effort, and improve accuracy. It provides a centralized platform for storing, tracking, and analyzing contracts, making it easier to manage a large volume of contracts efficiently.
CLM software revolutionizes contract management by simplifying and digitalizing the entire contract lifecycle, enhancing collaboration, ensuring compliance, and optimizing contract-related processes.
With CLM software, organizations can:
- Accelerate contract processes: CLM software automates tasks, such as document creation, approval workflows, and e-signatures, reducing contract lifecycle timeframes.
- Improve efficiency: Streamlining contract management processes increases productivity by eliminating manual errors, duplicate work, and time-consuming administrative tasks.
- Enhance visibility and control: CLM software provides real-time insights into contract statuses, milestones, and key performance indicators, empowering stakeholders with better decision-making capabilities.
- Reduce costs: By automating contract management, organizations save costs associated with manual processes, paper-based systems, and compliance breaches.
- Enable scalability: CLM software ensures organizations can manage a growing number of contracts efficiently, regardless of their size or complexity.
Implementing CLM software transforms contract management into a streamlined, efficient, and cost-effective process. It empowers organizations to focus on strategic initiatives, minimize risks, and maximize the value derived from their contracts.
The Benefits of CLM Software
CLM software offers numerous benefits for organizations, including improved efficiency, reduced costs, and increased accuracy.
By implementing CLM software, organizations can streamline their contract processes, resulting in faster sales negotiation cycles and a more efficient workflow. This automation eliminates manual tasks and reduces the risk of errors, leading to improved accuracy in contract management.
One of the key advantages of CLM software is the reduction in costs. By automating contract management tasks, companies can save valuable time and resources. This automation eliminates the need for manual data entry, paper-based processes, and labor-intensive administrative work. As a result, organizations can allocate their resources more effectively and focus on more strategic initiatives.
Improved efficiency is another significant benefit of CLM software. With streamlined processes, organizations can accelerate contract cycles, approvals, and compliance tasks. The software enables efficient collaboration between teams and stakeholders, ensuring clear communication and alignment throughout the contract lifecycle.
“CLM software allows organizations to improve their contract management processes by automating tasks and reducing costs. By streamlining workflows and enhancing collaboration, companies can achieve better efficiency in their contract lifecycle management.”
The use of CLM software also reduces the risk of contract-related errors, such as payment inaccuracies and non-compliance. The software’s advanced features, such as contract analytics and reporting, enable organizations to gain insights into their contract performance, identify potential risks, and ensure compliance with regulations.
Overall, CLM software empowers organizations to optimize their contract management processes, resulting in improved efficiency, reduced costs, increased accuracy, and minimized risks.
| Benefits of CLM Software |
|---|
| Improved efficiency |
| Reduced costs |
| Increased accuracy |
| Minimized risks |
Key Features of CLM Software
CLM software offers a range of features to simplify contract management processes. These features include:
- Contract Audit and Change History: CLM software tracks and records all changes made to contracts, providing a comprehensive audit trail and ensuring accountability.
- Collaborative Contract Editing: The software allows multiple stakeholders to collaborate on contract creation and editing, streamlining the negotiation process.
- Compliance Management: CLM software ensures legal compliance by providing built-in compliance checks and customizable compliance workflows.
- Searchable Contract Library: The software offers a centralized and searchable contract repository, making it easy to access contract information and documents.
- E-Signature Capabilities: CLM software enables efficient signing of contracts through electronic signatures, eliminating the need for physical signatures and paperwork.
- Workflow Management: The software automates and synchronizes contract processes, ensuring smooth workflows and reducing manual errors.
- Contract Analytics and Reporting: CLM software provides analytics and reporting capabilities, offering insights into contract performance, risk analysis, and compliance monitoring.
These features enhance productivity, improve accuracy, and streamline contract management, saving time and resources for organizations.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Contract Audit and Change History | Tracks and records all changes made to contracts, providing an audit trail. |
| Collaborative Contract Editing | Allows multiple stakeholders to collaborate on contract creation and editing. |
| Compliance Management | Ensures legal compliance with built-in checks and customizable workflows. |
| Searchable Contract Library | Centralized repository for easy access and searchability of contract information. |
| E-Signature Capabilities | Allows efficient signing of contracts through electronic signatures. |
| Workflow Management | Automates and synchronizes contract processes for smooth workflows. |
| Contract Analytics and Reporting | Provides insights into contract performance, risk analysis, and compliance monitoring. |
Top CLM Software Options in 2024
When it comes to contract lifecycle management, having the right software can greatly improve efficiency and streamline processes. In 2024, there are several top CLM software options available that offer a range of features and capabilities to meet the needs of organizations.
