Contract Lifecycle Management Leader Agiloft Aims Digital Transformation Lens on the Automotive Industry

-Agiloft to showcase CLM solutions to automotive industry thought leaders at the Center for Automotive Industry’s flagship event in Detroit, the Management Briefing Seminar

-CLM’s ability to save up to 9.2% in yearly revenue means time is now for automotive industry to embrace digital transformation; companies failing to do so risk falling behind in profitability in today’s “Tweet shift” economy

-Four key trends define why the time is now for automotive digital transformation

CAR MBS 2022 – Agiloft, a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contract Life Cycle Management (CLM), announced it’s heading to Traverse City, Michigan with a challenge to the automotive industry; “Look for your next significant increase in profitability – in your filing cabinets, emails, and shared file sites – where it’s likely to be buried in your contracts.” Agiloft is attending the 2022 Center for Automotive Research (CAR)’s flagship Management Briefing Seminar (MBS), CARMBS, to outline how CLM technologies are white hot in today’s market, given how they not only automate the contract process, but also unleash contract data critical to powering business results, managing risk, and optimizing profits.

“The automotive industry is one of the most contract heavy. And yet, while innovation has transformed vehicles themselves, many old-line business processes in this enormous industry have failed to transform digitally as quickly as other industries and the time is now to better face market headwinds,” said Agiloft Regional Sales Vice President Andy Drake. “In high-volume manufacturing, pennies matter. Don’t be left behind by other top manufactures who are turning to Agiloft and CLM, and the contract nimbleness we provide to help save millions.”

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Heading into the show, Drake highlights four key trends making digital transformation existential for automakers to not only survive, but thrive, scale, and prosper in challenging market headwinds:

1.  “Companies using CLM have a Competitive Advantage Over Those that Don’t:”

• According to World Commerce & Contracting, companies, who manage their contracts effectively using CLM, save an average of 9.2% a year in annual revenue that is typically lost to slow negotiations, missed milestones, and non-compliance. For larger organizations, that percentage can be much higher (15%). Companies who fail to embrace proven technology that plugs revenue leaks and enables cost savings will fall behind.

2.  “CLM Revenue Savings Offset a Slowing World Economy:”

• Global forces like the pandemic, war, supply chain disruption, inflation, and rising fuel costs are expected to decelerate global growth from 5.5% to 4.1% in 2022, according to the World Bank. The automotive industry can ensure its survival, mitigate risk, and compete at scale by using a unified solution to manage contract sustainability, consistency, completeness, searchability, ownership, and risk management, in one place. Thriving businesses will then share that data across the relevant teams and departments within their organization to drive business-critical decisions. Contract metadata, including part numbers, retention times, effective expiration dates, per region and per category, all need to be managed from one centralized CLM platform, so businesses can effectively manage their business relationships and realize the savings effective contract management offers.

3.  ‘The World can Shift on a Tweet – CLM Provides that Nimbleness;”

• Pandemics and wars can swing world economies instantly. Getting out of a country and finding other vendors instantly is a reality and companies need to have instant visibility to understand and manage their risks and obligations. In a single tweet, markets can change, unrest can happen, longstanding terms that could impact your precious margin can change. Nimbleness and agility have taken on a new dimension. In 2022, businesses need to be able to shift in an instant.

4.  Unlocking Data Trapped in Contracts is a Strategic Competitive Advantage:”

• Data that is trapped in contracts and stored in files holds unbelievable value for organizations. Having a line of sight to risk and business obligations lets every department make better, more nimble business decisions that help companies grow, survive, and negotiate from an informed position, sending resources in new directions and holding back in others. Without a CLM to unlock that data, and more importantly, to be able to share that data with other solutions in its network ecosystem, it’s difficult to put that information into action. CLM systems that can integrate not only seamlessly, but widely, with today’s common enterprise solutions and let data sluice easily into other technologies are the most powerful. Sure, integration speed is important—but that’s table stakes. Today’s most powerful CLM systems need to connect into business systems that are driving key business process, and easily let data flow throughout the organization where it can truly help the business grow, enhance performance, respond with agility, and out maneuver the competition.  Contract data drives the business, why isn’t it integrated?

Mark Ross, Principal and Co-leader of Legal Business Services, Deloitte Tax LLP, states: “Innovation in business processes is as critical to the success of automakers as innovation in the cars themselves. Worldwide, our conversations with key industry players are focused on digital transformation to drive profitability, and the benefits of CLM make it a critical technology investment to ensure their contracts work harder for them and improve profitability.”

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