Working with contracts in 2025: how CLM systems are changing Russian business

Author: Aleksei Rozhdestvensky, product expert at Docsvision (DoxVision)

What Customers Say

85% of legal departments the Russian of companies consider automation tools to be a critical factor in their operational efficiency, follows from the study "Benchmarking of Legal Function - 2024," conducted by consulting the company "." Trust Technologies 72% of companies plan to continue investing in the development of digital solutions that can increase the performance of the legal function in the near future.

Among the priority areas for such investments, contract management is consistently leading: it is contractual work in most organizations that remains a "narrow neck," which takes up significant resources and slows down business processes.

Contract Lifecycle Milestones and CLM Capabilities

As a rule, some of the stages of working with contracts in the organization are already automated. However, the CLM system helps on each of them, which allows you to make the entire business process more efficient and get a more meaningful result from the implementation.

1. Contract preparation

In our experience, this stage is the most time-consuming: employees need to find the desired contract template, fill out the details, and, if necessary, adjust the template for a specific case. In addition, the first stage and the most important - it is at this moment that a decision is made on the company's readiness to work with the counterparty.

To speed up the preparation of the contract and minimize the risks of concluding an agreement with an unreliable counterparty, the following functions are used in CLM systems:

• Counterparty due diligence

The CLM system can be integrated with various open sources and commercial services to obtain data on the counterparty, including its presence in the sanctions lists. The summary report is saved in the counterparty card. For example, in our projects we have integrated CLM systems based on Docsvision with Contour services. Focus and DaData. Checks are carried out automatically when creating a counterparty card (before concluding a contract), and can also be performed periodically already during the execution of the contract.

Additionally, you can customize scoring rules taking into account various factors. Based on the results of scoring, the CLM system will automatically assign an assessment to the counterparty, depending on which a decision is made on the possibility of concluding an agreement. This function significantly reduces the time for checking a potential counterparty and reduces the risks of concluding an agreement with an unreliable company.

• Select Contract Template

In the CLM system, you can set up rules for automatically matching a contract template. It is selected depending on the data entered by the employee into the contract card (subject of the contract, type of counterparty, legal entity from "our" party, etc.). In addition, when choosing a template, the CLM system automatically fills in the text of the contract: adds the current date, the counterparty's details from his card, the amount of the contract (automatically converting it into the amount in words).

Today, various language models can be connected to CLM systems, which are able to form the text of the contract at the request of the manager "from scratch" and "on the fly," taking into account the current legislation, rules and experience of previously concluded contracts. The built-in AI can also perform an automatic check on the checklist of the contract text received from the counterparty, identify potential risk in it and then "highlight" them to employees at the stage of approving the document.

• Contract Version Control

Even if the contract text is edited by the manager (initiator), all versions and edits in them are automatically saved in the contract master record in the CLM system. This allows you to find out at any time which template the manager used and what changes he made to it before sending it for internal approval.

2. Agreement Agreement

In the second stage, the most employees are involved. The speed of coordination depends on how quickly and harmoniously they interact. It is also influenced by how optimized the rules for coordinating contracts are (so that, for example, the contract for the supply of water to the office is not sent to the full approval cycle). The following functions are implemented in CLM systems for quick and accurate agreement of contracts:

• Selection of the optimal negotiation route

The CLM system configures the rules for automatic selection of the approval route depending on the details of the contract (subject, counterparty type, contract amount, legal entity from "our" party, etc.). This allows you to set up optimal negotiation routes that correspond to the organization's regulations, and the initiator does not worry if he forgot to include someone in the list of approvers.

In addition, some independent contract negotiation steps in the CLM system can be run in parallel. In this case, time is saved: several employees simultaneously receive tasks for approval and do not wait for each other, because everyone works with their own unique copy of the contract. As a result of the concurrent approval, the CLM system automatically consolidates all edits from the concurrent approvers into the final version of the document.

• Flexible configuration of negotiation routes

Agreement routes, especially in large companies, are quite complex and variable. In our practice, there were cases when the customer had more than 200 such routes. To take into account all the requirements and nuances of the regulations, the CLM system must have flexible route configuration tools.

For the Docsvision platform, we even developed a separate Route Builder module in which you can configure complex negotiation routes without programming skills. For example, set a rule for renegotiating a contract after all edits have been taken into account - whether to send the document for renegotiation to those employees who have already agreed on it in the previous cycle or not.

• Mobile approval

Contract approvals typically involve the first persons of the company, who are often on business trips without access to their workplace. So that the approval process does not "freeze" on such employees, CLM systems have the opportunity to conveniently agree on a contract from mobile devices.

In our projects, we implemented several options for such coordination for managers. In the first version, an employee on a mobile device receives a letter and simply answers it: agreed or not. At the same time, Docsvision automatically processes the response letter and records it in the system, including comments and even versions of the contract with text edits. The second option for negotiation on a mobile device is through the Docsvision adaptive web client interface, which opens in any browser.

