While CLMs have become increasingly popular among legal in-house counsel, it is important to recognize that their true value lies in the seamless integration with your business teams and processes.
Without the right integrations in place, your CLM implementation runs the risk of failure, resulting in wasted resources and missed opportunities.
In this article, we will delve into the essential CLM integrations that are indispensable for a streamlined workflow and the attainment of a higher ROI.
Let’s dive in!
7 Reasons to use CLM integrations with business tools
CLM integrations play a vital role in optimizing contract management processes and delivering a range of compelling benefits. Let's explore the key reasons why leveraging CLM integrations are essential for organizations:
#1 Increased user adoption of the CLM for higher ROI
By integrating your CLM with existing systems and tools commonly used by business teams, such as CRM platforms or project management software, user adoption of the CLM solution will significantly increase. This seamless integration will eliminate the need for additional training or disruptions to established workflows, making it easier for teams to embrace and utilize the CLM system effectively.
#2 Improved efficiency and accelerated contract approvals
CLM integrations facilitate a streamlined and efficient contract management workflow. Integrating with document creation and editing tools, such as Microsoft Office or Google Workspace, enables users to create and edit contracts seamlessly within familiar environments.
Additionally, integrating with e-signature platforms allows for swift and secure electronic signing, eliminating the need for manual signatures and accelerating the contract approval process.
#3 Enhanced visibility and control of your contracts to manage renewals
Integrating CLM with other systems, such as your CRM or your financial or project management software, provides comprehensive visibility into contract-related data and activities. This integration allows business teams to track, monitor, and check contract statuses, key dates, and obligations.
With a holistic view of contract information, you gain better control over contract lifecycles and can proactively manage renewals, amendments, and compliance requirements. It won’t be long before you start orchestrating contracts like a maestro in Better Call Saul.
#4 Streamlined collaboration between legal and other teams
CLM integrations foster seamless collaboration between legal and business teams. By integrating with CRM and communication and collaboration tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams, stakeholders can easily collaborate, discuss contract terms, and provide real-time feedback.
We spoke to experts and learned that the best way to reduce friction with business teams is to help them gain visibility ino contracts.
The integration of CLM with other systems eliminates silos, encourages cross-functional collaboration, and ensures smoother communication throughout the contract lifecycle.
#5 Enhanced compliance and risk management to mitigate penalties
CLM integrations enable automated compliance checks and alerts within the contract workflow. You can automatically validate contract terms against legal and regulatory requirements by integrating with regulatory databases or compliance monitoring tools. This proactive approach minimizes compliance risks, ensures adherence to industry standards, and mitigates the possibility of costly penalties or legal disputes.
#7 Flexibility to scale and adapt to changes
With CLM integrations, you get the flexibility to scale and adapt to evolving business needs. As the organization grows or introduces new systems, CLM integrations can easily accommodate changes and ensure that contract management processes remain aligned with the evolving business landscape. This future-proofing approach enables organizations to remain agile and proactive in managing their contract portfolios.
Also read: Close Deals 2x Faster with SpotDraft's CRM Integration!
Top 6 CLM integrations for your organization
There are seven essential types of tools that can be seamlessly integrated with your contract lifecycle management software. By harnessing the power of these integrations, you can revolutionize your contracting process, making it more efficient and streamlined.
1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Integration
Since a majority of your contracting requests come from the sales team, it's essential that you make it easy for them to adopt your CLM tool. This integration also provides valuable insights to your team about customer interactions, helping them identify opportunities for upselling or cross-selling.
