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Lessons learned by a veteran about contract management software

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Kevin Potts, VP of Product Management and Marketing at Emptoris, a leading provider of contract management software, left a hefty comment on one of my recent posts. His lessons learned deserve wider play and I couldn’t resist some editorial remarks. Note also that Kevin hosts a blog.

“Not being a lawyer, I have struggled to find the right words to describe how automation plays a role in contract management best practices. Here is what I have learned:

  1. Don’t emphasize live negotiation management – no lawyer sees herself negotiating online with a customer on a sales agreement inside some software application. [That would be as off-putting as online auctions based on an RFP.]

  2. It is not about improved productivity through contract template management. Making lawyers more efficient is not high value. [Kevin’s point eludes me. If a lawyer can find a precedential document more quickly, that improves productivity and has value.]

  3. Few lawyers see value in contract lifecycle management software as a way to close contracts faster. [Clients care about speed; lawyers care about risks anticipated and dealt with.]

  4. The real value of the software which provides contract template management comes from the ability to control the contractual language and thereby understand and influence the business ramification of those contracts.” [I defer to Kevin’s experience, but his point makes sense.]

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One response to “Lessons learned by a veteran about contract management software”

  1. Kevin Potts says:
    September 9, 2010 at 6:00 am

    Rees – thanks very much for publishing this post and for your thoughtful comments embedded in it.
    I wanted to get back to you regarding your comment to point number 2 which stated, “It is not about improved productivity through contract template management. Making lawyers more efficient is not high value.”
    You wrote that “[this] eludes me. If a lawyer can find a precedential document more quickly, that improves productivity and has value.”
    I completely agree with you that value is there. However,the question is, “Does the general counsel care?”
    I believe few general counsels prioritize efficiency as a key performance metric of the law department. How many law departments benchmark contract throughput per lawyer or (as Cisco does), the revenue per lawyer – with the goal of improving productivity over time by supporting more revenue per lawyer. I believe Cisco’s efficiency metric is $4.8 billion in sales per lawyer.
    In some companies, the legal team’s nickname is the “sales prevention team” because they are seen as a major bottleneck to closing customer deals in a timely manner.
    Secondly, perhaps I did not articulate it very well, but I was also trying to say that while value may be there, from my experience, most lawyers doubt that software will make them more efficient. It becomes an uphill battle to sell that message as a compelling reason to buy contract management software.
    Kevin Potts
    VP of Product Management and Marketing
    Emptoris, Inc.
    http://emptorisinc.blogspot.com