3. Signing a contract with a counterparty

At this stage, either the first person of the company or other employees with the authority to sign a power of attorney contract are connected to the process. In order for the signing to take place quickly and to sign exactly the version of the contract that was agreed at the previous stage, the following functions are provided in CLM systems:

• Contract reconciliation

If the counterparty sends its paper version of the contract, then before signing with a reciprocal signature it can be scanned directly in the CLM system and an automatic reconciliation of the scan copy with the agreed version of the contract stored in the CLM system can be launched. If discrepancies are found, a report is generated with a list of the latter, as well as a version of contracts with highlighted differences. Similarly, you can start the reconciliation of the electronic version of the contract, which was received from the counterparty through the EDM operator.

• Electronic contract signing

The CLM system allows you to sign the contract with a qualified electronic signature, including from a mobile device, and send it to the counterparty through the EDM operator. For the Docsvision platform, we have developed ready-made connectors to EDO operators, the most popular among our customers: Diadoc, Saby (Sbis) and Taxcom. Connectors allow you to send and receive electronic documents of counterparties directly from the interface of the CLM system without going to the personal account of the EDM operator.

• MCD support

From September 1, 2024, only an electronic signature issued to an individual can be used to sign documents. A machine-readable power of attorney (MCD) must be used to confirm an employee's authority.

At Docsvision, we implemented a full cycle of work with the MFD - the formation of the MFD in various formats, its signing and publication in the distributed register of the Federal Tax Service of Russia. Thus, Docsvision users can form MCDs for employees directly in the CLM system and use them to sign contracts with an electronic signature.

4. Performance of the contract

After signing the contract, work is carried out, a "primary" and additional agreements are formed, in some cases - claims and claims. To successfully manage these processes and not "inflate" the staff, maximum automation is necessary. How do CLM systems help at this stage?

• Monitoring the progress of the contract

The CLM system allows you to specify both the main stages of the contract execution with planned deadlines (for example, transfer of licenses, delivery of goods, performance of work) and compliance with the covenants stipulated by the contract. Next, the result, actual deadlines and primary documents for each stage are recorded. In addition, you can start various processes in the system - creating requests for internal services, automatic regular verification of the counterparty's trustworthiness, automatic exchange of data with other systems (for example, project management systems or ERP). All this significantly reduces both labor costs for routine work to control the implementation of the contract, and risks.

At this stage, AI can also come to the aid of employees, which is able to track obligations under the contract and automatically form relevant documents under it (additional agreements, acts, claims, etc.). In the event of a change in legislation or regulations, AI will analyze all concluded contracts that relate to these changes and "highlight" them for employees.

• Claim and claim work under contracts

If "something went wrong" in the process of executing the contract, the CLM system will help the legal department with the preparation of claims and claims. The system accumulates all information under the contract throughout its life cycle: the text of the signed document, the history of its approval, the entire "primary," official and unofficial communication with the counterparty.

In our projects, we implement the principle of "one window" - we embed functionality for claim and claim work under contracts directly inside the CLM system. This is convenient for lawyers who do not need to switch between different systems when preparing claims and claims, and for the IT department, which does not have to integrate information systems.

The CLM system based on Docsvision implements such functions as preparing claims and claims, recording court cases and downloading meeting schedules from the Arbiter Ring Road, controlling enforcement proceedings, case reports.

5. Storage and Contract Review

Even after all obligations under the contract are fulfilled, its life cycle does not end. The CLM system can also be useful at this stage:

• Electronic Contract Archive

The CLM system, deployed within the company's contour, allows you to form a single electronic archive of all concluded contracts. Secure access to such an archive is provided by a role model depending on employee access rights, and reliable storage is organized by configuring backups.

The CLM system allows you to search for contracts both by details (for example, by counterparty, category or responsible manager) and by text. In addition, in the registry with contracts or in search results, you can use filtering and grouping by key details of contracts. All this allows you to quickly find any contract in the archive and restore the history of working with it.

• Contract Analytics

The CLM system can build various analytical reports on contracts that are stored in it: with whom what contracts were concluded and on what conditions, how the execution took place, what claims or claims were. Connecting AI to these analytical reports will allow the CLM system to perform semantic analysis of the texts of concluded contracts to identify patterns and present "insights" to the management.

CLM Implementation - Business Manageability and Adaptability Investment

Companies already using such solutions receive tangible advantages: they quickly and confidently conclude transactions, effectively interact with internal and external stakeholders, and quickly respond to new market requirements. We hope this article will be useful for those who are just thinking about implementing a CLM system in their organization.

A typical implementation plan, cases of Russian companies and an online demonstration of the CLM system available on the Docsvision platform website will help you prepare for the design and launch of such a solution.