--- title: Steps to Take Before Adopting a Contract Management Solution description: Before you adopt a software solution that controls how you draw up and authorize new agreements, you need to clean up and organize the contracts you've already image: https://blog.linksquares.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/checklist-2077020_1920.jpg --- [Skip to content](https://blog.linksquares.com/steps-before-adopting-a-clm#main-content) [LinkSquares](https://blog.linksquares.com/) Open Mobile Menu [LinkSquares](https://linksquares.com/) Close Mobile Menu [Why LinkSquares](https://linksquares.com/why-linksquares/) [Products](https://linksquares.com/products/) --- [The LinkSquares Cloud One platform for all your in-house legal needs](https://linksquares.com/products/linksquares-cloud/) --- Contract Lifecycle Management Create, review, manage and sign contracts Legal Project Management Centralize your work and keep projects moving Cross-product capabilities Get scalability, efficiency and connectivity LinkSquares Onboarding Experience A step by step guide to get started today --- [Solutions](https://linksquares.com/solutions/) [Customer Stories](https://linksquares.com/customers/) Resources Content [LinkSquares+ Content curated for in-house leaders](https://linksquares.com/plus/) [The Library](https://linksquares.com/library/) In the studio [Demo Library](https://linksquares.com/demo-library/) Community & Events [Customer Stories](https://linksquares.com/customers/) [Events & Webinars](https://linksquares.com/events/) Learning [Blog](https://blog.linksquares.com/) [In-House Insights](https://linksquares.com/inhouse-insights/) [Knowledge Base](https://help.linksquares.com/) [Events](https://linksquares.com/events/) [About Us](https://linksquares.com/about-us/) [Careers](https://linksquares.com/careers/) [Press](https://blog.linksquares.com/tag/linksquares-news-press) [Pricing](https://linksquares.com/pricing/) [Request a demo](https://linksquares.com/demo-request/) Back Close Mobile Menu [Contract Lifecycle Management](https://linksquares.com/products/) [Finalize Streamline your contract creation process](https://linksquares.com/products/finalize/) [Sign Get your contracts executed faster](https://linksquares.com/products/sign/) [Analyze Your post-signature analytics & repository](https://linksquares.com/products/analyze/) [CLM Suite One platform to rule them all](https://linksquares.com/products/) [Request a demo](https://linksquares.com/demo-request/) Back Close Mobile Menu [Legal Project Management](https://linksquares.com/products/) [Prioritize Manage, track, and report on legal work in one place](https://linksquares.com/products/prioritize/) [Request a demo](https://linksquares.com/demo-request/) Back Close Mobile Menu [Cross-product capabilities](https://linksquares.com/products/) [LinkAI Predictive and generative AI](https://linksquares.com/products/analyze/features/ai/) [Integrations Connect the tools you love](https://linksquares.com/integrations/) [Reporting Improve your teams efficiency with KPIs](https://linksquares.com/products/analyze/features/dashboard/) [API Integrate with any third-party app](https://linksquares.com/integrations/linksquares-api/) [Request a demo](https://linksquares.com/demo-request/) Back Close Mobile Menu [Cross-product capabilities](https://linksquares.com/products/) [Onboarding We're here for you from day one](https://linksquares.com/onboarding-services/) [Services Short on time? 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But what about the contracts you've already signed? Before you adopt a software solution that controls how you draw up and authorize new agreements, you need to clean up and organize the contracts you've already got in-house. Here's how. ##### Step 1: Get All Your Contracts in One Place Before you write any new contracts, you need to round up all your old ones. In many, if not most organizations, legacy contracts and legal documents are likely spread across multiple file-sharing and storage systems. Before you start writing new agreements with a new, end-all-be-all contract management system, you need to gather all your old agreements into one organized system. That way, you know where to put all the new agreements your new solution is about to create, and you don't allow the new system to contribute to the old "contracts everywhere" problem. ##### Step 2: Identify All the Risks and Opportunities in Your Existing Agreements Reviewing your old contracts is a good idea in general, but it's especially important before adopting a new contract-creation solution. You need to know what language has presented a problem in the past, what has worked, and what contract risks and opportunities are already out there. With this knowledge in hand, you can determine exactly what past mistakes you want your new contracts to avoid. ##### Step 3: Develop "Standard" Language that Will Define Future Agreements Now that you know what went wrong and right in the past, you can develop your boilerplate language for all future agreements. These are the building blocks from which your new contract-creation software will draft new agreements. If you've done steps one and two correctly, you should have a healthy list of sample clauses and contract structures from which to draw inspiration here. ##### Step 4: Establish Rules for "Breaking" Rules Boilerplate language is a starting point, and there will always be circumstances 9and clients) for which deviating from the norm is justified. That said, any contract creation tool that simply lets users override its safeguard to make special contracts for anyone and everyone isn't much of a solution. You need to decide now, before implementing new contract management software, who is allowed to authorize non-standard contracts, under what circumstances, and under whose authority. With these policies in place, your new contract creation tool can actually do its job effectively. ##### Conclusion: You Need More Than One Contract Tool The steps above are a big job, but you can actually make it easy to adopt a good *pre-*signature contract creation tool by first deploying a competent *post-*signature contract analysis solution. New artificial intelligence software makes organizing your legacy contracts in one place easy and makes analyzing the risks, opportunities, and common boilerplate language of your current contract portfolio fast and painless. LinkSquares is building exactly the kind of post-signature contract management solution you need to adopt before deploying a pre-signature contract creation tool. With LinkSquares' AI-powered contract analysis technology, you can gather, organize, and analyze your existing legal agreements at software speed and lay the groundwork to safely automate future contract-writing. If you're ready to clean up your contract backlog – and want to get your house in order before deploying a pre-signature contract management tool – [**contact LinkSquares today**](https://go.linksquares.com/demo-request). [![New call-to-action](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/6934676/6610e199-7dfc-4499-b3aa-e1f3e47a235f.