The Future of Contracting: CLM Automation with AI at Lenovo

Every company can benefit from faster and more efficient contracting processes, such as CLM software automation and AI, that enhance risk and spend management, improve revenue and profit margins and increase visibility into counterparty relationships. In a recent webinar for the World Commerce and Contracting Association, the Lenovo Legal Department described a transformation journey that can deliver value to any business.

The webinar paints a picture of the ideal overall transformation of the legal function, going from a bespoke system of subject matter experts to a legal function that combines that bespoke talent with standardized operations and digital efficiencies. The result is a legal department that’s digital, scalable and value-driven. This is achieved through the right combination of contract lifecycle management (CLM) and artificial intelligence (AI).

The Pillars of Lenovo’s CLM Automation and AI Journey

Lenovo identified three ideal outcomes that guide contract management transformation.

1. Centralize – Your organization should have a single legal team – not geographically, but operationally. Centralization enables agile support for both the legal function and the enterprise as a whole. It also allows the legal function better flexibility to support new business areas and a greater ability to align resources with tasks.
2. Standardize – Once you’ve centralized your legal function, you want to create and reinforce standardization across all activities. This includes enhanced and consistent documentation, harmonized workflows and standardized R&Ps for legal and other stakeholders in the organization, among other things.
3. Digitize – A modern legal function is built around system-based workflows with increasing automation. Digitizing increases visibility into the E2E process and improves your reporting capabilities. It has also proven crucial for helping businesses navigate pandemic disruptions, thanks to solutions like CLM with e-signature capabilities.

Improving Efficiency by 30% with Contract AI

AI is critical to the CLM automation process, according to the Lenovo team, because it not only improves the efficiency of the work, but it’s also actually doing some of the work for you. AI-powered CLM software helps remove the productivity bottleneck that plagues many areas of the legal function today.

While CLM software and AI have already established a strong foothold in legal departments across the country, their prevalence is only going to grow in the coming years. By 2023, Gartner estimates that 90% of multinational global enterprises and 50% of regional midsize organizations will have invested in CLM solutions, and that AI will bring 30% more efficiency to the contract negotiation and document completion processes in organizations that deploy leading CLM solutions.

CLM handles your contracting from end to end, starting with legal review intake and leading you through redlining, drafting and negotiation to approval and execution, and finally creating a repository and empowering intelligent reporting to support informed decision-making. CLM with AI does all those things even more accurately and efficiently.

The panel walked through the major goals of any successful CLM automation and AI program:

• Faster and cheaper contracting
• Enhanced risk management
• Data analytics
• Visibility
• Revenue and profit improvement
• Spend management
• AI capabilities

Additionally, the webinar highlights a number of key themes that are critical to anyone on the CLM transformation journey, including:

• Lenovo’s CLM evolution and transformation roadmap
• Multi-year goals related to their contract management technology
• Why the culture must eat change management for breakfast
• The benefits and ROI of a single CLM platform
• How AI is driving the future for its enhanced vision

Download the webinar here to learn more about Lenovo’s strategy for a global rollout of CLM technology and why AI is key to the services delivery model of the future.