Unlocking Supply Chain Potential Through CLM Innovation

Contract lifecycle management (CLM) is transforming supply chains around the world, becoming vital for managing increasingly complex supplier networks and contractual obligations.

As supply chains face growing risks, compliance demands and fast-changing market conditions, CLM offers a way to modernise agreement processes by automating contract workflows, enhancing visibility and strengthening supplier relationships. This approach can reduce costly risks, eliminate contract errors and free teams to focus on strategic sourcing and risk mitigation.

Most leading supply chains now leverage CLM solutions. According to research by World Commerce & Contracting, effective contract management can reduce revenue leakage by up to 9%, improve supplier performance oversight and foster stronger partnerships. These benefits go beyond operational cost savings, helping organisations build resilient, transparent supply chains that adapt better to disruptions.

Understanding CLM in supply chains

CLM software manages the entire contract lifecycle from creation and negotiation through execution, compliance monitoring and renewal. It automates repetitive tasks such as contract drafting, review routing and renewal alerts, reducing manual errors and bottlenecks.

For example, CLM can automate supplier contract approvals, track service level agreement compliance, and provide real-time insights on key milestones. This ensures that all stakeholders have clear visibility into obligations, deliverables and risk factors, promoting accountability throughout the supply chain.

Effective contract lifecycle management embeds performance metrics and compliance rules into agreements, enabling organisations to enforce supplier commitments, identify risks early and act swiftly on contract deviations or changes.

How supply chains deploy CLM today 

Supply chain leaders integrate CLM with procurement, ERP and supplier management systems to create connected workflows.

Contracts are generated automatically from templates and pre-approved clauses, populated with data from sourcing and order management platforms.

Approval workflows route contracts to legal, procurement, finance and operations teams, ensuring cross-functional alignment.

AI-powered analytics extract contract data to identify risks, forecast demand impacts and monitor regulatory compliance.

Centralised contract repositories allow quick searching and reporting, supporting audit readiness and supplier relationship management.

This integration enables supply chains to optimise contract value, reduce administrative delays and accelerate cycle times.

Docusign

The Docusign CLM platform enables faster contract creation, review and execution while reducing errors and boosting visibility across the full contract lifecycle. 

DocuSign reports that organisations typically see a return on investment within three months. Users experience up to 90% less time generating new sales contracts and 85% fewer errors, thanks to workflow automation and standardised processes.

For contract creation, dynamic templates, clause libraries and AI-driven clause management allow users to build contracts with a single click. Data from platforms like Salesforce automatically populates these documents. Conditional workflows trigger legal review when needed and pre-approved clause libraries promote consistency.

Collaboration is enhanced with AI-assisted review, version control and integrated tools like Slack and email. Playbooks guide negotiations, while automated routing supports transparency.

The drag-and-drop workflow editor offers more than 100 preconfigured steps, and the platform integrates with tools like Salesforce and SAP Ariba. An AI-powered contract repository provides a searchable central archive, supports compliance, and uses over 100 AI models to extract key data.

“By using the power of AI to surface actionable insights hidden inside agreements, we support our customers with smarter decision-making, faster workflows and more effective risk management across the entire agreement lifecycle,” said CEO Allan Thygesen when Gartner recognised the platform as an industry leader. 

DocuSign’s brand trust, broad integrations and AI tools such as Iris distinguish its CLM offering, with ongoing support available throughout the digital transition.

Santander

Santander UK streamlines its onboarding and loan processes using DocuSign eSignature and Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), helping customers open accounts faster and reducing paperwork. 

The bank’s SME, Commercial and Corporate Banking teams, which serve businesses with turnover between £500,000 (US$657,810) and £500m (US$657.8m), aim to improve customer experience by replacing manual steps with digital workflows.

Before adopting DocuSign, new customers filled out one of 39 editable PDFs, printed and returned them to a branch – taking up to 25 days. Now, a single online form triggers automated checks and approvals, cutting the average onboarding time to two days. Santander reports a 97% reduction in forms and an 83% reduction in time to open an account.

Jonathan Holman, Head of Digital Transformation at Santander Corporate & Commercial, says: “Collecting signatures while completing front- and back-office processes enables us to offer a customer experience that outperforms even digital-first banks.”

With support from DocuSign’s team, Santander builds workflows that allow multiple signatories to act simultaneously. DocuSign CLM also integrates with loan platform nCino. 

Jonathan adds: “If we remove 30% of the time required to negotiate and execute a loan… that time gets channelled back into customer relationships.”

Unilever

Unilever uses DocuSign Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) to streamline its global procurement processes, cutting contract completion time by 50% and reducing drafting time by 80% in early pilots. 

The change forms part of its Smarter Contracting initiative, now live in more than 70 countries and supporting languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese and Bahasa Indonesia.

With more than 400 brands in 190 countries, Unilever aims to simplify its contracting process to match its global scale. Before DocuSign, teams relied on manual methods – email, scanning and phone calls – to complete contracts. 

Now, key deal details are entered upfront, triggering automatic contract generation with the correct clauses and routing reviews to the appropriate people.

“We wanted tools and solutions that would harmonise, simplify and bring efficiencies,” says Wei Ling Lim, General Counsel for Global Supply Chain at Unilever. “We design everything we do around making sure the user experience is as good as it can be.”

DocuSign also supports Unilever’s NDA process through DocuSign Click, a no-signature-required solution for standardised agreements. The shift enables employees to focus on higher-value tasks instead of manual contract work. 

Wei says the team's success depends on “our ability to support different languages and different countries across the value chain.”

The future of CLM in supply chains

Looking forward, CLM will likely increasingly combine automation with AI to support "hyperautomation" of contract-related processes.

CLM platforms may use predictive analytics and machine learning to identify supply chain risks before they escalate, automate anomaly detection and support contract renewal decisions based on market trends. Intelligent CLM will also facilitate proactive collaboration between suppliers and buyers, improving contract negotiations and supplier innovation.

Moreover, emerging capabilities like Gen AI will assist in drafting contract language tailored to evolving compliance and sustainability requirements pervasive in global supply chains.

As supply chains become more interconnected and complex, advanced CLM solutions will be a key differentiator – providing agile, transparent and risk-aware contract management that supports resilient and competitive supply networks.