How Metso is making a success of their CLM programme

Introduction The world is changing at an unprecedented pace – all sectors are being disrupted by digital technology. Fuelled by global adoption of the internet and unprecedented use of personal devices, people are beginning to believe that everything they want to do should be available digitally. To stay ahead, organisations must reimagine themselves, doing so quickly and with the confidence that they’ll get it right. Too often digital change only sits at the surface. Customers may see an impressive front end but what lies beneath is less beautiful, relying on legacy systems and manual processes. For a company to succeed in today’s digital age, the transformation must be more than skin deep. It must permeate the entire organisation to drive real benefit. Right at the heart of a business are its agreements. From sales, to employees, to suppliers, to partners – a company relies on its contracts. Businesses that are able to negotiate these fast and get them up and running rapidly to start delivering value have a major competitive advantage. Once in place, agreements need to be regularly reviewed to make sure they still drive maximum benefit for the organisation. This often doesn’t happen if a company still relies on outdated systems and processes to negotiate, approve and store its contracts. System of Agreement software takes these contracts and digitises them. But it’s not just a cloud-based store. It is a transformation of the whole process of reaching agreements and managing them. Just as CRM systems revolutionised customer relationship management, and ERP systems modernised enterprise resource planning, SofA software has the power to transform contractual relationships. Effective contract lifecycle management, used properly, can drive real business value – increasing speed and efficiency, reducing costs and realising opportunities. Agreements in the digital age The Agreement Cloud is fast becoming best practice for rapidly moving large and medium-sized companies. Sitting in the cloud, the software acts as a repository for agreements, giving access to multiple users across the globe. This delivers clear advantages as all contracts can be found in one place. For global companies with multiple suppliers and large contract risk, it really is no longer an option for them not to use some form of System of Agreement software to store and easily search for contracts. With the integration of new AI capability that can intelligently meta-tag documents as they are scanned in, it’s easier and quicker than ever before for businesses to efficiently upload all their contracts. But creating a digital store is not enough. Forrester estimates that this drives only 10% of SofA software’s potential value. What companies need to be doing is not ‘transposing’ but ‘transforming’. The companies that take the time to really look at how digitising their system of agreement could improve their whole internal workflow, are the ones that win. These companies realise that the process of negotiating, signing and managing contracts is not just something that helps the legal department, but something that changes the way business works. Something that makes their processes faster, better and cheaper. To give examples, SofA software has huge benefit when it comes to writing and negotiating contracts. With automated workflows and pre-agreed clauses, it is possible to hugely accelerate and simplify the approval process. Contracts that used to take weeks or months to negotiate, going back and forth to various stakeholders by email; can now be agreed in days using the software’s workflow. It’s not uncommon to see firms reduce their contract negotiation time by 50% or more. Once prepared, the software accelerates the signing of contracts using a legally binding electronic signature. This saves valuable time, improves customer experience, and means that the relationship and the value it denotes can begin immediately. These real time advantages add up. If you’re a company relying on many standard contracts, to move to a position where you take less than 5 minutes to generate agreements with three globally dispersed signatories is a game changer. Not least because you’ve brought forward the revenue generated from these agreements to the same-day. And there’s more. The software’s ability to talk to other systems, once integrated, drives another huge efficiency. It’s designed to link up with other relevant functional systems, like CRM, human resources and ERP. This means once an agreement is reached, the right departments have access to all key information and can start using the data straight away, eliminating the need for personnel to request information from each other. It also allows reporting and analytics to be performed across the business by any function. This enables far better management of contract risks and opportunities. If the legal department wants to quickly see how much contract risk the organisation is exposed to, they can do so easily at the click of a button. If the sales department wants to understand the value of contracts up for renewal, they can. The benefits to business are clear. No more lost contracts or documents stored on personal hard drives. No more emails. No more bottle necks waiting for legal approval. No more concerns about non-compliant agreements. Companies no longer miss renewal opportunities. They have a shorter sales cycle. They have better data in CRM tools. And better data in cash and accounts receivable tools. Which all translates to better customer experience and massive efficiency savings. How best to realise the SofA’s full potential It’s clear to see that System of Agreement software, used to its full potential, has the power to drive real business value. But HOW you design and configure the technical solution and HOW you implement the change are crucial to unlock the power of the software. At Audet Magna, we believe there are two approaches to SofA integration – a ‘configuration only’ approach and a ‘business needs led’ approach. It takes the latter to truly transform. Take the first approach. When a business first identifies the need to use SofA software, they usually have a number of departments generating agreements, all requiring different use cases. A software configurator will collect a brief from each different part of the business and begin configuring the software. This configuration exercise needs to be repeated a number of times as each different department requires a different set-up to give the right workflow. The end result is different versions for sales, HR, procurement, etc, all of which take time and money to develop. And all of which require time and money to maintain. In a worst-case scenario, these different configurations of the software will be adopted and embraced to different extents by the business, meaning some contracts benefit from the huge value-add