Revenue · 8 stages
GTM automation system
Target accounts to closed-won hand-off: research, outbound, routing, follow-up and CRM upkeep.
AI contract lifecycle management from request to renewal
Standard agreements are drafted from your templates, counterparty paper arrives with deviations listed against your playbook, and renewal deadlines surface in time to act. Lawyers spend their time on the clauses that matter.
Replaces: Contract requests by email, drafting from old versions, manual clause comparison, approval chases and renewal dates tracked in spreadsheets
Contract lifecycle system
8 stages
What is CLM automation?
Contract lifecycle management (CLM) automation runs each agreement from request to renewal: intake, drafting from approved templates, clause review against your playbook, redline summaries, approvals, signature, obligations tracking and renewal reminders. AI contract analysis lists every deviation from your positions with the clause linked. Lawyers decide what to accept, and nothing is signed without approval.
The system, stage by stage
8 stages from intake to renewals, each with what runs on its own and the decision that stays with your team.
- 1
Intake
Contract requests arrive through a form, Slack or email and become a matter with the details legal needs.
- Ironclad
- Slack
- Salesforce
- Jira
Automated
- Request captured with contract type, counterparty, value and deadline, with missing fields chased
- Counterparty matched to existing records and contracts
- Matter routed to the right legal or commercial owner by type and value
Built with workflow automationYour team decides
Legal ops sets intake rules and decides which contract types need a lawyer involved.
- 2
Drafting from templates
Standard contracts are drafted from approved templates and the intake data.
- Ironclad
- DocuSign CLM
- Microsoft Word
- Google Docs
Automated
- NDA, MSA, SOW and order form drafts with the right entity, governing law and clauses
- Fallback clauses selected by contract type, value and region
- Self-serve generation for low-risk templates, such as NDAs on your paper
Built with document intelligenceYour team decides
Legal approves template changes and decides which templates the business can generate without review.
- 3
Clause review against playbook
Counterparty paper and edited drafts are checked clause by clause against your playbook.
- Ironclad
- Microsoft Word
- SharePoint
Automated
- Clauses identified and compared with your preferred, fallback and unacceptable positions
- Deviations listed with the playbook position and suggested language
- Missing clauses flagged, such as limitation of liability, data protection or termination rights
Built with AI agentsYour team decides
A lawyer reviews each deviation and decides whether to accept, counter or escalate it.
- 4
Negotiation and redline summaries
Each redline round is summarized so legal and the business owner see what changed and what is still open.
- Microsoft Word
- Ironclad
- Outlook
- Slack
Automated
- Round-by-round summary of changed terms and accepted and rejected edits
- Open issues list with each side’s position
- Comparison against the playbook after every round
Built with AI agentsYour team decides
Legal and the business owner agree on concessions, and the lawyer controls what goes back to the counterparty.
- 5
Approvals
Final terms are routed for internal approval under your signing authority policy.
- Ironclad
- Slack
- Salesforce
- Microsoft Teams
Automated
- Approval chain built from value, term, risk flags and playbook deviations
- Approval request with the deviation summary and commercial terms
- Reminders and escalation when an approval stalls
Built with workflow automationYour team decides
Finance, security, privacy and business leaders each approve the terms within their remit.
- 6
Signature and filing
Contracts are signed in the right order, filed and indexed with their key terms.
- DocuSign
- Adobe Acrobat Sign
- Ironclad
- SharePoint
Automated
- Signature packet sent to authorized signatories in order
- Executed copy filed to the repository and linked to the counterparty and deal
- Key terms extracted into the contract record: dates, value, renewal, notice period, governing law
Built with document intelligenceYour team decides
Only people with signing authority sign, and legal ops reviews extracted terms marked as uncertain.
- 7
Obligations tracking
Commitments in signed contracts are tracked and sent to the people responsible for meeting them.