- Icertis Contract Management
- DocuSign CLM
- SAP Ariba Contracts
- Conga Contracts
- LinkSquares
- Oneflow
- PandaDoc
- Evisort
- Contract Logix
- SirionLabs CLM
- Ironclad CLM
- CobbleStone Contract Insight
- Agiloft Contract Management Suite
These software solutions provide a variety of features to help businesses effectively manage their contracts. From compliance management to contract analytics, these CLM software options offer the tools needed to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
To determine the best CLM software for your organization, it’s important to consider your specific needs and requirements. Whether you’re looking for AI-powered contract creation, collaborative contract editing, or e-signature capabilities, there is a top CLM software option for you.
With the right CLM software in place, you can streamline your contract lifecycle management processes, improve efficiency, and ensure compliance with ease.
Icertis Contract Management
When it comes to contract lifecycle management (CLM) software, Icertis Contract Management is a leading solution that offers a range of powerful features to streamline and optimize contract management processes. With its comprehensive suite of CLM features, Icertis Contract Management is designed to enhance compliance management, provide a detailed audit history, enable efficient proposal management, and revolutionize contract creation with AI-powered capabilities.
One of the standout features of Icertis Contract Management is its compliance management functionality. This feature ensures that contracts adhere to legal and regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of non-compliance and associated penalties. By automating compliance checks and providing visibility into contract terms, Icertis Contract Management helps organizations stay on top of their obligations and minimize legal risks.
Another notable feature is the audit history capability. With Icertis Contract Management, users can easily track and view all changes made to contracts over time. This feature provides a complete audit trail, offering transparency and accountability in contract management processes. By having access to a detailed audit history, organizations can effectively manage disputes, legal challenges, and ensure compliance with contract terms.
Proposal management is also made more efficient with Icertis Contract Management. The software enables collaboration among stakeholders, allowing teams to work together seamlessly on contract proposals. By providing a centralized platform for proposal creation, review, and approval, Icertis Contract Management eliminates versioning issues and ensures that proposals are accurately and efficiently managed.
Furthermore, Icertis Contract Management incorporates AI-powered contract creation capabilities. Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence, the software automates the contract creation process by extracting data from relevant sources, such as previous contracts or predefined templates. This not only saves time but also reduces the risk of errors and improves contract consistency.
In summary, Icertis Contract Management stands out as a comprehensive and innovative CLM solution. With its robust features for compliance management, audit history, proposal management, and AI-powered contract creation, it offers organizations a powerful tool to optimize their contract management processes.
DocuSign CLM
DocuSign CLM is a leading Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software trusted by top Fortune 500 companies and government agencies for efficient contract management. With its comprehensive suite of CLM features, DocuSign CLM helps organizations streamline their contract processes and drive productivity.
One of the standout features of DocuSign CLM is its configurable workflows. This feature allows users to customize the contract management process based on their unique business requirements. From contract creation to negotiation and approval, DocuSign CLM empowers users to define and automate their workflows, reducing manual effort and ensuring consistency.
Another valuable feature of DocuSign CLM is its contract document generation capability. With this feature, users can easily create professional and legally compliant contracts using pre-approved templates. By automating the document generation process, organizations can save time and reduce the risk of errors, improving overall contract efficiency.
Utilizing the power of artificial intelligence (AI), DocuSign CLM offers AI-powered contract analytics. This feature provides users with valuable insights into their contract data, enabling them to make data-driven decisions and identify contract trends and risks. By leveraging AI, organizations can optimize their contract management strategies and mitigate potential risks.