the SofA can bring, and others don’t. This leaves the organisation in a similar place to its starting point. With inconsistencies across the business in terms of its contract negotiation efficiency and its agreement lifecycle management. With the second approach, experienced consultants first work with the business, across all relevant departments, to understand the needs of the organisation as a whole. Only once they have done this do they design and configure the SofA software. With this approach, more time is spent up front to understand what the business wants to achieve; whether its processes enable that currently; the gap between these positions; and how the SofA can best provide a solution. It’s true that in this second scenario, a larger proportion of the project is spent on business consultancy. But the beauty of this approach is that, almost always, less time and money is spent on configuration. The learnings generated mean efficiencies are identified. Often, through intelligent design, multiple use cases can be combined into one, which results in cost savings for development. The Audet Magna approach Audet Magna sits firmly in the second camp. We strongly believe that the only way to truly transform a business through its system of agreement is by taking the time to consult properly first. Through a process of co-creation with our clients, we design and integrate SofA solutions that are fit for purpose across the whole business. With 30 years’ experience in digital change consulting, we know you need to take the time to understand exactly what a business needs to be able to design elegant and reusable solutions. You also need to make sure the change is adopted and embraced across the organisation. The whole business needs to go on the journey, not just those implementing the change. We make sure this happens through a process of co-creation. This approach is unique to us and it’s why our projects are destined to succeed. By taking the time to understand the company properly, and by working closely with all stakeholders to get their input throughout, we are able to architect better solutions and drive greater efficiencies in technology development and configuration time. Two examples that bring this to life. For a Nordic industrial company, we were able to combine 3 use cases into 1. That meant a smaller number of workflows and a solution that’s easier and cheaper for the client to maintain. For a customer communications management company, we were able to design a solution that combined 5 use cases into 1, reducing the technology development time by 50%. Deep understanding and co-creation We believe co-creation is key to drive not only the best technical outcome, but also deep engagement with the process of change. Engagement is not a ‘nice to have’; change only happens when there is engagement. It starts with visioning – building a rich picture of the future state, from the perspective of the organisation, its employees and customers. This acts as a great incentive. Everyone is hungry to move to that future state as fast as possible, generating increased revenue and realising operational efficiencies. The commitment to the future model drives the support required to make the change a success. We then start with a period of structured dialogue with the business leaders, employees and customers. This is not driven by existing organisational hypotheses or beliefs. It lets each stakeholder tell their own story so we can drill down into how the organisation really works and what can be improved. By working across departments, we identify what similarities and differences exist, to best inform the design of the SofA solution. Next comes a review of the use cases – which departments need the software and how will they use it? Our approach looks at the similarities and differences among the various cases, identifying where a single workflow would work across different functions and uses. Once we understand this, we work with the organisation in a process of co-design. This delivers an accelerated but rigorous process for bringing stakeholders directly into the process of designing future workflows. Our approach creates truly user-friendly solutions, which directly address the business’ needs. And it does so in a way which maximises emotional engagement and ensures adoption of new ways of working, making the change sustainable. Key to success is to have a consultative approach to everything. Development occurs in iterative cycles (configuration – demo – feedback – repeat) to ensure that everyone is happy with the direction of travel and to eliminate costly mistakes. We work to a staggered conveyor belt of releases, delivering initial value fast and then continually releasing more improvements. Relationships are built on trust. Lessons are learned and shared. The appetite of the client makes a huge difference. The most successful projects all have an active Steerco, meeting regularly and talking, not just about project progress but also about vision. Strong internal champions who get to know the platform and communicate internally also drive momentum. As does visibility of the business consultants and SpringCM-DocuSign technology partners. To deliver change you need to take people on a journey and win hearts and minds. For the most adventurous clients, this process of transformation never really stops. Constant conversations about identifying new sources of value ultimately lead them to question what else is possible. The evidenced value-add often leads to requests from across the business for new use cases. And because the organisation has taken the time up front to allow us to understand their needs, and given us the remit to architect an elegant, reusable solution, it is easy to design the platform to enable rapid, cost effective expansion. Could Audet Magna transform your business? We’re a leading System of Agreement consultancy, delivering high quality transformation programmes using SpringCM-DocuSign technology. Our team have been working for over 30 years in information services consulting. Digital transformation at enterprise level is our specialty and we’ve successfully executed major change programmes for an impressive list of global names. Our approach translates across multiple sectors and verticals. What our clients say “Audet Magna are true business transformation experts, not just software configurators. They take the time to understand exactly what the business needs so they can design an elegant and reusable solution. Their focus on co-creation means they take the whole company on the journey with them, so the software drives real value for the entire organisation.” - Juha Seppälä, Metso - We’d love to hear from you If you’d like to know more about how Audet Magna could help with your large or medium-sized business’ SofA software transformation programme, call us on +44 207 859 4078 or email contact@audetmagna.co.uk