Managing contracts is a critical yet often inefficient process that affects multiple business functions, from procurement and legal to sales and finance. Disorganized documents, version control issues, and hours lost to repetitive administrative tasks create significant roadblocks to efficiency and collaboration. These challenges hinder teams from operating effectively, posing a clear barrier in today’s fast-moving business environment.

If you’re reading this, there’s a high chance your current contract management process has outgrown its effectiveness. You’re not alone.

Contracts are the backbone of every business relationship. Keeping them organized and actionable is crucial to operations, risk management, and long-term success. The good news? With the right contract lifecycle management (CLM) solution, you can turn chaos into clarity and elevate your process entirely.

This guide is your road map for selecting the ideal CLM solution. We’ll cover key considerations, smart questions to ask vendors, and tips for maximizing ROI. Along the way, you’ll see why LinkSquares leads the charge with its AI-driven innovation, tailored experience, and customer-first approach. Buckle up; it’s time to transform your contract management!

CLM market landscape

The CLM market is crowded, but few platforms truly deliver on affordability, usability, and scalability. Here’s how LinkSquares sets a high bar for excellence.

LinkSquares strengths:

• Customer success: With a 98% Customer Satisfaction Score and a 4.7 G2 Rating, LinkSquares sets up your team for success from day one with hands-on onboarding and expert support.
• Ease of use: Discover powerful contract analytics and streamlined workflows without any of the unnecessary fluff. Built with both ease of use and growth in mind, LinkSquares CLM gives you all the tools you truly need – and none of the ones you don’t.
• AI leadership: Where competitors overhype AI, LinkSquares delivers practical, proven tools. For example, it delivers on the 2024 Future of Professionals Report prediction that AI can free up 4 hours per week for legal teams.
• End-to-end visibility: According to Deloitte, 48% of organizations investing in their contracting process report better contract data visibility and management as a primary benefit. With seamless integration across systems, LinkSquares covers the entire lifecycle, from drafting to post-signature tracking.

Common competitor shortfalls

Many CLM providers fail in three key areas:

1. They offer disjointed solutions that don’t cover the full contract lifecycle.

2. Implementations are overly complex and time-consuming.

3. Their AI tools lack real-world impact.

With LinkSquares, you’ll sidestep those pitfalls and adopt a system that grows with your team's needs.

How do I prioritize my contract management needs?

Feeling overwhelmed? Don’t worry – we’ve seen it all. Here’s how to take charge and untangle your priorities.

1. Pinpoint pain points: What’s the bottleneck? Are you juggling inconsistent data, wasting time searching for critical documents, or dealing with version control headaches? With 26% of a company’s workforce engaged in some stage of the contracting process, inefficiencies can quickly compound.

2. Focus on high-impact wins: Centralized storage, automated renewal tracking, and improved visibility into active contracts are all fast ROI opportunities.

3. Scale for growth: Think ahead. Will your chosen CLM platform grow with your organization as your contract portfolio expands? According to Deloitte, 65% of recent CLM investments focus on technology, demonstrating how companies are prioritizing tools that future-proof their processes.

Pro tip: Start small and focus on solving a single big pain point. It’s tempting to go for the kitchen sink (hello, enterprise software), but incremental progress often yields faster results and sets the stage for long-term scalability.

What do I ask a CLM vendor?

Selecting a CLM vendor isn’t just shopping; it’s interviewing candidates for a long-term partnership. Ask smart questions to find the platform that truly fits your organization’s needs.

• “What’s your AI’s practical application? How will it save hours for my team weekly?”
• “How will your solution improve contract data visibility and reduce manual  oversight?”
• “What’s your customer success approach, and can you share a specific example?”
• “What’s your AI and product roadmap over the next year? How will that enhance daily workflows?”

These questions will help you weed out the shiny-but-shallow solutions and identify the serious players that elevate your team’s impact. We also recommend soliciting examples of how features work. A demo showcasing real use cases will tell you everything you need to know.

The buying process

Here’s what to expect when investing in LinkSquares (hint: it doesn’t have to be stressful).

1. Discovery call: To understand your needs, we’ll work with your team to identify contract bottlenecks, challenges, and long-term goals.

2. Customized demos: Our custom demos use your contracts, showing exactly how LinkSquares simplifies the workloads that bog you down.

3. Tailored pricing: Say goodbye to guesswork with straightforward quotes tailored to your needs.

4. Rapid deployment: Thanks to our proven onboarding framework, our customers are running successfully within weeks – not months.

AI spotlight

We’ve all heard the hype about AI “magically” solving all our problems, but not all AI solutions are built the same. Here’s how LinkSquares delivers the real deal.

