ServiceNow Contract Management Pro: How to transform contract workflows into competitive advantage

The legal team needs help! The more complex the business environment becomes, the higher the stakes and greater the risks for effective contract management. Recent research by WorldCC and experts reveals that organisations lose an average of 8.6% of contract value due to poor management, with the worst-performing companies potentially losing up to 20% of their contract value.

With ServiceNow Contract Management Pro, businesses can transform their entire contract workflows from sluggish manual processes into intelligent automation systems, helping reduce time from bid to signed agreement by 80%.

Let's dive deep with Novabridge into the root causes and contract management automation solutions in this article.

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The current "headache" state of contract management

Before exploring solutions, we need to properly diagnose the problem, and identify the bottlenecks and challenges businesses are facing to ensure we're addressing the right issues.

Email hell and approval bottlenecks

Currently, most companies today still manage contracts through email, a method that's been outdated for over a decade. Therefore, legal teams are drowning in endless email threads, chasing signatures from busy C-level executives, and constantly worrying about contracts "disappearing" into someone's inbox.

According to the research from Aavenir, a traditional contract review takes about 92 minutes for professionals inexperienced contract management teams. This means that a legal professional can spend 3-4 hours a day reviewing contracts when time could be spent on strategic work like risk assessment or business consulting.

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Visibility gap - "Not knowing what you have"

Many directors admit they can't answer simple questions like: "How many active contracts do we have with supplier A?" or "Which contracts are expiring in Q4?" Contracts scattered across SharePoint folders, local drives, and email attachments create serious information silos.

As Charles Bonfante, Director of Novabridge New Zealand, 47% of current enterprises face increased contract management pressure due to rising complexity whilst tools and processes remain primitive. The result is delayed decision-making, missed opportunities, and risks not being identified in time.

Manual Processes lead to high error rates and opportunity costs

When everything is manual, human error is inevitable. A typo in a contract amount, a missed renewal deadline, or forgetting to ask for a signature can cost you millions. Worse yet, every hour an in-house lawyer spends on a contract could cost $122—not just in errors, but in the opportunity cost of talented legal professionals spending their time on repetitive administrative tasks instead of high-value strategic work.

Compliance nightmare

In an era of increasingly stringent international bilateral trade regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) compliance, and other local regulations, manual contract management becomes a compliance nightmare. Without automated tracking, companies rely on spreadsheets and manual reminders to ensure that hundreds of lines of contractual obligations are met. This is not only risky but also unsustainable as the business scales.

Faced with these challenges, what's the solution?

ServiceNow Contract Management Pro: Enterprise-grade solution

Why AI has become a game-changer

Artificial Intelligence in contract management isn't just a trend or buzzword. It represents a fundamental shift in how businesses handle one of their most critical processes. AI can read and understand natural language in contracts, identify risks, extract key data points, and even suggest optimal terms based on historical data.

Forrester Research states that Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions can reduce contract drafting and review time by up to 80%. This isn't theoretical, these are actual results from companies that have implemented AI-powered contract management solutions.

Why ServiceNow is different

ServiceNow Contract Management Pro isn't just another contract management tool. It's an enterprise-grade contract management automation platform built on the Now Platform, a combination of AI, data, and workflows. This means unprecedented integration capabilities with other enterprise systems and scalability to handle complex organisational needs.

• Unified Contract Hub: The platform provides a unified source of information for all contract-related data, eliminating information silos and providing real-time visibility across the organisation.
• AI-Powered Intelligence: ServiceNow incorporates Now Assist for contract analysis and metadata extraction, leveraging advanced AI to automate routine tasks and provide intelligent insights.
• Microsoft Word Integration: Create new contracts and reusable contract templates quickly and efficiently using Microsoft Word, a tool legal teams are already familiar with, reducing adoption friction.

Core capabilities breakdown

• Streamlined Intake Process:
  Instead of relying on ad-hoc email requests, business users can submit contract requests through a structured workflow, with all necessary information captured upfront. This eliminates excessive back-and-forth communication and ensures consistency across the board.
• Excellence in Template Management:
  Configure contract templates, clauses, and clause variations using pre-approved language to ensure compliance and accelerate the drafting process.
• Integrated eSignature Workflow:
  Seamless integration with DocuSign, Adobe Sign, and other eSignature platforms removes manual handovers and delivers a fully digital end-to-end experience.
• Real-Time Analytics:
  Comprehensive reporting and dashboards give executives clear visibility into the contract pipeline, performance metrics, and potential risks, enabling timely and informed decision-making.

Clear benefits from ServiceNow Contract Management Pro

• Deliver contract services fast
  Provide a unified hub for contract intake requests and departmental routing. Empower your legal teams with self-service contract workflows across channels.
• Simplify the contract process
  Generate new contracts and reusable contract templates quickly and efficiently using Microsoft Word. Streamline approvals with common third-party e-signature tools.
• Put insights to work
  Get real-time visibility into contract demand and status across your organisation. Share actionable insights through reporting and dashboard capabilities.

Best practices contract management automation: Strategic implementation approach

Why implementation strategy matters

Many companies fail in their contract management transformation, not due to technological limitations, but because of poor implementation approaches. Without proper planning and change management, even the best technology can end up as costly shelfware.