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/6934676/6610e199-7dfc-4499-b3aa-e1f3e47a235f)     ## Subscribe to the LinkSquares Blog Stay up to date on best practices for GCs and legal teams, current events, legal tech, and more. ## Related Articles ### [Alyssa Verzino May 17, 2022 4 min read 3 More Ways Contracts Get Stuck and How to Fix Them Welcome back to the blog series where we identify the six stages of the contract lifecycle, note the most common reasons ... Start Reading](https://blog.linksquares.com/fix-contract-workflow) ### [Alyssa Verzino Feb 06, 2023 10 min read 3 Steps to Minimize Contract Management’s “Time to Value” Any time you are evaluating software solutions, you need to think about “time to value,” or the amount of time it takes for a ... Start Reading](https://blog.linksquares.com/contract-management-software-time-to-value) ### [Alyssa Verzino Dec 03, 2021 3 min read How to Evaluate Contract Management Software: Step 3 You’ve reached the final post in our three-part series on how to evaluate contract management solutions. If you missed the ... 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[Status](https://linksquares.statuspage.io/) - [Your Privacy Choices](https://go.linksquares.com/linksquares-do-not-sell-or-share-personal-data) - ![aicpa soc 2](https://blog.linksquares.com/hs-fs/hubfs/soc2_66933e61%20copy.png?width=100&height=100&name=soc2_66933e61%20copy.png) - ![barr certification](https://blog.linksquares.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Frame%201921.png?width=129&height=57&name=Frame%201921.png) ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org", "@type" : "Organization", "address" : { "@type" : "PostalAddress", "addressCountry" : "United States", "addressLocality" : "Boston", "addressRegion" : "MA", "postalCode" : "02109", "streetAddress" : "60 State Street" }, "knowsLanguage" : "en", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://6934676.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6934676/Navigation/logo_643dd1b1.svg" }, "name" : "LinkSquares", "url" : "https://blog.linksquares.com/steps-before-adopting-a-clm" } ``` ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "abstract" : "Before you adopt a software solution that controls how you draw up and authorize new agreements, you need to clean up and organize the contracts you've already", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "LinkSquares Team" }, "dateModified" : "2024-01-18T17:48:29Z", "datePublished" : "2019-12-11T18:13:04Z", "headline" : "Steps to Take Before Adopting a Contract Management Solution", "image" : "https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/6934676/Imported_Blog_Media/checklist-2077020_1920.jpg", "inLanguage" : "en", "keywords" : "[Contract Management]", "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@type" : "WebPage" }, "name" : "Steps to Take Before Adopting a Contract Management Solution", "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://6934676.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6934676/Navigation/logo_643dd1b1.svg" }, "name" : "LinkSquares" }, "text" : "Contract management software is a term that has many meanings (thanks to marketers), but most of this software is designed around the premise of \"never writing or signing another bad contract.\" But what about the contracts you've already signed? Before you adopt a software solution that controls how you draw up and authorize new agreements, you need to clean up and organize the contracts you've already got in-house. Here's how. Step 1: Get All Your Contracts in One Place Before you write any new contracts, you need to round up all your old ones. In many, if not most organizations, legacy contracts and legal documents are likely spread across multiple file-sharing and storage systems. Before you start writing new agreements with a new, end-all-be-all contract management system, you need to gather all your old agreements into one organized system. That way, you know where to put all the new agreements your new solution is about to create, and you don't allow the new system to contribute to the old \"contracts everywhere\" problem. Step 2: Identify All the Risks and Opportunities in Your Existing Agreements Reviewing your old contracts is a good idea in general, but it's especially important before adopting a new contract-creation solution. You need to know what language has presented a problem in the past, what has worked, and what contract risks and opportunities are already out there. With this knowledge in hand, you can determine exactly what past mistakes you want your new contracts to avoid. Step 3: Develop \"Standard\" Language that Will Define Future Agreements Now that you know what went wrong and right in the past, you can develop your boilerplate language for all future agreements. These are the building blocks from which your new contract-creation software will draft new agreements. If you've done steps one and two correctly, you should have a healthy list of sample clauses and contract structures from which to draw inspiration here. Step 4: Establish Rules for \"Breaking\" Rules Boilerplate language is a starting point, and there will always be circumstances 9and clients) for which deviating from the norm is justified. That said, any contract creation tool that simply lets users override its safeguard to make special contracts for anyone and everyone isn't much of a solution. You need to decide now, before implementing new contract management software, who is allowed to authorize non-standard contracts, under what circumstances, and under whose authority. With these policies in place, your new contract creation tool can actually do its job effectively. Conclusion: You Need More Than One Contract Tool The steps above are a big job, but you can actually make it easy to adopt a good pre-signature contract creation tool by first deploying a competent post-signature contract analysis solution. New artificial intelligence software makes organizing your legacy contracts in one place easy and makes analyzing the risks, opportunities, and common boilerplate language of your current contract portfolio fast and painless. LinkSquares is building exactly the kind of post-signature contract management solution you need to adopt before deploying a pre-signature contract creation tool. With LinkSquares' AI-powered contract analysis technology, you can gather, organize, and analyze your existing legal agreements at software speed and lay the groundwork to safely automate future contract-writing. If you're ready to clean up your contract backlog – and want to get your house in order before deploying a pre-signature contract management tool – contact LinkSquares today.", "url" : "https://blog.linksquares.com/steps-before-adopting-a-clm", "wordCount" : "820" } ```