• LinkAI: In 2015, LinkSquares launched the first AI-powered contract management platform, built specifically for CLM. After 10 years of innovation, new advancements in our AI engine, LinkAI, blend predictive and generative AI in an intuitive solution to make every step of the contracting process smoother and smarter.
• Integration with daily workflows: AI uncovers risks, flags key clauses, and ensures compliance – all behind the scenes, so you don’t have to manually comb through contracts.
• ROI-driven performance: Solutions like ours aren’t just fancy tech; they save real time.
• Future-proof roadmap: Unlike competitors with static features, LinkSquares constantly updates its AI capabilities to keep your legal department ahead of the curve.

ROI of a CLM

If you’re hesitating to invest in a CLM, think about what inefficiencies are costing your organization today. Consider these cold, hard facts:

• Better visibility: Deloitte found that 48% of companies implementing contract processes experienced massive gains in contract visibility and management.
• Risk mitigation: Missed renewals, lost obligations, or compliance issues can total millions in losses. LinkSquares eliminates these risks.
• Time savings: AI-backed tools like LinkSquares save hours of admin work weekly, allowing legal teams to focus on strategy instead of grunt work.

Case study highlights

More than 1,000 customers trust LinkSquares. Here are just two of their stories. 

PDI Technologies

Challenge: PDI Technologies faced inefficiencies due to decentralized workflows and outdated, manual processes. With contract procedures varying across business units, bottlenecks arose between sales and legal, leading to miscommunication, delays, and limited visibility into contract statuses.

Solution: LinkSquares transformed PDI’s contract management by creating a centralized repository with real-time tracking and analytics. Automation and standardization streamlined workflows across business units. The seamless integration with tools like Salesforce, Word, and DocuSign made tracking, management, and execution faster and more efficient.

Impact: Contracts that previously took more than 30 minutes to process now take just 90 seconds. Teams gained full visibility into agreements, breaking down silos and reducing redundancy. Reporting tools, like themed dashboards, empowered leadership to track contracts with ease and improve decision-making. Advanced automation optimized resources, while increased transparency helped showcase the legal team’s value and secured additional support.

"With the guardrails and automation we’ve put in place utilizing Linksquares, we realized we can now empower other teams to draft agreements themselves. We still maintain full visibility and control, ensuring compliance through established parameters — while reducing the burden on the legal department."

– Tracey Denniss, Director of Legal Operations

HotelPlanner

Challenge: Managing contracts as a one-person legal team was challenging for CLO Leticia Piloto-Rodriguez. Without standardized processes, minor issues like version tracking became massive time sinks.

Solution: HotelPlanner implemented LinkSquares Finalize to address inefficiencies in contract management. Standardized templates and centralized workspaces improved version control while creating opportunities for automation.

Impact: "We’re so much more productive. Now, I don't really have to worry about creating a contract because it’s all set up. I think our productivity has increased by 100% at least.”

– Joseph Blakeley, Mergers and Acquisitions Analyst

"I’ve had the time to have more strategic conversations with the COO and the CFO around building the business. My role is now much less burdened by everyday administrative work and more focused on collaboration with the C-suite team."

– Leticia Piloto-Rodriguez, CLO

What’s the cost?

Great question, and one we’d love to discuss with you. No two organizations are alike, so no “one size fits all” pricing here. With LinkSquares, you’ll enjoy transparent, modular pricing that scales with your team’s needs.

A CLM isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s essential for your bottom line. And LinkSquares customers have seen major ROI. 

• 30% reduction in contract completion time for Outsystems
• 50% reduction in sales contract time to close for Commvault
• 50% reduction in outside counsel spend for Softonic

How can it help your team?

Legal: Streamline workflows, reduce admin tasks, and gain contract visibility.

Procurement: Track obligations, improve compliance, and negotiate smarter contracts.

Sales: Streamline your contract process, accelerate deals, and avoid sales disruptions.

Finance: Identify cost-saving opportunities and align contracts with long-term financial strategies.

Why LinkSquares?

When it comes to CLM providers, LinkSquares stands out as the clear choice for modern legal and contract management teams.

• Customer trust: Rated highly on platforms like G2 and Forrester, our clients repeatedly praise LinkSquares for its seamless implementation and ROI-backed results.
• Tailored for your needs: Choose tools that are scalable and grow with your business as contract challenges evolve.
• Proven impact: Teams report drastic improvements in visibility, decision-making, and time management.

What’s next?

Let’s chat! We’d love to show you how LinkSquares can transform your contract management from chaos to clarity.

1. Request a demo: See LinkSquares in action with a tailored walkthrough.

2. Connect with our experts: Chat with our team to identify solutions for your pain points.

3. Experience results: Start driving real value within weeks – like Commvault, a data protection and management company that reduced contract time-to-close by 50% by implementing LinkSquares.

LinkSquares doesn’t just streamline your process for today; it sets you up for long-term success. Reach out and take the first step toward better, smarter contract management today!