ICERTIS: Propelling CLM into rich contract intelligence

WRITTEN BY: ILKHAN OZSEVIM IMAGES: ICERTIS

Samir Bodas and Monish Darda saw the untapped power of the cloud as an opportunity to enable businesses with realtime data, helping them to move faster, smarter, and more efficiently. What started in 2009 as a vision to deliver transformational technology that brings more trust and certainty to the world has evolved into Icertis, an analyst-validated leader in Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) and the pioneer of contract intelligence – a unique category of software that leverages AI to turn static documents into strategic advantages.

Icertis’ journey to transform the foundation of commerce through contracts has since evolved to establish the company as the preeminent innovator in AI-powered contract intelligence. Icertis has boldly pursued the vision of enterprise-wide contract transformation for over a decade and continues to build momentum as the world’s most iconic brands – 30% of Fortune 100 companies – look to increase revenue, reduce costs, ensure compliance and manage risk with Icertis. Such immense figures are testament to Icertis being, beyond mere software, a virtual movement in the CLM world. And every movement needs an evangelist.

Enter Bernadette Bulacan. Bulacan is Chief Evangelist at Icertis, responsible for sharing contract management best practices with legal and procurement teams – and evangelising innovative technologies like AI, ML and blockchain.

A brief history: prior to her role at Icertis, Bulacan was the Co-Founder and Assistant

Contract Intelligence applies AI to structured and connected contract data, and integrates that data with major software systems”

BERNADETTE BULACAN CHIEF EVANGELIST, ICERTIS

General Counsel of Serengeti Law, which created a leading e-billing and matter management platform.

Her career has seen a trajectory of different technologies, helping legal teams cogitate over how to leverage tech to augment both the practice and business of law. Currently focused on digitally transforming enterprises with CLM, Bulacan dives straight into the newest wave.

Where CLM and AI meet, contract intelligence is born

“Contracts are the foundation of commerce, and play an essential role in every company’s digital transformation,” she says. “The data from contracts offers one of the largest untapped opportunities to positively impact revenue, costs, compliance, and risk – vital outcomes in the current business environment.

“CLM technology continues to gain widespread adoption; however, forwardlooking businesses are moving beyond simple CLM into contract intelligence, which applies AI to structured and connected contract data, and integrates that data with major software systems like a company’s ERP to go beyond pre-signature efficiencies in terms of value.”

Contract intelligence connects critical data processes that drive strategic outcomes across the enterprise and ensures the intent of commercial agreements is fully realised.

Icertis Contract Intelligence Platform Overview

Icertis differentiates itself from traditional CLM by combining purpose-built AI with the industry’s largest and richest enterprise contract data lake of 2 billion metadata and transactional elements. “This creates meaningful value for enterprises across contract efficiency, insights, and intent realisation,” she says.

How Icertis solves common contract challenges

Limited visibility and transparency, slow contract turnaround times, contract noncompliance, lack of standardisation, and mismanagement of contract renewal and expiration dates present common challenges for today’s businesses.

Additionally, a lack of connectivity between contract data and major software systems responsible for customer data, supplier data, and enterprise resource data can impact efficiency and strategic outcomes across the organisation. “This is where contract intelligence presents a golden opportunity for demonstrating value,” says Bulacan.

The Icertis Contract Intelligence (ICI) platform is built to address these challenges, and to meet the complex requirements of large-scale enterprises that manage thousands, if not millions of contracts.

Leveraging its proprietary AI models and the largest contract data lake in the industry, Icertis breaks down silos and surfaces unique insights to turn contracts into a powerful lever for risk avoidance, increased efficiency, and quantifiably enhanced performance.

CLM’s role in achieving ESG targets

Heightened expectations around Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) measures are driving companies to commit to more socially responsible approaches to commerce, and improve their ability to demonstrate compliance as new regulations become increasingly widespread.

For example, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is transforming sustainability reporting for companies headquartered outside the EU which are conducting operations or business activities within its region. While there may be regulatory penalties associated with noncompliance, an even greater threat for organisations is the reputational risk for failure to comply or, worse, allegations of green-washing.

“Contract intelligence can identify and extract obligations at scale, to help businesses improve the visibility and transparency of supply chains, embed ESG requirements into customer and third-party contracts, and ensure compliance with ESG goals,” she says.

“A recent Economist Impact survey sponsored by Icertis found that 70 percent of companies consider contract language an effective tool in enforcing ESG standards, including climate commitment.

“However, manually extracting and monitoring obligations from these agreements is often labour intensive, and hidden in dense legal language. That’s why it’s imperative for businesses to begin integrating contract intelligence into their enterprise technology stacks now, in order to prepare for what lies ahead.”

Icertis’

Contract

intelligence: The fifth system of record

Bulacan says when selecting a CLM solution, companies should look for functionality that’s more than just a document management system. Features that enable deep insights into contract data, scalability, and out-of-the-box integrations with other systems are also important to meet the needs of the business.