How Organizations Are Using CLM

Agreement management technology is accelerating at an incredible rate. New contract lifecycle management (CLM) tools are simplifying many steps in the agreement process, replacing outdated workflows with efficient new digital alternatives.

With so much change happening and so many new options, it can be hard to find a starting point that makes sense. Often, the best way to chart your own course through the increasingly complex agreement landscape is to study the paths other innovators have taken. In this eBook, we’ll examine leading organizations that have transformed their agreement management workflows with Docusign CLM. 

Docusign CLM supports organizations—from high-growth startups to global enterprises—that are managing increased contract volume and complexity. The platform streamlines the entire contract lifecycle—from simplifying agreement initiation, to enabling robust review tools that help maximize value and mitigate risk, to scaling seamlessly with dynamic workflows that provide ultimate flexibility as business rules evolve.

With Docusign CLM, organizations can:

• Accelerate cycle times, simplifying complex, cross-functional agreement generation and automating manual tasks.

• Optimize agreement value, orchestrating workflows across third-party business applications and eliminating bottlenecks.

• Eliminate unnecessary risks, unlocking agreement value and mitigating business risk.

With the flexibility and efficiency of a powerful agreement process, the companies highlighted here found new ways to achieve broader goals, like accelerating the speed of business, reducing costs, and improving customer satisfaction. Each organization has its own unique challenges, goals, and results. As you read through, think about the challenges at your business and how the lessons from these trailblazers can help you take the next step toward modernizing your agreement process.

Unilever strengthens supply chain with integrated contracting workflow

Every day, 2.5 billion people across 190 countries use Unilever products. With more than 400 brands—including Dove, Lipton, and Ben & Jerry’s—Unilever has a vision to make planet-friendly products that are loved by consumers worldwide.

Challenge:

• Globally distributed teams at Unilever were managing agreements with a mix of applications, email, printing, scanning, faxing, and phone calls. 

• With Unilever’s scale and scope, the cost and time necessary to do this work were significant. 

• The company needed an efficient and cost-effective contracting solution to fortify the supply chain underpinning its business.

Solution:

• Using Docusign CLM, Unilever accelerated the contracting process for spend portfolios that were previously not integrated into a contract management workflow.

• Unilever’s Smarter Contracting initiative automatically generates agreements with the correct clauses and sends them for signature.

Results:

How T-Mobile wholesale used Docusign CLM to cut agreement time by 44%

T-Mobile reshaped wireless for consumers with its bold “Un-Carrier” approach. Now its wholesale business is bringing that same disruptive spirit to a new frontier. 

Challenge:

• Manual processes and slow approvals dragged out essential deals.

• Agreements didn’t just stall—they had to be pushed every step of the way, and 40% of non-contracting staff were tied up in agreement work. 

• Deals slowed, approvals lagged, and revenue timelines stretched.

Solution:

• T-Mobile Wholesale generates agreements for a diverse partner ecosystem, from IoT startups to MVNOs, and reseller brands. Each one comes with different terms, structures, and regulatory requirements that vary by region.

• With the right clauses and workflows triggered automatically, the team can handle variation at scale without the usual slowdown.

• Everyone has access and can move in parallel—legal on clauses, billing on terms, finance on compliance—without getting in each other’s way. 

• The system now tracks agreement status automatically, surfaces the latest comments, and shows exactly where things stand so deals keep moving. 

• In the first three months, T-Mobile Wholesale cut agreement processing time by 44%. For agreements that had once dragged on for up to 10 months, the shift was dramatic—for deal velocity, cash flow, and revenue recognition.

• It’s about freeing teams to focus on work that drives growth, reducing friction for partners, and working with a vendor that shares T-Mobile’s values.

Results:

Unlocking faster revenue growth at Cox Automotive

Cox Automotive is behind well-known consumer brands such as Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book, and Manheim, and also operates several behind-the-scenes brands that help dealerships deliver a seamless online-to-offline experience. Cox Automotive is transforming the way the world buys, sells, and owns cars. 

Challenge:

• Complex lender agreements were being managed via email and spreadsheets. These agreements took three to six months—sometimes up to a year—to get over the finish line. 

• Cox executives were getting multiple calls from very large clients, complaining that contracts were delayed. Internally, it was taking too long to get to revenue.

Solution:

• Docusign gives Cox and its customers a central hub to collaborate more effectively, track progress, and move agreements faster. 

• Contract and legal teams can use CLM independently to simplify negotiations, automate the review of standard clauses, terms, and conditions, and maintain full control over complex lender agreements that involve heavy redlining and sensitive data. 

Results:

• Revenue generated exceeds contract manager costs by four times.

• 31% faster time to execute agreements, from 80 days down to 55.

• 55% more agreements executed per month, from 20 to 31. 

Scaling contracting with self-service and data at iCIMS

iCIMS helps thousands of organizations worldwide power and scale their recruitment programs. The market leader has more than 2.7 million global users, delivering enterprise hiring solutions across every stage of the talent journey. 

Challenge:

• With multiple acquisitions, consistent worldwide growth and a revamped go-to-market strategy, the legal team was overstretched. 

• The teams relied on email, which created version control issues and caused a lot of drag 

• With the legal team facing mounting pressure to do more with less, streamlining contract processes to improve velocity became a top priority. 

Solution:

• By bringing automated workflows and powerful analytics to its contracting process with Docusign CLM Opens in a new tab and AI, iCIMS was able to manage a 130% increase in complex enterprise contracts while ensuring that costly oversights didn’t fall through the cracks.

• Commonly used agreements like NDAs could be automatically routed to contract specialists so attorneys have the bandwidth to focus on more complex work.