Here are some of the most common CRM to CLM integrations:
a. Salesforce
- Industry-standard CRM: Salesforce is widely recognized as the leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform for enterprise companies. By integrating your CLM system with it, you align your contract management processes with an industry-standard CRM solution
- Rich customer database: Salesforce allows teams across your organization to capture and collaborate on detailed records about customers and prospects. This rich repository of customer data provides valuable insights for contract creation, negotiation, and renewal. You can then leverage this data to ensure contracts align with customer preferences and needs
- Selling opportunities: With Salesforce integration, you can leverage the CRM's features to identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities. By connecting contract data with customer profiles and sales opportunities, you gain visibility into potential add-ons, upgrades, or complementary products/services that can be included in contracts. This way, your sales teams can maximize revenue potential and enhance customer relationships
b. HubSpot
- Custom reporting and tracking: HubSpot's CRM provides custom reporting capabilities, deal stage tracking, and task automation features. When integrated with your CLM, these functionalities become invaluable for managing contract-related activities. Sales representatives can generate various types of contracts, including Master Service Agreements (MSAs), and handle sales agreements directly within the HubSpot platform, eliminating the need to switch between different tools
- Predictive lead scoring: HubSpot's predictive lead scoring feature offers valuable insights into the potential of leads, helping sales teams prioritize their efforts. By integrating HubSpot with your CLM system, you can leverage this predictive lead scoring to align contract management efforts with high-priority leads
- Data sync and visibility: Customer data is captured in HubSpot, including customer preferences and interactions. The synchronization of this customer data with contract data enhances the accuracy and personalization of contracts, aligning them with customer needs and preferences
c. Zoho
- Seamless contract initiation: With Zoho integration, your sales teams can initiate new contracts directly from the deal record in Zoho CRM. This streamlines the contract initiation process, eliminating the need for manual handoffs and reducing administrative tasks for sales reps
- Improved sales efficiency: The integration enables sales representatives to initiate contract requests and generate contracts quickly and accurately from Zoho CRM. This saves time, reduces administrative tasks, and allows sales teams to focus more on selling and nurturing customer relationships, ultimately improving sales efficiency
- Real-time data sync: Integrating Zoho CRM with a CLM solution ensures seamless data synchronization between the two systems. Contract-related information, such as customer details, contract terms, and key dates, remains consistent and up-to-date across platforms
Also read: Close Deals 2X Faster with SpotDraft’s CRM Integration
2. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Integration
Integrating CLM with ERP systems, such as SAP, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle, NetSuite, or Infor, brings together contract management and financial operations seamlessly. This integration ensures that contract-related data, such as pricing, payment terms, and customer information, is synchronized between the CLM and ERP systems.
With this integration, users from various departments, including finance, procurement, and operations, can easily access contract information and align it with their respective workflows.
a. SAP
As a widely used ERP system, integrating SAP with your CLM software allows for seamless data synchronization and real-time updates. This integration ensures that contract-related information, such as customer data, pricing details, and financial terms, seamlessly flows between the ERP and CLM systems. By eliminating manual data entry and reducing the risk of errors, this integration streamlines the contract management workflow and enhances data accuracy and consistency.
b. Microsoft Dynamics 365
With its comprehensive suite of business applications, Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers robust integration capabilities with CLM software. You can leverage a unified platform for managing contracts, customers, and financial information. This integration enables smooth data transfer, enhances visibility across departments, and facilitates efficient contract creation, negotiation, and monitoring.
c. Oracle
Integrating Oracle ERP with CLM software empowers you and other teams with a holistic view of contract-related information and financial data. This integration allows the seamless sharing of contract details, pricing agreements, and compliance requirements between the ERP and CLM systems. By synchronizing data and automating processes, sales and legal can optimize contract management, streamline procurement activities, and improve financial visibility.
d. NetSuite
NetSuite, an all-in-one cloud-based ERP system, offers seamless integration opportunities with CLM software. It allows legal to streamline the entire contract lifecycle from creation to billing and revenue recognition, ensuring accurate financial data flow, reduces manual effort, and provides real-time insights into contract performance and revenue forecasting.
e. Infor
Infor's ERP solutions, such as Infor LN or Infor CloudSuite, can be integrated with CLM software to achieve end-to-end contract management efficiency. By integrating these systems, you can synchronize critical contract data, such as terms, obligations, and pricing, with their ERP. It streamlines contract administration, enhances compliance management, and enables effective tracking of contract-related financials.
Also read: Building a Holistic Procurement Contract Management Process
3. Human Resource Information System (HRIS) Integration
Integrating CLM with a Human Resource Information System, such as Greenhouse, Lever, or Halogen, brings the power of contract management directly into the realm of HR operations. It allows HR teams to seamlessly manage employment contracts, non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and other HR-related documents within the HRIS platform.
