The Do's and Don'ts of Contract Management Implementation

I think it's just finding the one thing that you've heard from other people that have worked in your process, that they were looking for change.
-Stephanie Cox-Connolly

Intro:
Welcome to the Contract Lens Podcast, brought to you by Malbek. In this podcast, we have conversations with contract management thought leaders and practitioners about everything contracts and its ecosystem. In today's episode, we are joined by Stephanie Cox-Connolly, contracts manager at Benchmark Education, as she shares her best practices and problems to avoid when implementing a CLM. Stephanie has experience with both good and bad CLM solutions throughout her career. As a Malbek user, she has helped to propel her organization's contract management into modernity. So now it's time to relax, grab a glass of wine, and let's talk contracts.

Jaime:
Hello, and welcome to today's episode of the Contracts Lens Podcast. Today, we are going to be talking about implementation, what works, what doesn't, some advice, dos and don'ts based on experience from our guest, Stephanie Cox-Connolly. So let's go ahead and dig right in. So, Stephanie, I think one of the main things that our listeners will be interested in talking about or where the starting point is, you bought a CLM, so now what? What's next? What recommendations do you have for organizations that are preparing for their impending CLM implementation? Before it even starts, what should they be thinking about?

Stephanie:
I think one of the things that often gets missed, and I like to kind of do things with sort of analogies, and I thought about this a little bit earlier today, is getting a CLM, getting any kind of new process in place is sort of like if you're had having to move. There's change involved, there's preparation for getting ready to go, there's packing, there's all that kind of projects. So you have all of this stuff, you've been living in this process, you've been living in these other ways of doing things, so what is the first you need to do? You need to start to kind of clean up and pack up and move out. One of the things that I know in past experiences I've had getting a new CLM, a lot of people just take whatever they have and kind of throw it into the new system.

Stephanie:
One of the things to remember is that if you put garbage into something, you will then get garbage out. So if you're just like, "Hey, I'm going to move to my new house. I'm just going to throw all my stuff in garbage bags and then throw it into my new house and sit down and go, "Okay, house, take care of me," that's not going to be a very productive way of using the CLM. Really, it's just like taking time to think about what is the goal? Why are you getting a CLM? Is it because all of your contracts are in folders or in email and you're just trying to get everything into one place? Have you had issues in the past where you've been exchanging documents with outside sources and not able to really track what changes did they make? Did we sign this? And they actually took out an important clause or something like that. So really think about why you got this CLM and then build from there.

Jaime:
That's great, and I really like that analogy of the house. If you have moved before, you know that you have to do that sorting out and purging either before you move, or you're going to end up doing that in your new house, which we all know that that sometimes never happens. So it's great advice to think about that ahead of time. I also like what you said about the goals. What is it that you're really trying to achieve? It doesn't have to be the complete picture. It really should be focused on what are those short term goals that can help prepare you for that longer term vision? So a follow-up question to that, Stephanie, is in your experience, I know you've had experience with multiple CLM deployments in your career, what kind of surprises or things did you find along the way or different expectations that you also may want to add in thinking about standardizing processes or revisiting processes? Do you have any comments or recommendations there?

Stephanie:
Well, I think one is a lot of companies, whether new or have been around for 50 years, have processes and have done the change management to change their processes and all of that. A lot of times they'll really hold on to those. They're the way that this with the company works, we can't change anything. So I think the first thing to really look at and process in particular is if you're getting a CLM, there's more than likely something that is needed to organize your house, essentially. I would look at process first and really figure out like, "Why are we changing this process? Why is this happening?" Finding the holes in that process or finding the reasons why you're getting the CLM and then going from there. But also looking at your outside stakeholders.

Stephanie:
A lot of times we just want to get the thing fixed and get it done, and unfortunately, you're not looking at the bigger picture of the people outside of that. So who is this affecting by doing this? Then I also just think really thinking about your stakeholders, getting the buy-in from the beginning, and it may not be ... like you said earlier, it doesn't have to be everything at once. You don't need to have the whole, "Here's what things are going to work now. Like it or leave it." I think it's just finding the one thing. It might even be drilling down to each individual stakeholder. What is one thing that you've heard from other people that have worked in your process that they were looking for change and why you're getting the CLM? So I think one of the big things in the very beginning is really looking at the processes in general, and then also your employees and the stakeholders around you.

Jaime:
Yes. I like your advice. If it's working, if it's not broke, don't fix it. So focusing on what's working today, it's okay to leave it that way and not have to reinvent the wheel. So when we talk about implementation dos and don'ts, is there anything else you would add to that about rethinking your processes and where you even start to have had that focus? Is it about the stakeholders, as you said, and really understanding their goals and then prioritizing that?

