Case Study
FTI Technology Leads Selection, Evaluation and Implementation for Contract Management System at Global Manufacturing Corporation
A global manufacturing company engaged FTI Technology’s Corporate Legal Operations experts to improve commercial efficiency through optimization and automation of contract processes. Working from the client’s long list of potential software vendors, FTI Technology led efforts to arrive at a shortlist of preferred solutions, evaluate leading options, make a selection, provide change management advice and lead the implementation efforts of the selected solution across four continents.
Situation
The client had established its business case for implementing a contract lifecycle management solution and had compiled a list of approximately 15 technology platforms for consideration. After narrowing the list to several vendors, it became more challenging to definitively identify comparative gaps and strengths. Without hands-on experience with the CLM platforms under evaluation, the company was limited to the information in the proposal responses and vendors’ demos to make their decision.
FTI Technology’s experts were engaged and served as solution experts who could advise the client on which features were immediately critical, while planning for their eventual growth, maturity, and long term process and technology objectives. FTI Technology helped assess the vendor solutions and plan for the CLM transformation alongside balancing the process implications and impact of change to the organization.
Our Role
FTI Technology’s legal operations and CLM experts bring an extensive understanding of the legal and contracts technology market. Their knowledge comes from years of consulting experience in both evaluating and implementing key solutions. The team brings unique visibility into many of the leading technology providers’ products and roadmaps. This background enhanced the client’s ability to select a solution that would meet immediate requirements for real-world scenarios and specific use cases, as well for future growth and maturity.
In this selection and implementation engagement, FTI Technology provided:
- Detailed areas of evaluation, questions and demonstration scripts to support the client in assessing whether each vendor could deliver upon the features and functionality promised. The team also helped facilitate demonstrations, serving as an intermediary between vendors and the client to reveal gaps and areas of alignment.
- Advised the internal client team on the options and benefits of optimized and automated processes, including use of selfservice functionality within the shortlisted systems.
- Selection of a trusted technology platform that would meet all the client’s key CLM objectives, while using FTI Technology’s proprietary scoring mechanism with client-directed priority and weighting for evaluating technology providers across numerous dimensions and grading components.
- Due diligence with the vendor and advising through the assignment of vendor of choice. The team helped the client frame requirements so they were accurately reflected in the agreement.
- Scoping for the implementation, including the development of a phased implementation plan that demonstrated quick wins to earn credibility and generate internal demand for the system. This also included a process blueprint for high volume contract templates, how contracts would flow between stakeholders, notifications, and which workflows would be automated in the new system.
- Functionality and integrations to ensure vendor and customer master data was migrated into the new tool, and to support multiple touchpoints and steps — such as contract request, electronic signatures and redlining — across the contracting process.
- Leadership across all phases of the implementation after the CLM tool was selected. Central to the implementation was enabling support and rules for different types of contracts across business functions and regions.
- Change management guidance and stakeholder analysis to identify project champions and detractors to manage adoption and optimize engagement with the new tool.
Our Impact
FTI Technology’s guidance, advising and technical expertise provided the client with the support needed to narrow a long list of potential technology vendors through detailed product evaluations.
This work resulted in successful selection and implementation of a robust tool and significant improvements in the client’s CLM processes including reduction in cycle time for high volume agreements and increased legal resource capacity by implementing selfservice mechanisms.
FTI Technology’s assistance enabled the client to maximize return on investment in CLM technology by facilitating change management and user adoption practices during and after the implementation.