- Ironclad
- Salesforce
- Asana
- SharePoint
Automated
- Obligations extracted, such as SLAs, reporting duties, audit rights, insurance and price caps
- Owners assigned and reminders scheduled ahead of due dates
- Search across the repository, with answers linked to the clause
Built with knowledge assistantsYour team decides
Each contract’s business owner confirms obligations are met and decides with legal how to handle a missed one.
- 8
Renewals
Renewal and notice deadlines surface early enough to renegotiate or exit.
- Ironclad
- Salesforce
- Coupa
- Google Calendar
Automated
- Renewal and notice-period alerts to the contract owner and to procurement or sales
- Renewal brief with usage, spend, price increase terms and open issues
- Auto-renewal clauses flagged ahead of the notice deadline
Built with workflow automationYour team decides
The contract owner decides whether to renew, renegotiate or terminate, and legal sends any notice.
What we measure
Agreed before the build, measured against your baseline, reported every month.
- Request-to-signature time
- Days from intake to full signature, by contract type.
- Legal touch rate
- Contracts that needed lawyer time, by contract type and value band.
- Playbook deviations
- Deviations found per contract, grouped by clause, to show where the playbook or templates need work.
- Extraction accuracy
- Key terms checked against a reviewed sample of signed contracts, field by field.
- Notice deadlines met
- Renewals and notices acted on before their deadline.
Safeguards built in
Controls specific to this function, on top of the audit trail and approval gates in every system.
- Lawyers decide on each deviation from the playbook
- Template changes approved by legal before the business can use them
- Signature limited to people with signing authority under your policy
- Contracts stored in your repository with access by matter and role, and private models available for sensitive agreements
Who it fits
- In-house legal teams of 1–20 supporting sales, procurement and HR
- Legal operations teams on Ironclad, DocuSign CLM or SharePoint
- Sales-led companies where contract review slows deals
- Companies with signed contracts scattered across shared drives and inboxes
How it rolls out
One workflow first, live in six to ten weeks. Then the rest of the function, on the same foundation.
- 1Weeks 1–10
First workflow
Intake, template drafting for standard agreements such as NDAs and order forms, and signature filing.
- 2Months 3–4
Extend
Clause review against your playbook, redline summaries and approval routing.
- 3Month 5 onward
Full function
Obligations tracking, repository search and renewal alerts across signed contracts, including legacy contracts.
Questions about the contract lifecycle system
How is this different from a contract management system?
Contract management software stores agreements and tracks their status. This system does the work around it: drafting from templates, reading counterparty paper against your playbook, chasing approvals and surfacing renewal dates in time. It works with the repository you have, whether that is a CLM platform or SharePoint.
How does contract approval workflow automation work?
When a contract reaches final terms, the system builds the approval chain from value, term and risk flags. Each approver gets the deviation summary and commercial terms in Slack, Teams or email, and stalled approvals are reminded and escalated. Contract workflow automation covers this routing and the signature step. Who may approve what stays under your signing authority policy.
Do we need a CLM platform?
No. The system works with Ironclad or DocuSign CLM if you have one, or with Word, SharePoint and DocuSign if you do not.
Does the system give legal advice?
No. It compares contracts with the playbook your lawyers wrote, lists deviations and suggests language from your approved positions. Lawyers decide what to accept.
Can it handle our existing contracts?
Yes. Signed contracts in drives and inboxes can be read and indexed, with key terms extracted and uncertain fields sent to a reviewer. Legacy migration usually falls in the full-function phase.
Where is contract data stored?
In your repository and cloud account. For sensitive agreements, extraction and review can run on a private model in your environment.
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Plan your contract lifecycle system with an engineer.
A 30-minute call with an engineer. You will leave knowing what a system could do for that workflow and what it would take to build.
What happens next
- 1
Strategy call
We learn how the workflow runs today and what a good outcome would be.
- 2
Workflow audit
We map the process and measure where a system would save the most time.
- 3
Proposal
A written scope, timeline and fixed price for your first system. No obligation to build.