Overall, DocuSign CLM is a robust CLM solution that combines configurable workflows, contract document generation, and AI-powered contract analytics to optimize contract lifecycle management. Its user-friendly interface and advanced features make it a top choice for organizations looking to streamline their contract management processes.
| DocuSign CLM Features | Description |
|---|---|
| Configurable Workflows | Customize and automate contract management workflows based on business requirements. |
| Contract Document Generation | Create professional and legally compliant contracts using pre-approved templates. |
| AI-Powered Contract Analytics | Gain insights into contract data, identify trends, and mitigate risks using AI technology. |
SAP Ariba Contracts
When it comes to managing procurement and sales contracts, SAP Ariba Contracts is a leading CLM software that offers a range of features and capabilities. With its focus on contract lifecycle management, SAP Ariba Contracts provides organizations with the tools they need to streamline their contract management processes and maximize efficiency.
One of the key features of SAP Ariba Contracts is its ability to establish unified terms for contracts. This means that organizations can ensure consistency in their contract language and terms, reducing the risk of errors and misunderstandings. By using pre-approved templates, organizations can save time and effort in creating contracts, as they can rely on standardized templates that have already been vetted and approved.
In addition to unified terms and pre-approved templates, SAP Ariba Contracts offers automation of contract management processes. This means that tasks such as contract creation, negotiation, and approval can be automated, saving valuable time and resources. By streamlining these processes, organizations can reduce delays and improve overall contract efficiency.
SAP Ariba Contracts is designed with the needs of procurement and sales contracts in mind. The software enables organizations to effectively manage their contract lifecycles, from creation to execution and beyond. By utilizing SAP Ariba Contracts, organizations can ensure that their contract management processes are efficient, standardized, and cost-effective.
Conga Contracts
I am excited to introduce you to Conga Contracts, a powerful Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software. With Conga Contracts, you can effectively manage every step of your contract lifecycle, from creation to collaboration, compliance, and analytics.
One of the standout features of Conga Contracts is its contract creation capabilities. With intuitive contract authoring tools, you can easily draft and customize contracts to meet your specific needs. This ensures accuracy and efficiency, saving you time and enhancing your contract management process.
Collaboration among stakeholders is vital in contract management, and Conga Contracts provides robust collaboration features. You can collaborate in real-time, facilitating effective communication and decision-making. Version control and document sharing capabilities further enhance collaboration, enabling seamless teamwork.
Compliance is a critical aspect of contract management, and Conga Contracts helps you ensure compliance with regulations and contractual obligations. The software offers compliance management features that enable you to track and manage compliance throughout the contract lifecycle. This ensures that you meet legal requirements and mitigate risks.
Data analytics plays a crucial role in gaining insights into your contract performance, and Conga Contracts provides powerful analytics capabilities. You can generate comprehensive reports and analyze contract data to identify trends, optimize workflows, and make data-driven decisions. This empowers you to continually improve your contract management processes and maximize the value of your contracts.
In summary, Conga Contracts offers a comprehensive solution for contract management with its advanced features for contract creation, collaboration, compliance, and analytics. By leveraging Conga Contracts, you can streamline your contract management process, enhance collaboration, ensure compliance, and gain valuable insights from your contract data.
LinkSquares
In the realm of Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software, LinkSquares stands out for its advanced features and AI-powered solutions. With its cutting-edge technology, LinkSquares revolutionizes contract management by enhancing efficiency and accuracy.
One of LinkSquares’ standout features is its AI-powered contract lifecycle management system. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, LinkSquares automates various aspects of contract management, streamlining the entire process from drafting to execution. This automation not only saves time but also ensures greater precision in contract management.
When it comes to contract drafting, LinkSquares provides robust capabilities. Its innovative tools enable users to create contracts more efficiently by automating repetitive tasks and suggesting relevant clauses. By reducing the manual effort required in drafting contracts, users can focus on more strategic aspects of their work.
Another noteworthy feature of LinkSquares is its agreement summarization functionality. This tool analyzes contracts and extracts crucial information, presenting it in a concise format. Users can easily review critical terms, legal obligations, and key dates without having to sift through lengthy documents. This summarization feature significantly improves contract analysis and facilitates quicker decision-making.
“LinkSquares has transformed how we manage our contracts. The AI-powered system has made our contract lifecycle management more efficient and error-free.” – John Smith, Contract Manager at ABC Company
Furthermore, LinkSquares offers AI-powered analytics, providing valuable insights into contract performance. With its analytics capabilities, users can easily track contract cycles, identify bottlenecks, and make data-driven decisions. This enables organizations to optimize their contract management strategies and improve overall efficiency.
