Even before COVID-19 wreaked havoc in the world, digital transformation was on the strategic priority list for organizations of all sizes, across industries. The pandemic only accelerated our reliance on digital technologies, increasing the adoption rates for contract lifecycle management (CLM) solutions in global companies.

Despite the rate of CLM adoption, organizations lack clear insight into how employees, partners, and customers access and manage contracts today. One of the possible reasons for this gap is the inefficacy of contract migration. CLM implementation requires migration of legacy contracts (and new ones) to glean real contract intelligence that empowers informed decision-making and companies often lack the bandwidth to perform this key task all by themselves.

Thankfully, there is a way to bridge this gap.

A four-step guide to migrating legacy contracts into CLM

Cenza works closely with CLM providers to help their partners overcome the challenges of legacy contract migration.

Here’s how we ensure the best possible outcome for clients:

1.Understanding migration needs: Cenza collaborates with CLM partners to understand the customers’ goals to create a customized migration plan that includes unique requirements like document tagging record properties etc.

We gather answers to the following questions to outline the next steps in the process:

a. What documents need to be considered for migration and reporting?
b. What data-points need to be extracted?
c. What format does each group require for the extracted data?
d. How should you phase the extraction and roll out?

2.Contract discovery: Based on the migration requirements, Cenza conducts a thorough contract discovery where we scan folders and network drives to identify, locate and organize contracts into master and amendments, flagging duplicates for deletion to avoid any redundancies.
We leverage optical character recognition (OCR) techniques to ensure files are more dynamic and usable, ensuring accessibility, optimization, and searchability.

3.Contract review and data extraction: Once the discovery stage is complete, we review contracts to extract key contract data, making contract review seamless through an optimized and searchable PDF format. Our trained lawyers verify and amend each and every element to ensure complete accuracy.

4.Migration: Finally, we assist and oversee the transition into the new CLM by migrating all contracts, along with the meta-data, to the platform.

Why you need a data protection plan during CLM migration

Migrating legacy contracts into a new CLM is no easy task and there is general wariness amongst clients on how external parties handle sensitive and valuable information during migration.

Here are security measures we follow internally at Cenza:

• Every question circles how safe the data can be transferred and what are protocols Cenza follows.
• Most of the data lying with CLM, Google Drive, or Cloud storage and has to source from all these sources for processing.
• We provide clients a solution that will help them retain the contracts on their premises by offering the option of storage on AWS solution, easy transfer through Dropbox, Gdrive, or one drive. We specialize in offering solutions that are designed to meet unique client requirements.
• Data is not downloaded to any local devices to avoid any threat of data loss or breach.
• Ensure secure IT measures are followed by all internal employees through frequent audits and training.

Measures or protocol followed for all users

• Secure VPN enabled on all systems with military-grade AES-256 encryption to protect data in transit and are configured to disable split tunneling
• Remote connections are connected through a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection
• All remote systems are enabled and protected with an Anti-Ransomware solution
• Users activity logs are audited twice a week – e.g. browsing activities, files downloaded, endpoint updates, and patches
• Emails are protected against malicious attachments and files with Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Safe Attachments and anti-phishing policy
• Our physical servers are up 24/7 with a backup facility that can be accessed remotely only with proper authentication

Closing thoughts

Cenza helps clients of CLM providers gains quick and easy access to data from any contract through meticulous contract review, extraction, and migration processes. Our data security measures are enforced company-wide and we run data security audits to ensure full compliance. In the past, we have worked with large financial institutions like HSBC, RBCs, and other CLM providers, future-proofing our data security measures. If you’re looking to outsource your contract migration to an experienced and trusted partner, fill out this form and we’ll be in touch