What Is a Smart Contract Repository and Why Does Your Legal Team Need One?

Think back to the last legal conference you attended: how many times did panelists say the words “Contract Lifecycle Management” or “CLM”? You probably lost count. These days, CLM systems are treated as the be-all and end-all platform to maximize every stage of the contract lifecycle. Though CLMs are comprehensive, their complexity and abundance of features often obscures quick insights.

Many of our clients have found that not every circumstance requires the full capabilities of a CLM. From M&A due diligence and transactional support to regulatory responses that require rapid action, legal teams often just need a tool that can quickly and accurately organize contracts while extracting key insights. That’s where a Smart Contract Repository (SCR) comes in handy.

But does Legalpeople’s SCR compare to other contract management tool alternatives? In our experience, here are the distinctions between a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) tool and our Smart Contract Repository (and when you’d want to use the two).

The Pros and Cons of a CLM Software vs. Smart Contract Repository

The difference between a traditional CLM platform and a Smart Contract Repository can be split into two aspects, scope and scale. Let’s start with the scope. Since CLM software consolidates everything from contract creation and approval to management and renewal, these tools have layers of functionality, such, as:

• Collaboration tools
• Electronic signing
• Pre-built contract template libraries
• Automated workflows with integrated systems
• Compliance tracking

These features have the ability to offer value to legal professionals but can feel like overkill when all your team needs is rapid insights and structured contract data. Even with reporting dashboards, CLMs can provide an overabundance of filters or parameters. Since these tools are meant to be comprehensive, they might not be designed with specific use cases in mind.

By its nature, one-size-fits-all solutions are often a little tight or oversized for some occasions.

The value from contract management tool alternatives like our Smart Contract Repository (SCR) is in its precision. There’s no burden for these systems to be a single source of truth, so you can limit the contract data in your analysis. For example:

• Are you looking to review employee agreements to identify which still include noncompete language?
• Do you need to identify the term and termination provisions in a target acquisition?
• Are you trying to determine contract assumptions during an internal risk review?

When companies have a particular focal point for their contract data in mind, smart contract repositories can deliver valuable insights – and keep the noise out of their field of vision.

In our case, we’ve ensured this point solution is easy to digest. The Legalpeople Smart Contract Repository provides clients with an interactive and dynamic dashboard to review structured data. There are several ways to view contract information:

• As a comprehensive list of data points included in a structured and uniform manner
• As dynamic charts based on specific contract attributes
• As previews of the documents
• As detailed views of the documents themselves

Not only do our customers benefit from the accuracy and speed of our AI-enabled, attorney review contract analysis services, but also a user-friendly experience. They can toggle between key contract attributes and drill down into what’s needed for a specific project or task.

When Should You Use a Smart Contract Repository?

Though the ability to explore the depth of contract data is valuable, there are some instances where a SCR is more useful than a CLM.

For example, our M&A clients have found them indispensable. When relying on us for due diligence support, they appreciate the usability and cost-effectiveness of our smart contract repository. If serial acquirers are evaluating potential target companies, they can review assignments, terms, termination, and attributes in one place.

Regulatory responses are another use case for our Smart Contract Repository. Let’s come back to noncompete clauses again. A CLM would require your attorneys to filter out the entirety of their contract database except for employment-related contracts. SCR, when only fed active employee agreements, can offer you the data you need in real-time with a simple and intuitive experience. You can also quickly filter out contracts based on terms such as noncompliance.

In Conclusion

There is a wealth of use cases for a Smart Contract Repository (SCR), but rather than making this point solution your new default, it’s important to ask a key question:

What are you trying to achieve and what problem are you trying to solve?

• Are you trying to accelerate deal closures? A smart contract repository is likely the way to go.
• Is contract rationalization your goal? You can use a smart contract repository if you already have contracts in mind or your CLM system if you’re exploring a wide range of iterations.
• Are you looking to identify potential shortcomings across contracts?

In each scenario, it pays to consider the comprehensiveness or narrowness of your analysis or needs. If you need a partner to explore your options, reaching out to Legalpeople can simplify the process.

Want a demo of our Smart Contract Repository (SCR)? Click the link below and we can schedule time to show you the value the right contract management tool alternatives can provide to your legal team!