They can even initiate, track, and manage contract processes while staying within their familiar HR systems. This integration streamlines HR workflows, ensures compliance with employment agreements, and facilitates efficient contract management for HR-related documents.
a. Greenhouse
The integration of Greenhouse with a CLM solution allows HR teams to generate and manage employment contracts directly from Greenhouse, ensuring a smooth transition from the hiring process to contractual agreements. They can easily generate customized offer letters, employment agreements, and related documents within the Greenhouse platform, while leveraging CLM's capabilities for electronic signatures, and centralized document storage.
b. Lever
By integrating Lever with CLM software, you can seamlessly manage the entire contract lifecycle from hiring to onboarding and beyond. HR teams can initiate employment contracts directly from Lever, ensuring a smooth transition from the recruitment phase to the contractual phase. They can easily generate customized offer letters, employment agreements, and related documents within the Lever platform while leveraging CLM's capabilities for contract approval workflows, e-signatures, and document storage.
c. Halogen Performance
Integrating Halogen Performance with CLM software brings the advantage of incorporating contract-related information and obligations into performance management workflows. HRs can benefit by associating contracts with specific employees, tracking contract-related milestones, and aligning performance goals with contractual obligations. For example, performance objectives and key results (OKRs) can be linked to contract deliverables and timelines, providing a holistic view of employee performance and contract compliance.
Also read: The Ultimate NDA Checklist: Draft, Review & Sign NDAs with Confidence
4. Electronic Signature Integration
With electronic signature integration, you can bid farewell to the traditional pen-and-paper approach. Instead, you can effortlessly send contracts for electronic signature directly from your CLM system.
You can then track the signing progress of your contracts, gaining real-time visibility into who has received, viewed, and signed the document.
And when those signed documents start flowing back into your digital realm, they seamlessly find their way back into your CLM system. You no longer have to worry about manual data entry or misplaced documents.
Moreover, by eliminating the need for physical document handling, legal and sales teams can work together seamlessly on contract execution. This can lead to improved communication, coordination, and efficiency.
Some of the most-used e-signature platforms that can be integrated with a CLM solution include:
- DocuSign
- AdobeSign
- Hello Sign
Also read: Your Guide to a Flawless Sales Contract Management Process
5. Storage Integration
Many CLM solutions offer their very own contract repositories for easy storage and access, but still, some companies prefer to store their documents in shared drives that can be accessed across the organization.
Without integrating storage solutions with your CLM system, this process can be cumbersome and manual. Contract managers would need to individually upload each contract to the appropriate folder and configure the necessary permissions.
You can always choose to integrate your CLM software with your storage solutions, streamlining the process and automating contract uploads to shared drives.
By integrating the CLM system with storage solutions, your company can enjoy several benefits like:
- immediate access of contracts to relevant stakeholders across the business,
- time and resource savings to focus on more strategic activities
- standardized organizational structure, making it easier to locate and retrieve contracts when needed
- consistent security measures and access controls
- no risk of human error, ensuring that contracts are promptly stored in the right location
We’ve listed some of the most common storage solution integrations with CLM.
a. Google Drive
One of the most common storage solutions, Google Drive, is majorly used by businesses who either create their contracts on Google Workspace or Microsoft Office, and share them via Gmail.
Given its massive adoption in various industries, it is a good idea to integrate your CLM with Google Drive. As a result, your business team can leverage the CLM to manage contracts while still having them stored in Google Drive.
b. DropBox
With CLM integration with DropBox, all contracts are automatically uploaded to DrobBox once they’re ready to be signed. So, you don’t need to manually keep track of the contract stages in the CLM. Just sit back and wait for the contract to run through all the approval cycles in the CLM before it gets uploaded in DropBox automatically.
Also read: Contract Storage: Tips to Store Your Contracts Effectively
6. Project Management Integration
CLM integration with project management tools, such as Asana or Jira, enhances collaboration and ensures efficient contract execution.