• Working with Docusign implementation specialists from Advanced Technology Group (ATG), iCIMS added buttons on various Salesforce objects so sellers can generate quotes, order forms, NDAs, data processing agreements, contract addenda, and waivers on their own without leaving Sales Cloud. The two-way data sync between Salesforce and Docusign saves time while reducing risk of human error.

Results:

Gaining global visibility and reclaiming time at Flowserve

Flowserve engineers the pumps, valves, and seals that keep the world’s critical industries in motion. 

Challenge:

• For years, Flowserve’s agreements were buried in emails and file boxes. The lack of centralization made finding and managing agreements incredibly challenging.

• The number one issue Flowserve had was that their agreements were getting lost. They needed to know what agreements were active, where, and for how long—and get them to legal.

Solution:

• With Docusign CLM, reps manage agreements entirely within their CRM, while legal gets the visibility and control they need.

• Final agreements sync automatically to both systems, so teams stay aligned and legal can collaborate across regions without version confusion.

• Before Docusign CLM, Flowserve’s legal team relied on spreadsheets to track contract volume. Today, key metrics are updated in a Power BI dashboard, giving legal reviewers, admins, and their managers instant insight into workloads and status.

Results:

• 4,500+ hours saved annually.

• 30% increase in profit margins.

• 2,000+ users across 50+ countries.

Sensata’s legal team transforms everyday legal workflows

Sensata Technologies powers the machines we rely on every day. Its sensors tell your car how it’s performing, help planes operate safely, and regulate the temperature in your home.

Challenge:

• Agreements were stuck in filing cabinets and inboxes, causing version control headaches.

• High volumes of NDAs created bottlenecks and delayed conversations.

• Critical details were buried, making it hard for legal teams to move quickly or spot issues early.

Solution:

• With self-service PowerForms, internal teams can generate preapproved NDAs in minutes, a quick win that keeps deals moving without legal intervention.

• Docusign CLM replaced inbox chaos with a centralized workstream where teams redline in parallel, approvals move faster, and legal stays in the loop at every stage. 

• By capturing data throughout the agreement lifecycle, Sensata can see where deals stall, spot risky clauses, and stay ahead of renewals.

Results:

• Dramatically reduced manual review.

• 100% adoption by legal, with CLM central to daily work.

• Increased real-time visibility into status and redlines.

From cost control to strategic impact: transforming procurement at Avis Budget Group

Avis Budget Group is a provider of global mobility solutions through three of the most recognized brands in the industry: Avis, Budget, and Zipcar.

Challenge:

• When Neal Jeffs joined Avis Budget Group, procurement looked very different. Agreements were stored in desk drawers, shared drives, and legacy systems. 

• Collaboration happened over email, and version control was nonexistent. 

• Without an organized way to track key dates and terms, the team faced issues like unwanted automatic renewals, missed sourcing opportunities, and long delays in approvals.

Solution:

• Having a single source of truth has transformed contracting, reducing turnaround time from weeks to days. 

• Procurement, legal, and finance teams now have real-time visibility into where agreements are and who needs to take action. Automated alerts keep approvals moving, while built-in reporting tracks renewals and flags renegotiation opportunities.

• Moving from disjointed to structured workflows was a major leap—but Iris took it further, allowing teams to review agreements at scale in seconds. The team trained Iris on Avis Budget Group’s preferred terms, making risk detection instantaneous. When a contract is uploaded, Iris flags discrepancies with red, amber, and green alerts. 

Results:

• Faster supplier onboarding, from weeks to days.

• Stronger supplier negotiations.

• $700M annual supplier spend now managed with greater efficiency, visibility, and control.

Vestwell turns deals into revenue faster with Docusign and Salesforce

When Vestwell launched nearly a decade ago, it set out to make financial dreams accessible to the small businesses that legacy systems had left behind. Today, the New York-based fin tech powers retirement savings for 1.6 million Americans, a figure that grows each month.

Challenge:

• As Vestwell’s reach expanded, the agreements that powered signing up new clients became a bottleneck to its mission and its bottom line.

• Creating agreement packages used to be painstaking work. Sales and ops teams had to select the right configuration, manually reenter client details already stored elsewhere, and remove or add sections based on plan design or the investments being offered in the plan. 

Solution:

• Vestwell connected the Docusign Intelligent Agreement Management platform with Salesforce, bringing data, documents, and decisions into one seamless flow. Sales teams now kick off agreements directly in their CRM, and Docusign CLM automatically assembles, routes, and tracks everything to completion.

• Errors from manual edits or outdated templates have virtually disappeared. 

• Today, some clients move through a fully self-service experience, configuring their plan and signing agreements without ever talking to a salesperson. Others prefer a human touch in designing complex or custom plans. The same Salesforce-Docusign backbone powers both.

Results:

• Five minutes to create agreement packages, down from 75.

• 70% fewer drop-offs.

• Cut onboarding time by 93%.

• 1,000+ new clients onboarded every month.

Jump-start your agreement process with Docusign CLM

Docusign CLM offers a powerful combination of tools that make agreement workflows faster, easier, and more accurate. Integrating Docusign tools can have an enormous impact on employee and customer experiences.

Teams just like yours are already using Docusign CLM to:

• Create, collaborate on, and negotiate agreements with speed and precision.

• Finalize agreements faster with flexible sending and signing options. Get e-signatures, verify identity, and send documents across various channels. 

• Unlock more value from your agreements with AI. Extract key contract details, generate insights, reduce slowdowns, and manage renewals at scale. 

With all your agreements on a single, intelligent platform, you can manage risk with confidence, transform agreement data into business insights, and drive operational efficiency. 

Contact us to learn more about Docusign CLM.