Here are two key practices for driving success:

• Platform-First Approach:
  Successful implementation begins with a solid foundation, standardised processes, clean data, and a clear governance model. Attempting to automate messy workflows only amplifies existing issues.
• User Adoption Focus:
  Technology only delivers value when people actually use it. Best-practice rollouts prioritise user experience and provide comprehensive training to ensure high adoption rates.

Phase 1: Asset the foundation

• Why this phase is important: You can’t improve what you can’t measure, what you can’t understand. A comprehensive assessment of the current state provides a baseline for measuring improvement and helps identify quick wins that can build momentum for future changes.
• Mapping the current state: Document existing workflows, identify bottlenecks, and quantify current performance metrics. This includes contract volume, average processing time, error rates, and compliance gaps.
• Engaging stakeholders: Ensure buy-in from legal, procurement, sales, and other affected departments. Without cross-functional support, implementations often fail due to resistance or lack of cooperation.

Phase 2: Pilot implementation

• Strategic Pilot Selection: Start with a specific contract type (typically NDAs or simple service agreements) to prove value quickly and refine processes before scaling.
• Success Metrics Definition: Establish clear KPIs such as cycle time reduction, error rate improvement, and user satisfaction scores to demonstrate ROI.
• Iterative Improvement: Use the pilot phase to gather feedback, refine workflows, and build internal capabilities before full-scale rollout.

Phase 3: Scale and optimise

• Enterprise Rollout: Gradually expand to more complex contract types và additional departments, leveraging lessons learned from the pilot phase.
• Advanced Features Activation: Deploy AI-powered features như automated risk assessment và predictive analytics users are comfortable với basic functionality.
• Continuous Improvement: Establish regular review cycles to optimise workflows, update templates, and incorporate new features as they become available.

Measuring success: ROI and business impact

Quantifiable benefits

The recent research with data from more than 1,200 organisations shows that best-performing organisations maintain contract value erosion rates of just over 3%, whilst average performers experience 8.6% erosion. This gap represents massive potential for improvement through effective contract management. Moreover:

• Time and Process Efficiency: Another study from DocuSign found that organisations with more advanced contract creation capabilities report outperforming their financial goals 55% more than organisations that create agreements from scratch. Additionally, companies with integrated agreement management processes exceed their financial goals 36% more often.
• Cost Impact: The same recent study reveals that ineffective agreement management leads to a nearly $2 trillion loss in annual global economic value globally. For individual organisations, this translates to substantial operational cost savings when processes are optimised.
• Risk Reduction: 47% of organisations face risks from an inability to search or proactively detect problematic contract language. Automation significantly reduces these compliance and legal risks.

Strategic Advantages

• Enhanced Decision Making: Real-time visibility into contract portfolios enables better strategic decisions regarding vendor relationships, pricing negotiations, and risk management.
• Scalability: Automated processes enable legal teams to handle significantly higher contract volumes without proportional increases in headcount.
• Risk Mitigation: Automated compliance monitoring and deadline tracking dramatically reduce the risk of missed obligations or regulatory violations.

Integration with enterprise ecosystem

ServiceNow Contract Management Pro's true power lies in its ability to integrate seamlessly with existing enterprise systems. Unlike standalone solutions, it can connect with CRM systems to sync customer contract data, integrate with ERP systems for financial reporting, and link with procurement platforms to create end-to-end source-to-pay workflows.

This eliminates data silos and provides a holistic view of business relationships and financial commitments across the organisation.

Novabridge: Your trusted ServiceNow implementation partner

As one of the few Elite ServiceNow Implementation Partners in Australia and New Zealand, Novabridge has successfully deployed hundreds of ServiceNow solutions for enterprise customers across multiple industries. With certified ServiceNow architects and deep expertise in ServiceNow Contract Management Pro, we understand not only the technology but also the business transformation challenges that organisations face.

Why Novabridge Stands Out:

• Proven Track Record: Successfully implemented ServiceNow Contract Management Pro for major enterprises across Australia and New Zealand with consistent ROI achievement
• Deep Platform Expertise: As the ServiceNow Platform Partner recognition for developing the best integrations with the Now Platform, we develop the best integrations with the Now Platform and other systems to create seamless user experiences.
• ANZ Market Leadership: As a leading ServiceNow partner in the region, we understand the unique regulatory environment, compliance requirements, and business practices across Australia and New Zealand

From initial assessment to full deployment and ongoing optimisation, Novabridge provides end-to-end support to ensure your ServiceNow Contract Management Pro implementation delivers maximum business value from day one.

Explore our case studies here!

Ready to transform your contract management?

Contract management transformation brings substantial and long-lasting benefits to organisations. Companies that take action now will gain significant competitive advantages over those that continue with manual, inefficient processes. ServiceNow Contract Management Pro provides the enterprise-grade platform to achieve this transformation, but success requires proper planning and expert implementation.

If you're ready to explore how ServiceNow Contract Management Pro can transform your organisation's contract workflows, the Novabridge team is here to help. We offer a complimentary assessment to evaluate the current state of your contract management processes and identify specific opportunities for improvement.

Contact us today!

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