It allows for seamless communication between legal, project management, and other teams involved in executing contracts.
By connecting project management tasks and milestones with the CLM system, you can track the progress of contract deliverables, ensure timely completion, and optimize resource allocation.
a. Asana
Asana offers a user-friendly interface and allows you to create tasks, assign them to team members, set due dates, and track progress. It provides a visual overview of projects and supports seamless collaboration, making it an excellent choice for integrating with CLM.
b. Jira
Jira is a robust project management tool widely used for agile software development.Integrating Jira with CLM brings transparency to the contract execution process and ensures that contract-related tasks align with project timelines.
c. Slack
Slack is a popular team communication tool that can be integrated with CLM to facilitate real-time discussions and notifications. It enables teams to communicate, share files, and collaborate on contract-related activities in dedicated channels, promoting efficient communication and knowledge sharing.
d. MS Teams
Microsoft Teams is a comprehensive collaboration platform that combines chat, video meetings, file storage, and app integration. Integrating it with CLM allows for seamless collaboration, document sharing, and task management within a single platform, enhancing productivity and streamlining contract workflows.
Also read: 4 Immediate (zero cost) Contract Management Hacks For Your Legal Teams
Why choose SpotDraft for CLM integrations?
When considering Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) integrations, SpotDraft stands out as a reliable and feature-rich solution. Here’s why:
#1 Compatibility with multiple software applications
SpotDraft offers compatibility with a wide range of software applications commonly used in business operations. Whether you're using CRM systems like Salesforce or HubSpot, project management tools like Jira and Slack, or electronic signature solutions like DocuSign or Adobe Sign, SpotDraft ensures smooth integration and seamless data exchange.
#2 Feature-rich platform with functionalities to automate contract management
SpotDraft provides robust functionality within its CLM platform. It offers features such as contract creation, negotiation, approvals, and storage, streamlining the entire contract management process. With SpotDraft, you can automate contract generation, track key milestones, and gain valuable insights into contract performance.
3# Flexibility in data mapping for enhanced data sync
SpotDraft offers flexible data mapping capabilities, allowing you to align contract data fields with the corresponding fields in integrated systems. This ensures accurate data synchronization and prevents data discrepancies between systems. SpotDraft's mapping flexibility enables customization based on your specific business requirements.
4# Intuitive and user-friendly interface for enhanced user experience
SpotDraft prioritizes user experience, providing an intuitive and user-friendly interface. The platform offers a clean and organized layout, making it easy for users to navigate and access the necessary features. The user-friendly interface minimizes the learning curve and enhances user adoption within your organization.
6. Security and compliance to safeguard contracts
SpotDraft prioritizes the security and confidentiality of your contract data. It employs industry-standard encryption protocols, secure data storage, and access controls to safeguard sensitive information. Additionally, SpotDraft ensures compliance with relevant data protection regulations, providing peace of mind when it comes to data security and privacy.
#7 Excellent customer support and reviews
SpotDraft has a strong reputation for excellent customer support. The SpotDraft team is responsive and provides prompt assistance, addressing any technical issues or inquiries that may arise. Our dedication to customer satisfaction ensures a smooth integration experience and ongoing support throughout your CLM journey.
"SpotDraft does all the heavy lifting in terms of end to end contract management, maintaining all review versions, final validation before releasing for signatures, mapping parent contract to a subsequent child, saving important deadlines, notes etc. SpotDraft is continously improvising and developing its product, customer support team takes regular inputs from the customer and resolves issues very delegiently. Overall, its been a great experience.”
~ Aruna Mukundd, Exotel
G2: SpotDraft Reviews & Product Details
Harness the power of CLM integration to increase ROI and CLM adoption
Rohith Salim, CTO, SpotDraft, recently stressed the importance of integrating your CLM with other software applications, such as ERPs, CRMs, and project management tools, in his LinkedIn post.
And he’s right! The only way for your company to see the ROI of your CLM is when they see its increased adoption, saving time and improving efficiency and collaboration in different teams.
So, start today! Request a demo with SpotDraft to see how you can integrate your existing systems with SpotDraft.
