OutSystems is built to simplify the complex. As a leading low-code application development platform, teams around the world rely on OutSystems to build business applications faster and more efficiently. But when it came to managing their contracts, the commercial legal team at OutSystems found themselves looking for a tool that could simplify their own complexities. And thus began their journey to find the CLM that was right for them.

Finding the right CLM

OutSystems had previously invested in a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution to streamline the contract drafting and review process. However, they soon discovered that not all CLMs are created equal. The inflexibility of the system made it difficult to add new types of contracts as they were introduced, leaving the team working outside of the CLM more often than not.

And with no centralized repository for executed contracts, finding agreements or answering simple requests turned into a hunting expedition through multiple systems. Shawn Hoyt, OutSystems' Vice President of Commercial Legal, explains what this process looked like:

OutSystems decided it was time to modernize their contracting process. With the busiest quarter of the year approaching, they realized they couldn’t afford to wait.

Centralizing contracts and tracking risk

After selecting the LinkSquares end-to-end CLM, the team started with the most pressing issue at hand — consolidating thousands of legacy contracts into one system. Uploaded agreements were automatically named by LinkSquares’ AI, cleaning up any previous naming inconsistencies or duplications. The team quickly noticed how much faster they could find and report on their contracts. What previously took hours now took minutes. With agreement tagging in LinkSquares Analyze, the legal team can quickly find agreements and pull reports to answer contract questions and share updates with leadership. 

With these reports, the team can surface and track things like potential risk in executed agreements. Customized agreement terms are used to monitor risk areas like unlimited liability or custom security requirements, allowing Shawn and his team to quickly see which agreements use standard language, approved fallback language, or exceptions.

Getting contracts out the door in record time

With the executed contracts now organized and searchable in a repository, the team turned their attention to speeding up the contract drafting and review process. The solution? Implementing LinkSquares Finalize and the LinkSquares Salesforce integration, empowering their large team of salespeople to request agreements directly from Salesforce.

In addition to in-flight agreements, the sales team can also access information on their executed contracts in Salesforce, giving them instant access to agreement data like auto-renew or termination dates. As Shawn Hoyt put it, “It puts so much information in the hands of the sales team to better understand their accounts and not have to be reliant on legal.”

And it paid off. Allowing sales to easily find and request contracts has been a time saver for both sales and legal, making it easier to get agreements out the door faster. Since implementing LinkSquares, the team has reduced contract completion time by over 30%.

Not all CLMs are created equal

The OutSystems commercial legal team’s journey towards enhancing efficiency highlights a key lesson — the tool you choose can make all the difference. By recognizing the limitations of their previous CLM solution and embracing the LinkSquares CLM, OutSystems managed to centralize contracts, keep risk factors in check, and speed up their contracting processes. Through this strategic upgrade, OutSystems not only addressed their immediate contract management challenges but laid the foundation for future growth and operational excellence.