Stephanie:
It's kind of 50/50 because I would say the contract system, it'd be looking at your contracts across the board. I know in some companies I've worked with that have gotten a CLM, they have every single contract, absolutely perfect. The templates are perfect or boiler plates, whatever you want to call them, are perfect, they're standard, and then there's these few outliners contracts that are kind of one-offs, that come in and out every so often, that change drastically all the time. It's really looking at what ... and then I've also had the other side where the contract templates are a new draft every single ... there's clauses that are changed every single time or they use the last draft to then make that the template. So I think it's really ... in regards to just processing contracts is looking at all your contracts across the board first and then once you're really kind of nailed down what contracts you want to be tracking and where are all your contracts and then talking to the people that would be involved in the contracting process.

Stephanie:
It could be anyone from your team to the entire organization, and drilling down to the main people that you've talked to on a daily basis in regards to contracts to then also looking at people that maybe come in once a month or something to work with you. But that one key once a month person in changing the process completely or implementing a CLM, when they come in that once a month, it's going to be very frustrating to them to be like, "Hey, you never talked to me about this." So yeah, it's really starting out first with looking at all of your contracts as a whole, which ones are templates, which ones are, like I said, the one-offs and then looking out at your stakeholders.

Jaime:
So that makes me think about two things. One is you tackling things in a phased approach so you can get some quick wins and prioritize things, but then in your experience, one thing we are asked a lot from prospects and customers is just about the resources you need to run a project like this. In your experience, how do you make sure that you ensure that all those stakeholders are represented in the project? Then how do you prioritize that and balance that with getting a quick and efficient rollout to deliver some quick wins?

Stephanie:
It's not easy, but it's really ... I don't want to say go out there and get yourself also a project management system, but no, it's really just looking at your key people. So who is your department, who are the people that are going to be implementing this contract management system, getting them all on board and saying, "Okay, this is what we're doing. Here's the reasons why we're doing it," getting the buy in there. Then from there looking a little bit further. Okay, who are our really key stakeholders? Then having conversations with them, the people that are going to be discussing and using either the system or working with you to use the system and getting them on board. Then once those stakeholders are bought in and have decided that, "Yes, this is a great idea. Let's do it," then kind of putting the onus on them to talk to their other people and say, "Hey, legal's doing this thing and they're going to be making things a lot easier for us. Here's some things that they've talked to me about." Kind of having them spread the word out.

Stephanie:
But it's really up to the person that's organizing the project of how they organized, who they've talked to, where the buy-ins happened, where the buy-in hasn't happened and really getting those meetings and that kind of discussion ahead of actually implementing the CLM. I think that's also something that's really key is sometimes it's get the system to fix the problem, but not discussing with the other people that are going to be involved, and then having those people in meetings during implementation when they're still trying to catch up saying, "What are we doing here?" So it's either by using Outlook or something like that to sort of keep all of your communication, knowing who you've talked to, who you haven't talked to, or just an easy Word document of just like, "I've talked to this person today, this is what they said. This person needs more information. I'm going to send this person, the website," and just kind of keeping some notes of who's bought in, who hasn't, I think is something that works out better than just kind of throwing everything when you're into implementation.

Jaime:
Yeah. So having tools to help you manage that change management and communication plan and doing it before you even start the implementation so that you can prioritize and you keep track of those stakeholders and what their needs are and when you need to give them information along the way, I think is also important. So in your experience, do you find that designating a champion for each of those different groups is the best way to do it? So there's a point person and then you coordinate along the way.

Stephanie:
Absolutely. Yeah, you look for the people that have the buy-in, that ... I don't even want to say, they're excited. They're just like, "Great. Let's do this." Those are the people you want to kind of keep tabs on and be like, "Hey, so have you talked to your team about this?" Or, "Hey, I talked to Bob the other day and he doesn't know anything about what's happening in our department. Do you want to talk to him about it? I know he's your employee," things like that, just kind of keeping a casual sort of conversation with your outside champions and making sure that messaging is happening and they're still on board to be your champions.

Jaime:
The documentation part that you mentioned and keeping track of it, I just mention that again, because I think that's really important for being able to reflect back, "These were the things that we said we wanted to achieve, or the goals," having some kind of baseline so that you can measure your success. I think we all tend to ... we finish the task and we're relieved that it's done and that's sometimes only the beginning. Right? Being able to go back and see if it actually worked.

Stephanie:
Exactly.

Jaime:
So to that note, have you found ... I always like to recommend a phased approach for that reason, and I think it helps you prioritize, it helps you learn and build upon that and make improvements incrementally. What's your opinion on that?

Stephanie:
Absolutely. I've used this term a couple of times in different businesses and it's called a punch list, which is something I've used in my theater and entertainment world, which is essentially you have your overarching piece, which is in this case, it is, "We are getting a CLM. Now what?" Then you have like, "I need to talk to these people. I need to talk to that person." From that, there then can be other pieces of the punch list that you need to do. "Okay. Well, I talked to so and so. They want to see an updated template for the one contract that we've been working on for eons, and they're right. It never was done correctly. So I'm going to go talk to so and so and have them draft up a template for me."