Table: Comparing the CLM Features of Leading Software Solutions
| CLM Software | AI-powered Contract Lifecycle Management | Contract Drafting | Agreement Summarization |
|---|---|---|---|
| LinkSquares | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Other Software 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Other Software 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
In conclusion, LinkSquares sets a new standard for CLM software with its AI-powered contract lifecycle management features. From contract drafting to agreement summarization, LinkSquares offers a comprehensive solution to optimize and simplify the contract management process. By leveraging advanced technology, LinkSquares empowers organizations to streamline their contract workflows, increase efficiency, and make more informed decisions.
Oneflow
Oneflow is a powerful CLM software that offers a range of features to enhance contract management processes. Its collaborative contract editing feature allows multiple stakeholders to work on contracts simultaneously, ensuring seamless collaboration and reducing turnaround times. With Oneflow’s e-signature capabilities, contracts can be signed digitally, eliminating the need for manual signatures and saving valuable time. Additionally, Oneflow’s workflow management feature automates and streamlines contract processes, ensuring efficient contract management from creation to execution.
Oneflow’s CLM features:
- Collaborative contract editing
- E-signature capabilities
- Workflow management
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Collaborative Contract Editing | Multiple stakeholders can work on contracts simultaneously, improving collaboration and reducing turnaround times. |
| E-signature Capabilities | Contracts can be signed digitally, eliminating the need for manual signatures and streamlining the signing process. |
| Workflow Management | Contract processes can be automated and streamlined, ensuring efficient contract management from creation to execution. |
PandaDoc
When it comes to contract lifecycle management, PandaDoc is a top-tier software solution that offers a comprehensive set of features tailored to meet the needs of businesses. With its built-in e-signature, document analytics, and collaboration tools, PandaDoc simplifies the entire contract management process.
One of the standout features of PandaDoc is its built-in e-signature functionality, which allows for seamless and secure contract signing. With just a few clicks, parties involved in the contract can easily sign and execute the documents, eliminating the need for manual signatures and paperwork.
PandaDoc also provides robust document analytics capabilities, giving users valuable insights into contract performance. By tracking metrics such as document views, engagement, and completion rates, organizations can make informed decisions and optimize their contract management strategies.
Collaboration is made easy with PandaDoc’s collaboration tools. Multiple team members can work on a contract simultaneously, making edits, adding comments, and ensuring that everyone is on the same page. This streamlines the review and approval process, saving time and increasing productivity.
PandaDoc’s user-friendly interface and intuitive design make it accessible to users of all levels of technical expertise. Whether you’re a small business owner or part of a large enterprise, PandaDoc’s CLM features provide a seamless and efficient solution for managing contracts.
Evisort
Evisort is a leading CLM software that offers a range of powerful features designed to streamline contract management processes and enhance compliance management. One of the key highlights of Evisort is its AI-powered contract analytics capabilities, which enable organizations to extract valuable insights from their contracts and make data-driven decisions.
With Evisort, contract search and retrieval become effortless tasks, as the software leverages advanced AI algorithms to scan and categorize contract documents, making it easier to find specific information quickly. This not only saves valuable time but also improves productivity and reduces the risk of missing critical contract terms or clauses.
Moreover, Evisort’s compliance management feature ensures that companies stay on top of regulatory requirements by automatically monitoring key contract terms and conditions. The software alerts users to potential compliance issues, helping them proactively address any concerns and mitigate risks.
By using Evisort, organizations can benefit from improved contract management efficiency, enhanced contract search and retrieval, and strengthened compliance management. The software’s AI-powered contract analytics capabilities empower businesses to gain deeper insights from their contract data, enabling more informed decision-making and ultimately driving better business outcomes.
Contract Logix
When it comes to efficient contract management, Contract Logix is a top choice. This CLM software stands out with its advanced features for contract repository management, contract analytics, and workflow management.
With Contract Logix, you can streamline your contract management processes and improve overall efficiency. The contract repository feature allows you to centralize all your contracts in one secure location, making it easy to retrieve and access them whenever needed. This saves time and eliminates the hassle of searching through multiple systems or folders.
Contract analytics is another powerful feature offered by Contract Logix, providing valuable insights into your contract performance. You can track key contract metrics, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your contract management strategies.
Workflow management is also a key component of Contract Logix, allowing you to create and automate workflows for contract approval, review, and execution. This ensures that all stakeholders are informed and involved at each stage of the contract lifecycle, improving collaboration and reducing delays.
With its comprehensive CLM features, Contract Logix offers a reliable solution to enhance your contract management processes. By implementing Contract Logix, you can streamline operations, improve efficiency, and ensure compliance in all your contract-related activities.
Conclusion
CLM software plays a crucial role in streamlining contract lifecycle management processes, improving efficiency, reducing costs, and minimizing risk. The top CLM software options in 2024, including Icertis Contract Management, DocuSign CLM, SAP Ariba Contracts, and others, offer a range of features to meet the needs of organizations of all sizes. By implementing the right CLM software, businesses can effectively manage their contracts, saving time, resources, and ensuring compliance.
CLM software provides solutions for contract discovery, creation, negotiation, and approval, as well as execution, compliance, and amendments. Traditional contract management methods using paper-based systems are costly and time-consuming, making the implementation of CLM software essential for effective contract management.
With features such as contract audit and change history, collaborative contract editing, compliance management, searchable contract library, e-signature capabilities, workflow management, and contract analytics and reporting, CLM software simplifies and automates the contract management process. These features enable faster sales negotiation cycles, accurate payments, lower operating and processing costs, and better insights into contract performance.
FAQ
What is Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)?
Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) refers to the administration of contracts throughout their lifecycle, from discovery and creation to negotiation, approval, execution, compliance, and amendments.
What are the benefits of CLM software?
CLM software offers several benefits, including improved efficiency, reduced costs, increased accuracy, faster sales negotiation cycles, fewer inaccuracies in payments, and lower operating and processing costs related to contract management.
What are the key features of CLM software?
CLM software typically includes features such as contract audit and change history, collaborative contract editing, compliance management, a searchable contract library, e-signature capabilities, workflow management, and contract analytics and reporting.
What are the top CLM software options in 2024?
The top CLM software options in 2024 include Icertis Contract Management, DocuSign CLM, SAP Ariba Contracts, Conga Contracts, LinkSquares, Oneflow, PandaDoc, Evisort, Contract Logix, SirionLabs CLM, Ironclad CLM, CobbleStone Contract Insight, and Agiloft Contract Management Suite.
What are the key features of Icertis Contract Management?
Icertis Contract Management offers features such as compliance management, audit history, proposal management, and AI-powered contract creation. It integrates with major ERP, CRM, and spend management systems for comprehensive contract management.
What are the key features of DocuSign CLM?
DocuSign CLM offers features such as configurable workflows, contract document generation, and AI-powered contract analytics. It is widely used by top Fortune 500 companies and government agencies for efficient contract management.
What are the key features of SAP Ariba Contracts?
SAP Ariba Contracts specializes in procurement and sales contracts and offers features such as unified terms, pre-approved templates, and automation of contract management processes to make contract management more efficient and cost-effective.
What are the key features of Conga Contracts?
Conga Contracts focuses on contract creation, collaboration, compliance, and analytics. It offers features to streamline the contract management process, improve collaboration among stakeholders, ensure compliance, and provide analytics for better contract insights.
What are the key features of LinkSquares?
LinkSquares is known for its AI-powered contract lifecycle management features. It offers features such as contract drafting, agreement summarization, and AI-powered analytics to make contract management more efficient and accurate.
What are the key features of Oneflow?
Oneflow focuses on collaborative contract editing, e-signature capabilities, and workflow management. It offers features to streamline the contract management process and improve collaboration among stakeholders.
What are the key features of PandaDoc?
PandaDoc offers features such as a built-in e-signature, document analytics, and collaboration tools. It provides an all-in-one solution for contract management, allowing for easy creation, tracking, and signing of contracts.
What are the key features of Evisort?
Evisort specializes in AI-powered contract analytics, contract search and retrieval, and compliance management. It offers features to streamline contract management processes and improve compliance with regulations.
What are the key features of Contract Logix?
Contract Logix focuses on contract repository management, contract analytics, and workflow management. It offers features to streamline contract management processes and improve efficiency.
Source Links
- https://whatfix.com/blog/clm-software/
- https://www.summize.com/clm-hub/best-clm-software
- https://www.usnews.com/360-reviews/business/best-contract-management-software
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