Stephanie:
So you're kind of having the whole idea, the thread of the project in one place. With each piece you may have other mini projects that spur from it, but having sort of a ... what I call the punch list, you can go back and go like, "Oh, hey, look, I accomplished that. Done. Oh, Hey, I did talk to so and so. Hey, they sent me that template I was looking for. Oh, that contract that we've been wanting to get done for years is now done." Having that verification that all these things are now working towards this big overarching goal is ... Also, it's the measurable, it's the SMART goal, if you will. It's the measurable and accountable piece of that.

Jaime:
Yes. It even stresses the point of having a project coordinator, project manager, a way to keep everything organized. Okay. Another part of that that's interesting is I think sometimes when we think about ... you mentioned starting with what's standard and templates that don't have a lot of complicated processes. I think that's a really good point because sometimes we'll think, "Let's start with the most complicated so that we can work out all the kinks and then everything else becomes easy after that," but it can be harder to undo all of that and make decisions. So I really like your strategy and your recommendation of starting with something that's standard, get it in and grow the complexity. That's a really good recommendation and that gives you time to work out some of those more complicated processes when you've established a baseline already.

Stephanie:
Right.

Jaime:
So I guess maybe the final question, I'll take it back to the change management communication aspect of things, and like to hear from you what have you done in your projects really to plan for things that you've seen really tackle that toughest hurdle of user adoption? You talked about communication along the way, but are there any other tips you can give listeners to ensure during the implementation or before it or right after to really make sure users have what they need and feel supported than that they are able to use the system effectively?

Stephanie:
Absolutely. I think one thing that a lot of organizations would go from is they go from one format ... well, let's say a form or an email to using a CLM. A lot of times they'll be like, "Ooh, yay, finally, an easier way to do this," and then they'll get into the system and be like, "Okay, it was much easier to shoot you an email." So it's really looking at the back end of that and showing all the advantages to actually working in the CLM to, let's say, submit a contract. So in the past, they would shoot an email over, they'd fill out a form and shoot that over or send it through another system. So one way to communicate that is to say, "Okay, well, instead of sending me an email indicating loss in my email for weeks on end, you now have control of that contract.

Stephanie:
"Once you fill that out using, in this case, Malbek, then you will be able to have the control of it, and then I'm going to see it, because it's going to come from a place that I'm in everyday. I mean, yes, I'm in my email every day, but I get hundreds of emails every day." So looking at the benefit of going, "You have the control over this now, instead of just shooting off an email for me to fill out a contract template for you."

Stephanie:
Or if it was like, "I had to fill out all this information now," it's like, "Well, now we're getting all the information so there's not a whole bunch of back and forth." There's another bit benefit. The turnaround for contracts are going to be so much quicker because we're using this CLM. Another way of doing it that I've done in the past is training. Can't stress enough the importance of training and really either doing that through videos. I know everyone's really busy nowadays, so if it is a thing where you just do a quick video of just a Zoom, record a Zoom and just record your screen and talking about how this works and the benefits of the system. Also, the counterparty is part of the relationship and your contract is essentially part of that relationship. It's the handshake at the end. So you want to make sure that everything is looking and feeling a mutual buy-in between your company and your counterparty.

Jaime:
Yeah. I think relating it to what's important to them, that's a good point in their processes to really help make that connection of why it's important. In life, we often do things that are easy and fast now, like the emailing, but if we really think about the long term advantages or impacts, taking that time up front and then making sure that those reasons and long term goals are communicated really gives the greatest advantage for the long term and helps set you up for success. So those are great pieces of advice there. All right. Then any final dos and don'ts or closing statements around implementation?

Stephanie:
Again, organizing, preparing for that move is key. Really getting things packed away, cleaning up everything you need to clean up so you're not dragging dirt to your new house. Then also really communicating and showing the benefits of your other employees, stakeholders. Process and change is hard. Even if it is a broken process, it's still that security blanket that a lot of people don't want to give up. Just because it's always been one way, doesn't mean it can't be another way. I think that's one of the things you really have to figure out how to communicate to everyone else around you.

Jaime:
Yes. Being open to that change.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Jaime:
Well, thank you so much for your time today, Stephanie. So if listeners are interested in learning more about Benchmark or learning more about you and your experience, where should they go to get some more info?

Stephanie:
They could actually just email me. I know, I just talked about don't email, but you could absolutely email. My work email is scoxconnolly@benchmarkeducation.com.

Jaime:
Thank you. All right. Well, in closing, thanks again for your time today and it was a great conversation.

Stephanie:
Yes, absolutely. Thank you.